In Microsoft Windows, you need to open the Control Panel.  Depending on your version of Windows, there are different ways to do that.   In Windows 8, you will find it under Settings in the right-side menu.

Once your Control Panel is Open, double-click on Administrator Tools.  

In the Administrator Tools window, you will see “ODBC Data Sources”.  If you are using later versions of Windows, you will have to choose either 32 bit or 64 bit.  Double-click to choose the one you need.

In the ODBC Data Source Administrator window, click the Add button.

Next, you will see a list of available drivers.  In this case, this PC has only one driver available, for SQL Server.  You will want to select the driver that matches the type of data you need to access.  Select the driver, and click Finish.

Next you will need to tell Windows where to find the data.  The name of the data source should match the name of the database in most cases.  Select the server from the dropdown list.  Click Next.

If you have a single-sign-on using Windows authentication to access the data, select use Windows.  If not, select  authentication specifically for that database and enter the User ID and Password below.  Some databases may not require authentication at all.  Click Next

Clicking next will test the connection and will let you know if any errors occur.  The next step is to use your new ODBC connection in your software.  If you have any issues going forward, come back to the ODBC Data Source Administrator in Control Panel, select the source and choose Configure to modify the settings.

Wishing you happy database reporting!!

Of course, you are not underreporting at all, and Visitors is not the only metric impacted by this phenomenon.  This is a great time to grab a white board and explain.  

Web analytics tools gather data on web activity 24/7 in a constant stream.  This stream is then portioned into time buckets, for example: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly.

To do this, the data is cut at the time cutoffs for each bucket and then totaled within the bucket to calculate metrics like: hourly visitors, daily visitors, weekly visitors, monthly visitors, quarterly visitors and yearly visitors. It is the cutting that could place a single visitor into two time buckets at the same time, which would double-count if the two time periods were added together, and when the data is uncut, the single visitor is counted only once.

The best way to explain is to illustrate with an example.  It is Saturday, June 30th at 11:50PM and I visit karenlynnvincent.com.  While I am there, I read the About Karen Vincent page and 3 of her blog entries, for a total of 4 pages.  In the middle of the last entry I am reading, I notice that it is now Sunday, July 1 at 12:03AM.  I shut down my computer and go to sleep.

Yearly Reports:  I am 1 Visitor in 1 Visit with 4 Page Views.  Yearly reports would reflect these metrics accurately.

Quarterly Reports:  The quarterly report would split my session at 12:00AM, July 1. This means that the Q2 Quarterly Report would show 1 Visitor, 1 Visit and 4 Page Views.  The Q3 Report would show 1 Visitor, 1 Visit, 1 Page View.  These reports are accurate for activity within each quarter, but would over-inflate what happened if the reports were added together.

Monthly Reports:  The monthly report would also split my session at 12:00AM, July 1.  The June report would show 1 Visitor, 1 Visit and 4 Page Views.  The July report would show 1 Visitor, 1 Visit, 1 Page View.  While the monthly reports accurately show web activity for each month, but when added together they would over-count activity.

Weekly Reports:  The weekly reports can be set to bucket weeks Sunday through Saturday or Monday through Sunday.  If bucketed Sunday through Saturday, one week would carry 1 Visitor, 1 Visit and 4 Page Views and the next week would have 1 Visitor, 1 Visit, and 1 Page View.  If bucketed Monday through Sunday, the report would keep the session together and would accurately reflect 1 Visitor in 1 Visit with 4 Page Views.

Daily Reports: Daily reports split at 12:00AM.  This means that Saturday would hold 1 Visitor, 1 Visit and 4 Page Views and Sunday would hold 1 Visitor, 1 Visit, and 1 Page View.  

Each report is accurate for its time period, but would provide inaccurate data if data for those time periods were to be added together manually in a spreadsheet.  To safeguard the accuracy of the reports, be sure that reporting you do for any time period is based on reports from your Web Analytics software for that time period, and that no manual adding is done.  Weekly reports should be based on Weekly blocks, Monthly on Monthly Blocks, etc to accurately reflect activity

Tell those who point out the difference to you that they are very clever to have found one of the lost secrets of data aggregation: that when it comes to aggregating, the whole is usually NOT the sum of its parts.  Encourage them to stop adding and instead pull fresh and accurate data for each time period they need.  This will provide a an accurate picture of activity on the site.

