The Pitfalls of a shared short code...

So you're in the market for a bulk text messaging service for your business or organization. They're pretty much all the same, right? Not so fast. In the mobile marketing industry, each service provider signs agreements with each cell carrier. This "provisioning" process is what allows your texting platform to be connected to--and send SMS through--that particular cell carrier. When service providers establish this agreement, they become legally bound by the tenants of the cell carrier's guidelines. A "rules of the road", if you will. If at any time the carrier audits your activity and deems the use of your technology to be "inappropriate", they can and will pull the plug on you at anytime. Keeping in mind, the content need not be illegal, just determined inappropriate by the carrier. This can be as simple as profanity.

When a business shares a self service short code that they signed up for over the internet, the sanctity of their program continuing to work, for all of their customers--on all of the cell carriers, is at the mercy of other businesses' employees accessing that 5 or 6 digit number. It is also at the mercy of the service provider in deciding that they will just "sell to anyone". Imagine for a moment that you've created a robust mobile opt in database, you're benefitting from a well executed plan and see strong ROI when you send out text blasts. Now imagine that through no fault of your own, you lose the ability to reach 20-40% of those customers overnight!

That scenario just played out in real life for dozens of small business owners this month. A self service text message firm was caught licensing to a business that sells medicinal marijuana and was shut down by T Mobile, the 3rd largest cell carrier in some U.S. markets. The specifics here are the subject of great debate, much like the legalization issue itself. But while Shane and Amy from EZ Texting plead their case to the courts, thousands of subscribers who previously opted-in will no longer be reachable by small business owners nationwide. No matter what side of the marijuana debate you fall on, the REAL victims here are the restaurant, retail and bar owners who can no longer text their T Mobile patrons from the EZ Texting short code. The mobile programs of these businesses were put at risk, unnecessarily in my opinion, for what amounts to about $80 per month. There couldn't be a clearer example of why we at Text2VIP believe the managed service model is critically important to our client's well being.

This has been a hot topic in our industry the past couple of weeks. Mobile Marketer reported the story today here: www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/legal-privacy/7418.html