A couple of days ago I wrote here on PDF that Hillary Clinton announced a text message initiative for her campaign, the first implementation of text messaging for a presidential campaign. following in the footsteps of John Edwards who has been using mobile for a while now and can also be considered the first campaign to USE mobile. Other writers and I have written about it here in PDF. Edwards first announced a text message campaign when he announced his candidacy on YouTube. Since then it has been used sporadically (I got a message telling me to watch him on the debates) but apparently has a more extensive effort than I realized. It has also been used as a petition where Edwards put out a full page ad in the Washington Post to text the word IRAQ and sign a petition to support the troops and end the war.

Nevertheless, In her announcement Hillary pulled out all the usual bells and whistles telling people to take out their cell phones and text the word "JOIN" to 77007 (listen to it here).

According to an e-mail from campaign spokesman Phil Singer, those who text the word “JOIN” to 77007 can expect:

• “Regular updates from Hillary while she is on the road (messages, photos, etc).”
• “Local updates about campaign events in their area.”
• To be asked “for their input.”

When you first text the word "JOIN" to 77077, a service being provided to the campaign by a UK/US text message marketing firm called Interlinked Media (a relatively unknown firm), you receive a text message back:

Thank you for joining my campaign for change! Help build the campaign by asking EVERYONE to text JOIN to 77007. Hillaryclinton.com

This message is NOT Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) compliant in that it does not provide the user with instructions on how to opt out (you know, in case I wanted to stop getting the cookie cutter "regular updates from Hillary while she is on the road.") Such things are usually handled by texting the word "STOP" to the very same shortcode. I tried it. Nothing happened -- I did not get a text message back. UPDATE - Peter Daou over at the Hillary Campaign confirmed for me that my STOP message did in fact un-list me. The campaign made the decision not to have an opt-in message in the original text message in order to make it feel more like a conversation, (a choice I d not agree with). According to Daou all future messages will have opt-out instructions, an interesting choice since the opt-out message will take up space with the 160 character limitation. Better to have it in the original message instead of every other message after that, if you ask me. According to the MMA you only need it once, in the first message.

The following is page 10 of the MMA's guidelines: Upon entering the program, the subscriber must be told how to opt-out of the program."

The HillaryClinton.com website also allows you to enter your number to join the text message campaign, but this had serious flaws as well, in that there appears to be no API in place. What does this mean? Well, when a friend of mine entered his number on the website no message of confirmation was sent to his phone. This would actually prevent the campaign from sending him any messages according to most cell carriers’ best practices, and he of course received no opt-in instructions. UPDATE - However, Daou assured me that there is in fact an API in place and that numbers entered on the website are registered. But the campaign chose to not send outgoing messages to the phones of people who signed up on the web, a practice that I frown upon but was decided upon by the campaign. When people enter the information they should see that it's working right away. Otherwise, as in my case, it looks broken and or people forget about it with the possibility of being annoyed later on when it pops up on their phone. However, the Clinton campaign has their reasons for their choices, and as long as the technology is there I am excited to see where they go with it.

Anyways, those things can be fixed pretty easily, but its not a great start. So far the text campaign has been pretty silent. So, I was curious about the "local updates about the campaign" that the email talked about. The online form asks for a zipcode but the message you get back from joining via text message [the direct mobile-tomobile campaign] does not. I was wondering how they planned to do such a thing if joined via text message and they did not have my zip code... they may have my area code but that does not help with mobile users. Lots of people hold on to the cell number they receive from their hometown even when they move somewhere else. For example, I have a 914 zip code (Westchester, New York) even though I now reside and am registered in New York City.

So, I tried texting in my zip code to 77007, a standard function that most political organizations have implemented in their text campaigns. The message I got back was shocking!

Thank you. Your nearest center is: People's Community Clinic, 2909 N.IH 35, Austin TX 78722, Call: 512-XXX.XXXX

Now, I do not think that the Hillary Clinton campaign meant to provide me information on Teen Pregnancy drop off centers in Austin, Texas, but this is the type of information that a standard request of input for a political mobile technology campaign generates in this case. UPDATE- [NOTE: Besides the sign-up form on the website the direct mobile-to-mobile form did not ask me to text my zipcode, this was just me testing the system]

This is actually a huge problem on many levels, and one that especially arises when a campaign uses a shared short code (77007) and aggregated lists. But it is one that many other companies such as Mobile Commons, Mobile Accord, Cherry Tree Mobile and a whole bunch of others dedicated to the political space have solved by finding clever ways of creating a clear and total vertical from the very launch. Another solution could have been for the campaign to buy the shortcode "CHANGE,” or "HC2008." The Shortcode CLINTON (2546866) is to long. Shortcodes only come in 5-6 digits and a vanity shortcode costs about one grand a month but may be worth it from a freedom of technical limitations standpoint. But such a process takes a couple of months and I can only assume that the Hillary Campaign is working on it. If they are I could only have recommended to wait till the vanity code comes into play instead of confusing people with yet another shortcode later on. However, it seems to be standard practice now a-days to launch on a shared shortcode as a kind of test run.

Overall I am not overly impressed with the technology, strategy and release of the platform, though I admit it’s too early to tell. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am a little wary about their use of language in terms of calling it a mobile-to-mobile push campaign. Mobile is a pull medium that the user must have total control over from their end; the extremely personal nature of the mobile device demands it. I hope the Clinton campaign has a strategy in place that is unique to the ubiquitous call to action nature of the cell phone and do not just treat SMS and text messaging as "another form of email." As with any technology launch there are a lot of hiccups. And while I have seen a lot more complicated mobile campaigns launch much more smoothly, for a political campaign to take this on says and means a lot. The mobile buzz is hitting the political air.

I give a lot of props to the Hillary campaign for being the first campaign to FULLY integrate text messaging and mobile into their campaign and they certainly received a lot of PR buzz with its release, but with its cookie-cutter "SMS alerts" strategy, lack of mobile marketing best practices and teen pregnancy technical glitches, it’s not shaping up to be a quality mobile campaign, at least one that can go on record and push the envelope for others to follow, yet.

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