There is no way any vendor can predict every request for information that might come across every crime analyst’s desk. So many times the information we need is not available in standard reports in CAD or RMS.  When this happens, we can use the tools we have available on hand to create our own reports.

To do this, we need to have access to CAD and RMS databases and some knowledge of how that data is put together.  Below are five key considerations for creating accurate reports.

1. Choosing the Right Data Source

You have a general idea what your report should look like, maybe even a picture in your head.  Now you must figure out where you will find your information.  Where does the information you seek exist?  Is it in your CAD system?  Do you need a report based on RMS information?  Is it in a Microsoft Access database?  Identifying your data source is the first step toward having the information you need.  

For instance, I may know that my report needs to list every burglary that happened this quarter.  It needs to show: report number, report date, penal code classification, reporting district, location, and property taken.

Now that I have identified what I need exactly, I need to know where I can get this information.  My Information Systems or IT department has set up an Access database for me that stores RMS information.  It is updated every morning at 5:00am.  This will be my data source.

Crystal Reports is able to connect to databases (ODBC and SQL), Queries and Dictionaries.  Oftentimes, Microsoft Access and Excel will also connect.  If your Information Systems, Information Technology or Technology Section will not let you connect directly to your CAD or RMS, they may be willing to set up a data dump on another server or create a Dictionary for you.  Your IS/IT/TS should be willing to create an option that will work for you.

2. Choosing the Right Reporting Tool

I have already mentioned Crystal Reports, which is a very versatile choice for most reports.  Some police departments, dispatch centers or regional agencies may use Humingbird or Cognos.  Usually, the type of tool is dependent on what licenses the organization has at hand and what can be easily installed in time.  

It is often possible to bypass dedicated reporting tools for more commonly installed Microsft Access or Excel.  Choice of tool is very important when thinking about the audience and how you will distribute your report.  For example, there is widespread use and basic knowledge of Excel, whereas people in general are less comfortable with Access.  If you need to create are report that is interactive for the user, Excel is typically a good choice.  Crystal Reports can be exported in a variety of formats, including PDF and XLS, but it can also be viewed in a free Crystal Reports Viewer that let’s the user drill down and interact with the report in the Crystal Reports format.

3. Understanding the Table Relationships

Even if you have a connection to your CAD or RMS system, how can you tell where to find your data?  You must find a way to understand how the tables are set up.  Your IS/IT/TS department should be able to provide you with descriptive information about where to find the data you need.

You must learn how the tables are related to one another.  For instance, each case may have multiple subjects.  There would be a case table listing the cases and a subject table listing subjects with a case number identifier.  The tables would be related by case number so that you would be allowed to view the subjects associated with each case.

In my case, I know that the report number, report date, penal code, reporting district and location are in the Main table, but the property taken is in the Property table.  The Main table and the Property table are linked together in a one-to-many relationship by their common Report Number field.  This means that each single report may have many items listed in the Property table.

When you bring the tables into Crystal Reports or Microsoft Access, you will need to create a Join for them based on report number.  There are several Join Types to choose from: Equal or Inner Join, Left Outer Join, Right Outer Join and Full Outer Join.  You can read about Join Types in this article here.

4. Choosing the Right Summaries

Sometimes your report is a simple list report showing all events, and other times you need to include totals.  When you total or summarize your data, you can run the risk of getting unexpected results that could unintentionally mislead you. 

Count is important if you want to know the number of events, but count can mean multiple things depending on the linking you have in your report and what field you are counting.  For example, if you choose a field that always has a value, like incident number or report number, you will count 1 per each record, but if you choose a field where missing values are possible for some records, you may miscount inadvertently.  Also, whenever you have a link in place, especially with a one-to-many relationship, if you use Count of incident number, you will get a full count of records across both tables and not a count of incidents.  If you want a count of incidents or reports, it’s best to switch to a Distinct Count in Crystal Reports.  

Count and distinct count are managed differently in the reporting tools to it is important to test thoroughly to understand what you are counting in the tool you are using and to make sure that the results make sense to you.

If you take my Crystal Reports for Law Enforcement class, you will walk through many examples of how these types differ from each other and change depending on the groups you have created in your report and where you physically place the summary.

