SMS has become a trusted medium of communication for businesses, and has added to the operational efficiency by enabling the sending of a quick and relevant message to a targeted database of contacts. However, with the rise of social media sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, alongside instant messaging services offered by Skype, MSN and ICQ, traditional sender-controlled communication channels such as SMS are being challenged.
Before starting to think SMS is on its way out, however, the function of these different communication channels should be taken into account.
Social media has certainly opened up new ways of communicating, but given the context and specific purpose of each of these new media methods, it is not fair to say text messaging is losing its place. Although it also serves as a social platform, the SMS satisfies numerous business needs that social media channels do not address.
Apples and oranges
Social media will not replace the SMS because of the pure fact that the two systems of communication exist for different reasons - this is not a comparison of apples with apples - and each one plays a distinct yet necessary communication role.
Internet-based social media related communication channels provide personal and public arenas for broadcasting messages and content. They are about staying in contact in the global digital caf'e, where a person can pop in and have a coffee and chat any time of the day or night. In many ways, social media is e-mail on steroids with the default sending option set to “many”, rather than CC'ing all contacts when sending an e-mail.
Also, consider how the immediacy of online chat and its mobile variants, and social media in general, rely on people having Internet access to receive messages. These conversations are between individuals or within chosen communities and are constantly moving forward, whether a person is online at any given moment or not. It is not necessarily about messaging, but about communicating and interacting cheaply via a system that potentially imitates a phone call.
On the go
In contrast, SMS messaging offers a far simpler way of communicating a message and does not require a customer or client to be in front of a computer connected to the Internet to receive a message. An SMS message is sent to a cellphone and means that the recipient can be mobile and still get important messages.
Social media is e-mail on steroids.
Dr Pieter Streicher is co-founder of BulkSMS.com.
From a business perspective, SMS messaging does offer a more formal means of communicating than social media services. As a digitised memo, SMS allows for the sending of succinct notifications, reminders and alerts and, due to the fact that it supports minimal functionality, SMS messaging does not require a high-end phone, or for users to be tech-savvy to use the technology to send and receive messages.
New social media and instant messaging services are appearing (and disappearing) all the time, as technology trends change. The social media network of choice from two years ago is barely mentioned anymore, and in two years the one being used today might be outdated. SMS is established and stable. It is a time-honoured space used to communicate short messages between contacts.
The SMS is a trusted and reliable workhorse in the digital world of messaging that is here to stay. The current trend towards social media seems to offer much public relations value to firms. In contrast, the time and spend on SMS messaging offers a return on investment for businesses and enables them build direct and lasting relationships with their customers.
Mobile text messaging, just like social media, has its own meaningful and distinct purpose within the communication space. There is no reason to believe new communication methods will surpass old ones, especially not those that have been proven to work.
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