Tatango Packs a Punch with Free Group SMS
5 Sep
I recently posted about 3jam.com and its cool features for group SMS. What’s better than finding a cool site for free group SMS? Finding two cool sites in one day. I was able to speak to the founder and CEO of Tango today about their service. Derek Johnson is very enthusiastic about his product. They started one year ago and have sent out 25 million text messages. No wonder he sounded excited! I think they know what they are doing with SMS technology. Listen to the full interview below.
Tatango has built a framework for you to broadcast yourself to your group via text messaging. For youth leaders this could possibly be your best friend for communicating with your young people. One simple message under 100 characters and you’ve reached your entire group. The beautiful thing about this is that your young people can reply via txt message and you will receive it either on your phone or on your Tatango account according to your preference.
If you have a lot of members you want to broadcast to, you must first have them sign up for your group. You cannot import a contact list. I questioned Derek and he explained the rules of the mobile world. It is illegal to sign someone up for txt messaging without their consent. They have created several ways to help you get your members signed up for your group. First of all, a public page on Tatango.com will facilitate the sign up process. Secondly, they provide widgets that can be embedded on social networks and your own website. Lastly, they use key words to help populate your group. For example, if you subscribe to the pro feature for key words, you can simply have your members text MYGROUPNAME to a specific phone number and they will automatically be subscribed to your group. All-in-all, they run a fair operation over at Tatango and are committed to stamping out SMS spam.
The service is free to use, however it is ad-supported. This means your txt messages will be appended with an ad at the end. I cannot vouch for the ads, but Derek said they are all above board and safe for your young people. Check it out for yourself before you blast your group. Derek informed me that there are a lot of churches already using this service and even more youth groups to communicate about events and send inspirational devotions to their members. That makes me feel comfortable recommending it to you knowing there is a solid church base on this system.
So, what are you waiting for? Go check it out and start communicating better with your people! I’m Mister Nifty and I approve this message.
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