5. Checking the Results

Examining the report carefully when you finish is critical to the accuracy.  The records you see and the summaries displayed should make sense to you based on your knowledge of both the data and the way the department operates.  If anything looks “off” in any way, it only takes a few minutes to check some records in RMS or CAD to be sure what you are seeing is worth believing.  

Sending out a report that hasn’t been checked is dangerous because people will use these numbers to make operational decisions and plan budgets for the future.  So getting the wrong information from reports could seriously hurt the organization.  Also, sending out reports without checking accuracy can damage the reputation of the Crime Analysis Unit.  To succeed, you need Administration, Investigations and Patrol to trust in you and the information you provide.  

A small amount of time is all that it takes to ensure that reports are accurate and ready for action.   

With the growth of the smart phone market, we are all dazzled by apps.  They are everywhere, they are shiny and fun, and there is an app for everything.  Apps communicate too, allowing for push messages, instant messages (IMs) and data sharing, and they do this over a data connection.  Data connection usage is skyrocketing. According to a study conducted by Cisco Systems: “Last year’s mobile data traffic was nearly 18 times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000.”  

In a disaster, bandwidth fills quickly for phone and data connections with emergency communications.  Not only are the first responders connecting with each other, but also everyone else is trying to reach family and friends.  Before long, mobile communications grind to a halt.

This is where SMS can help.  SMS has all of the benefits of being mobile, with added advantages that it does not require a data connection, takes up little space on the network and still works when bandwidth is small.  This makes SMS highly effective for these circumstances.  

SMS is Mobile

As a personal example, my cell phone is always in my pocket or in my hand wherever I go.  If I am in a meeting, I cannot always answer a voice call, but I can easily glance at a text message and respond.  It’s really the fastest way to deliver information to me wherever I am.  Even better, when traditional phone wires are down, my mobile phone may be the only way to reach me, even when I am home.  In an emergency, when every second counts, there’s no better choice.

SMS is Effective

Text message read rate is exceptionally high.  In fact, 90% of all incoming text messages are read within 3 minutes. It’s so easy to take moment to glance at the phone and receive information when a message comes in.  SMS is both convenient and unobtrusive.  

SMS gets Response

Studies show that text messaging is more effective than voice or email in getting a response.  In fact SMS typically receives a response rate 6 to 8 times better than email and 43% of responses occur within the first 15 minutes.  For the quickest response, when seconds count, text messaging is the true winner.

SMS does not strain Resources

Text messages travel the mobile networks in the tiny space on top of voice calls.  Have you ever noticed that when networks are crowded and calls can’t get through, text messages can?  I’ve been in a number of situations where I have had little to no phone service, but I could still send and receive simple text messages.

In emergencies, simple is often best for communicating information and instructions.  The simple approach of SMS leaves the bandwidth available for first responders and other critical life-saving communications and ensures that text subscribers still receive all of the details they need.

There are times when there is an advantage to going back to the basics.  SMS works with every type of phone in low and high bandwidth is fast and easy to use.  In an emergency, there would be no better way to mobilize the community. 

•    1 Sales Professional is authorized to sell many products 
•    1 Company has many contacts in different departments
•    1 police or fire call has many units responding

There are several tools available for reporting on relational databases.  Regardless of the reporting tool, you need to first understand the way the tables are set up and what common field connects or joins the information in those tables together.  Once you know that, you can decide what style of link or join will meet your needs.

For the purpose of explaining, I will describe two tables the “Main | Left” table and the “Many | Right” table and have designated examples of these in scenarios below.

Inner Join

Inner Joins are often the default setting in the reporting tool.  This returns records from both tables only if they have a match in each table.  Inner joins are designed for occasions where you only care to see data where there are matches present in both tables.  Because it is default, it is the most commonly used, but it can cause miscounts if records are unexpectedly left out of the results when no match is found.  

Outer Joins are designed for occasions when you need to see data, even if it does not match anything in the other table.  We are given the option of the Left Outer Join, the Right Outer Join and the Full Outer Join.

Left Outer Join

The Left Outer Join displays all records from the left main table and only the matching records from the right many table. This is the safest method for joining two tables where full record counts are required, even if data is missing, and for this reason, it is also very commonly used. 

Right Outer Join

The Right Outer Join displays all records from the right table and only the matching records from the left table.  This style of linking is not as common.  In most relational databases, there isn’t much opportunity for a Many table to have a record without an associated Main table record.  For this reason, right outer join can be used to identify potential problems in the database.

