How SMS is a Disrupter to Social Media

No longer just add-ons, SMS is becoming the center of our mobile existence, just as Enterprise SMS is becoming the heart of small biz comms. 

It's fairly obvious SMS has the potential to be the new kid on the block and throw Social media a curveball. Why? Simply because of how we communicate. In an age of cyber noise, the competitive "attention economy" and the digital info-overload of the web, it's no surprise that more intimate communication is taking over. 

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As Social Media turns into a news fest of content algorithms now choose for us, we are heading back to the social whisper

SMS stands for Short message service. and are the communications texting apps that are taking over our mobile phones. 

These are the fastest growing channels, not Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat or Pinterest. 

Line in Asia, WeChat in China, Snapchat in USA. You'd have to be not too young to not realize they are taking over a lot of our audiences. As Marketers, digitally we are getting older in life, sometimes we truly are behind the times. 

Let's get real here for a second. Email and Social media as we know it will die out. I'm not saying this year or in 5 years, but they will. I honestly think you are going to see Tablets in office spaces more and hybrid mobile devices take over at work. Why would they not?

• The Interface of SMS is well, shiny and nice and not so annoying like a binary like Facebook feed, plain Jane like Twitter feed or hyper pseudo-useful like a LinkedIn one. Visual social channels like Pinterest and Instagram have more to offer, a better interface, UX and actual social utility. Even new social media doesn't mimic the way we actually communicate and stay connected, and that is the key of SMS. 

I'll ignore Email, barely notice my dozen social media feeds, but when I get an SMS, my mobile feed is the one place you can actually reach me. 

• So my prediction is pretty much as News takes over social media, people abandon them for a more personal experience on SMS arming mobilegeddon with some real-life intimacy.  
• Apps and virtual reality are likely to prove too much for conventional "social" media and prehistoric "Email" inboxes in the 2020s. Please think of these like dinosaurs of the web, you can admire for a short time still. 

Yeah, so What?

• SMS produces engagement 6-8 times higher than Email
• 98% of text messages are read
• Only 22% of Email are read
• And 12% of Facebook feed posts 

Why would I send someone a Marketing message on Email? I alone have about 20 different Emails most of which I don't check with multiple folders

A little thing called the Android google play rating is something I pay attention to at times: 

By 2016, it's estimate apps like these below have been used to send 2x as many messages as traditional text messaging form person to person. 

A - Category 

• Snapchat - 3.9/5
• WeChat = 4.3/5
• WhatsApp = 4.4/5
• Viber - 4.3/5
• Kik - 4.3/5

What Kind of an enterprise still uses internal Email as its medium of communication?

Millennial organizations and tech startups more often than not don't use traditional Email alone, they have more sophisticated IM and group SMS solutions that can bridge the divide between departments and stimulate company wide innovation and content marketing better. You may have heard of some of the list below: 

Increasingly, these SaaS solutions are going to take over. 

Enterprise SMS or "gSMS" (group short message service)

• Slack - 4.5/5
• Wrike
• Asana
• Trello
• SharePoint
• HipChat
• Zulip
• Yammer

(None of the above may survive, but they give you an idea of where this is going)

Video SMS

Imo - 4.2/5

As bigger companies bought and now own apps like WhatsApp, Periscope and Instagram they also try to siphon and lead the way digital and mobile evolution is taking place and as digital marketers we have to do the same. As the mobile revolution continues, teenagers ditching social media for SMS and apps is only normal digital evolution at work. 

Brands and marketers have to come to terms with the rise of the selfie and micro video content as real and legitimate digital happenings and not pretend these are just for kids. Unfortunately, CMOs and marketing departments aren't always with the trends. It sometimes takes them months or even years to realize what this means for their brands, their campaigns and their target audiences. 

By the time you should have joined Instagram, they are asking you to join Snapchat as well, and I know you are tempted to say why bother, the proliferation of channels is nothing new, so get over-yourself and get on Reddit too while you are at it. 

In a world of mobile apps, adopting group SMS channels that can be integrated with other software in teams that know the importance of good communication. The tipping point of the move from desktop to mobile, really means a hybrid reality of SMS/social media/group chat SMS and innovative content sharing channels that are Trello-esque. But what happens to your workforce who aren't mobile literate, who cannot text fast and adopt new channels?

So is SMS a legitimate disruptor to social media, or more just like natural descendant packaged for group chat, mobile intimacy and convenience of actually being social? You tell me, what marketing potential does it really have?

Think about it, if you were a new visitor to Earth, and they told you 90% of people had mobile phones, how would you want to communicate with your audience?

Follow Michael Spencer on facebook to support his activities and stay up to date with his articles.  Follow him for digital marketing tips on Instagram, in his experiment of trying to make an educational channel there. He is passionate about content marketing and creating better blogs for brands and businesses, whether it's B2C or B2B. Feel free to contact Michael if you have ideas how he may be able to help your brand. If you have innovative products and lack content marketing, outsourcing on content marketing expert can boost your profile.