Politicians Can Extend Voter Reach

Whether opening the news paper, turning on the radio or TV, it would be hard to miss the fact election time is here. Your campaign might not be for president, however your seat is just as important and in a tight race, every vote is the one that may push your campaign over the top for a win. With studies showing that 96% of text messages sent out by politicians are being read by potential voters and with response rates as high as 80-90%, the question becomes - Why isn't my campaign using texting as a tool to reach its voters? Whether or not your campaign is - is your campaign maximizing its reach by taking advantage of the most current technologies?

Recent research says there are 44 million 18-29 year old citizens (potential voters) in the United States. This age group equates to one-fifth of the electorate and the biggest generation since the Baby Boomers. More than 80% of these potential voters are actively on the internet daily and a staggering 88% have a cell phone. Those in this age group that text daily amount to nearly 30 million potential voters. With the average person carrying a cell phone 15 to 24 hours per day, there is no better way to reach these potential voters than "talking their language."

As a population, people are adopting SMS (text messaging) as a viable tool for reaching the masses with a compound annual growth rate of 40.8% from 2008 to 2014. Campaigns using text messaging are reaching a far larger percent of the voting population and more importantly the young voter - maybe voting for the first time. Using SMS to extend a campaigns voter reach can improve results through:

* Polling
* Voting
* Contests
* Information Distribution
* Daily, Weekly Updates
* Viral Social Networking/Marketing


For these progressive campaigns, reaching voters through text messaging usually means acquiring a "short code", a number used to send messages to and from your voters "texters." It is often a service provided by a marketing company and can be costly. Having marketing companies run a texting campaign partitions information flow from existing phone and email systems, creating extra work for campaign managers and extending the time it takes to distribute critical information to the field. Now the "short code" is no longer necessary by using products like "TextTalk™" by TSG Global, Inc. www.tsgglobal.com. This product eliminates the need for a "short code" and the expertise of a mobile marketing company while boosting a campaign with manageable, powerful tools to get the largest reach.

TextTalksSMS™ allows for a turnkey delivery system, providing the "ultimate" combination of voice, fax and SMS on a virtual or existing telephone number (DID). The clear advantage is the flexibility and speed to implement a TSG TextTalkSMS™ virtual number. Today, TSG's political campaign clients can have a fully enabled SMS virtual phone number activated within seconds, compared to waiting months for Short Code deployments.

Implementing a turnkey SMS solution will extend the reach of a political campaign by:

* Increasing the potential of reaching voters (voters carry their cell phone with them 15 to 24 hours per day)
* Increases personal interaction with potential voters
* Enables Voters to communicate with a campaign on their terms (when most convenient)
* Instantly informs potential voters of major events or significant campaign developments
* Increase voter turnout
* Polling
* Internal Campaign coordination
* Attracts younger voter participation (it is talking their language)


Politicians using the tools to get the largest potential voter reach will have a clear advantage over those who don't. How technology is utilized will make the difference in the cost to reach potential voters and will maximize the impact of campaign messages, determining the winner of the race.

Greg Prescott, GHPTech, Mobile Consultant