Full Outer Join

The Full Outer Join will show all records from both tables regardless of a match. This style of linking is also not as common.  I have seen this used primarily in HR/Finance for error checking and reconciliation.  For example, it’s sometimes necessary to identify instances where there is a payroll record without an employee 401k contribution or a employee 401k contribution without an accompanying payroll record.  This form of join lets you quickly identify problem records and make corrections.

In Summary

When in a hurry, the safest option is always the left outer join where the left table is the main table and the right table is the many table.   This will ensure that you have all of your main records present plus the associated matching records from the many table.  When you need to find errors, try a full outer join to see where matches are missing.  

There’s no harm in linking different ways and looking at results until you find the right join strategy for your tables.  The most important ingredient of any report is data familiarity, and experimenting with link types can help you learn more about the way your data is setup.  

PDF v HTML

You are tasked with creating online tutorials.  Do you want users to view the tutorial on the website in HTML or do you want them to download the tutorials as a PDF?  Often site structure, templates, engineering or development resources and time constraints will impact and decide for you which option you choose.  The choice made will impact how you measure the success of the content.

For HTML web page tutorials measurement is the same as it would be for any web page.  You can gather metrics on Unique Visitors, Visits or Sessions, Page Views, Repeat Visitors, time on page, shares, etc.  HTML tutorials are often bookmarked, bringing visitors pack to the site repeatedly and creating opportunities for onsite advertising later.

The PDF format limits available KPIs.  You will have the standard HTML metrics, listed above, for the page that the PDF is linked from and the number of times the PDF was downloaded.  PDFs are great for when you want to give the visitor something they can hold on to, save locally or print in a nice branded format.  

Public v Gated

You are tasked with creating a technical asset.  Do you make it Public and generally available on the website with other web content or will it be Gated and available only after the visitor fills out a lead capture form?  The general rule of thumb is that highly rare, sensitive or valuable content (analyst papers, comprehensive research, etc) should be gated so that the visitor is providing the company with value in exchange for the value they are receiving.  Gating or not gating content will impact options for measuring success.

Public html or PDF content is available just like any other page on the website and is measured with standard metrics, like Unique Visitors, Visits or Sessions, Page Views, Repeat Visitors, time on page, shares, PDF downloads, etc.  

Gated content is provided only after a form-fill is completed.  Measurement acts more like a funnel.  In order to measure this properly, you will need to understand the full process, so ask these questions:

•    Are there any online campaigns for this?
•    What is the URL of the form page?
•    Where is the URL of the file?
•    What happens when the user submits the form?  

o    Is the file opened in the browser immediately?

o    Is the user emailed a link directly to the file?

o    Is the user emailed a link to a web page to download the file?

For gated content, you want to collect leads and promote it with online campaigns. In order to measure what is working best, you will need to add a campaign parameter to the link. The parameter content you will need for your links depends on what analytics software you have installed on the site. 

You can track the page metrics for the form page without any additional tracking, but tracking completions will require either a confirmation page or a snippet of code on the submit button.  

Whenever possible, I request that an HTML confirmation page be created.  Since this page is only displayed when a form is submitted, it is usually a fairly accurate measure of form completions.  

When a popup is displayed instead of a page, then you will need to place a snippet of code on the form submit button in order to know how many forms were submitted.  The type of button code you will need will depend on what analytics software is installed on the website.  You can ask your web analytics team and your IT developers or engineers for assistance.

As a best practice, I request both a confirmation page and code on the button.  

If you know the URL of the file, you can track the downloads of the file in the web analytics software.  With this plus implementing the paragraphs above, you will know referring campaign, form arrivals, form completions and file downloads.  This is a solid basic funnel.

What happens when the user submits the form will determine how detailed your measurements can be.  
•    If the file is opened immediately and you have completed work in the paragraphs above, you have done all that you can do and you will have the solid basic funnel described above.  
•    If the user is emailed a link directly to the file and you have completed the work in the paragraphs above, you have done all that you can do and you will have the solid basic funnel described above.  
•    If the user is emailed a link to a page to download the file, you have a few more options.  You will be able to track views of this intermediary page and downloads of the file.  If you have control over the link in the email, you can tag that link with a URL parameter that lets you see how many clickthroughs came from that email.  This option adds a bit more detail to the basic funnel and helps you understand where the process may break down.

Gating or not gating drastically changes what is measured and the amount of effort put in to measurement.  When deciding to gate, please allow yourself a little time to work out the details of the tracking codes you will need.  A world of helpful information will be missing if you don’t.

Internal v External

Some content is made for telling the world about your product and some is messaging only for internal sales and marketing staff.  External content is easy enough to track by using standard metrics discussed above.  Internal content can also be tracked, but it may take a little more work and will depend on what tracking mechanisms are available where the internal content is stored.  If it’s linked from HTML on an Internet website or wiki, it’s possible to have web analytics installed there to provide familiar metrics.  Also, if a content management tool is used, useful stats may be available there as well.

Summary

Product marketing managers have many decisions to make when delivering content, and the types of performance metrics needed can help guide those decisions.  Having a good relationship with web analytics professionals in your company can help ensure that you will know how your assets are performing in any circumstance.

Before we explore further, what do I mean by bounce?  A bounce occurs when a session ends after viewing only one page. It can be calculated in summary for the entire site by dividing single page visits by total visits or on the page level by dividing single page visits for that page by the total entry visits for that page.  Some analytics tools calculate bounce rate automatically, saving the time and trouble.

When is a High Bounce Rate is Good?

A high bounce rate is desirable when the goal of a page is to deliver information to the visitor, often to answer a specific question.  Once the answer is read, the visitor completes the task and does not need to view other pages.  A common page of this type is the Contact Us page where the visitor finds the phone number and accomplishes the task.  In this case, the faster you can help the visitor complete the task the better so seeing a bounce rate rise is representative of good performance on the page.  You may also see that the page is frequently bookmarked providing a strong repeat visitor base.

When is a Low Bounce Rate is Good?

On the other hand, a low bounce rate is desirable when the goal of a page is to generate leads, produce sales or drive engagement with content.   In this case, the goal of the page is to raise interest and drive interaction with the website so if the visitor moves on to another page on the site, then the page performed well.  For pages like these, driving toward a lower bounce rate is desirable.  

Recommendation

It is very helpful to put site-wide bounce rate to use as an index to pick up on any sharp movements with the introduction of new campaigns and new releases.  It can be a beacon when used internally and compared to its own past performance.

If you are able, define the goals on a page-by-page level and track the bounce rate for those pages.  This does not need to be done for the entire site, but it can be great for the handful of key pages.  If you find it is high when it should be low or low when it should be high, then you can begin to take steps with content and layout to help the page perform better.

A good web application provides good experience on the front end for customers and the back end for web managers.  Project funding tends to focus on the front end experience primarily, but it’s really the back end that can break a business when something goes wrong.  

• A customer calls and claims they were given last year’s terms and conditions.  
• A product manager says IT uploaded the wrong PDF.  
• A customer says they never logged in to authorize that payment.  
• A customer says that the data they saw was not theirs.

Careful planning now will make auditing requests like these much less painful in the future.  

First, take steps to enhance security for your portal database.  Close all of the possible unauthorized ports of entry.  Ensure that firewalls are strong.  Check the latest security recommendations and do all that’s possible to meet each one.  Are there features to require additional authentication under circumstances where the user is out of his or her normal area or has failed some login attempts?

Now, check the design of the portal database to be sure that there are adequate auditing tables available.  How are transactions tracked? Is there a session detail record to view all activity during a session?  Is the user’s IP addresses from sessions recorded so that likelihood of identity can be considered?   A well-designed web portal database is an important part of auditing because it can include details of every transaction and activity by user, including text entered where necessary.  This is very helpful when a user calls into the call center with concerns about his or her account.

Next, prepare your Web Analytics software for auditing capabilities.  Work with your web analytics professional to pass an unintelligible user ID key to the web analytics software for logged in users and create a custom report to record pages and downloads by this user key.  This simple step is a godsend when something goes wrong, like a PDF or web page has an error in it and you need to quickly identify who has seen this content so that a correction can be made to that group of users.  This is extremely valuable from a risk management perspective.

Now, take an inventory of the tools you have.  Do you have any session recording capabilities?  It is great to have access to a tool that will allow you to replay any session in question to see exactly what pages were viewed and what was accomplished.  Most companies do not have access to these tools for their web properties, but tools like these can be very helpful for auditing, especially in industries that are strictly regulated.

After some preparation, answers to tough auditing questions become more routine.

• A customer calls and claims they were given last year’s terms and conditions.  Retrieve that customer’s encrypted ID, open the web analytics reporting and query which PDFs were viewed.  
• Then, a product manager says IT uploaded the wrong PDF.  In the web analytics package, query that PDF and view which customers, if any, saw the incorrect PDF so that the product manager can draft a letter to those customers.  
• Now, a customer says they never logged in to authorize that payment.  Use your web portal database to see details of that transaction, verify the session details to see if there was a chance the account was compromised.  
• If a customer says they saw data from another customer and you have a session recording tool, check the tool to see what happened.  If not, look into the web portal database session activity to see if any wires might have been crossed.

With careful planning and a few simple steps, you will be prepared for these and any other questions that come up in the future.  

Product managers need to understand how the site is being used to inform the product roadmaps and order website changes as needed.  There are two different building blocks for measuring the web performance and both are needed to achieve a complete understanding of the online customer: web analytics and web portal database.

Web Analytics

Web analytics tells you about the online behavior of the customer by painting a picture of the most popular content and how a customer moves through the website to accomplish tasks.  There is a wealth of information in the basic analytics reports found in web analytics packages like Google Analytics, WebTrends,  Site Catalyst, and CoreMetrics.  Even more information on fall out from web form fills, clicking to off-site links, and other detailed task and funnel behavior can be tracked with additional planning and page-specific javascript tags or URL parameters.

Web analytics is fundamental to all web properties, but is also commonly overlooked during the development process.  In order to determine the impact of the redesigned property, getting the proper code in place early in the project is essential.  The basic requirement is a snippet of code often referred to as a base tag.  Depending on the analytics package and the company policies, this is either a direct copy/paste or include to the page header or page footer.  This code is the engine that communicates page activity to the analytics package.  For advanced reporting and specialty metrics, a web analytics professional can provide code to be included within the content of the page to provide additional performance metrics.

Getting the basics is easy.  Often it only requires mentioning that you want the tracking installed, and in some cases, it is standard and automatically included with no effort at all.  For this reason, tracking is often taken for granted, and taking web analytics for granted is a huge mistake.  I have seen many cases at companies large and small where sites have gone live with no tracking because it wasn't mentioned in the business requirements. Without metrics, the product manager was not able to demonstrate the success of the product.

Add tracking requirements to the standard requirements template to be used in every web project and open discussions with web analytics professionals in your company at the start of the project.  This will ensure you can avoid KPI pitfalls when work is complete.

Portal Database

Make the most of the web portal database behind the application, used to deliver information to the page.  These databases run the application functionality of website, processing transactions, recording changes to user profiles, error messages delivered, logins, etc.  Because of this, they hold a wealth of information on how the site is being used.  While web analytics delivers web content and behavior details, the web portal database delivers information on adoption and usage at a transaction level.

The types of metrics you can expect to gain from the web portal database include: percent of users logged in in the last 90 days, login frequency, login duration, average transactions per person, total transactions, revenue, etc.   

The most common issue is overlooking the requirements for the performance indicators (KPIs) during the design and development of the database.  To be sure that the portal database will deliver the metrics you need, take an hour at the start of a project to brainstorm all possible performance indicators that my be needed in the future and discuss with the IT Architect and DBA on our team.  It is much easier to include these in the database design at the start than it is to make a change along the way.

Summary

The key to success is timing a three-step process: (1) consider the data you will need at the beginning of the redesign, (2) collect product management requirements early and (3) coordinate with DBA and Web Analytics professionals throughout the course of the project.  Early and continual involvement will ensure you are collecting good data from the start and can report your success measure KPIs along the way.

We are always online, and for many of us, when we are not at our computers on the Internet, we find ourselves online still on our mobile phones! The Internet is omnipresent in our lives, for better or for worse. So given the prevalence of email and the Internet, why would we choose to contact our customers via SMS? 

Many don’t consider the fact that there are well over 1Billion people living without email or Internet access around the world in both developed and developing countries. Yet at the same time, mobile phone penetration is growing at an enormous rate. In fact, one billion connections were created in the last year alone!

Of course, I am not suggesting foregoing email or Internet in favor of SMS, but SMS does a lot to round out the communications strategy and can support the efforts face-to-face and over email. It works well in addition to other strategies because there are times when customers are away from their computers and email or are in remote areas that are hard to reach except via cell towers. The cell phone is that bridge over the last mile that connects even the farthest place to information and services that would otherwise not be accessible. 

Think to yourself about your email habits: do you read everything you get? Now think about your text message habits: do you read every text message? The “sound-bite” brevity of text messages and the immediacy of having them in your hand day and night make them less time-consuming and even more personal. People tend to only give out their cell phone numbers to people and organizations they care about which gives the information a slightly higher priority. Plus in most countries there is no charge to receive messages, making them ideal for serving the poor in large numbers.

Remember, adopting a text message strategy neither needs to be complex or time-consuming. Using online software, like our MOBILIZE application, means you can get started very quickly sending and receiving information to and from mobile phones nearly anywhere in the world. With MOBILIZE, we work to make all this as simple and seamless as possible. On many levels (cultural, financial and social), we are helping you “reach your customers where they are at.”

In the case of disaster, like the tornado damage in Harrisburg, IL, information is priceless and communication ranges from difficult to impossible. With landline wires down and cell reception poor, a mobile may not be able to send or receive a call, but can often send and receive a low-bandwidth text message. It can be a great help to have a mobile communications tool that you can setup quickly for sending and receiving key information from and to emergency services in the field and the community at large.

I grew up in tornado country and still have family there, so this particular use is close to my heart. SMS can be used to warn people prior to destruction and can help them find resources during the aftermath. I want to take a moment to walk through the aftermath with you and discuss how QR Codes can be integrated with SMS text messaging to enhance communications.

One of the largest struggles in SMS text messaging programs is with communicating the instructions that will help people subscribe and participate. It typically goes something like this: “Please text hburg to 80474 to subscribe.” What if you could replace these words with a simple picture? You can use an image, like a QR code, that tells the phone exactly what to do so that the user can get started faster. An example is here on the right.

There are several mobile apps across all of the various platforms that read these QR codes. The user simply opens the app, points the camera at the code and the app tells the phone to complete the requested task. If you have a QR Code reader application for your smart phone, scan the above image now. It will prepare the SMS message for you. You will then be able to follow the steps on the screen to send it and start the process.

When using my smart phone QR Reader on the above image, I am immediately brought to the screen below on the left. To execute the SMS text message, I click the create/edit button on the bottom right of the screen (looks like a box with a pencil).

When I do that, I am brought to my smart phone SMS text messaging application where the message has been prepared for me (see the above image on the right). Then, I simply press Send.

So the process is nearly automatic for the user, making everything much simpler. This simplicity is priceless during a crisis. The QR Code for subscribing can be printed in local papers, presented on posters in the community and available in shelters.

If you’ve done this yourself while reading, you will notice that you still need to opt-in to receive the texts by returning “Y”. Once subscribed, officials can keep you updated on any concerns or calls to action for the area.

The welcome message also asks you for more information about your status which will be used to target messages to specific groups when necessary. For instance if you indicate you are living in the shelter the types of information you will need may be different from folks living in their dwelling. Those whose dwellings were not damaged will need different information from those whose homes were hit by the storm directly.

Codes like these can also help people get directions to key locations, like staging areas, clinics, etc. Let’s say that you have a staging area for emergency care, food rations, etc and you would like to make sure that people can find you quickly and easily. You can use a SPARQ code to map your location on the user’s smart phone so that they can map their way to find you. 

You can try this now with your QR reader on your smart phone. It will open your mapping application and mark the location for you. Then, you can use your mapping application to get directions to the site.

During an emergency response, especially in disasters where fear, isolation, a lack of sanitation, poor nutrition and injuries are wide-spread and dangerous, communication can be a lifesaver. Collecting and sharing information can mean the difference between life and death and mobiles can provide great reach and make a large impact.

There are so many ways to make use of QR Codes to simplify and streamline your mobile program and it seems that new possibilities are constantly emerging. Resdida works to stay on top of all of these emerging technologies so that we can translate them into results for our clients. Working together, a strong mobile presence is easily within reach.

Sure you can use a text messaging channel to communicate with the audience before during and after the event, but what about in session? Well, there are a few different in-session mobile tactics that you can use to increase participation, like questions, polls and “liking” your speaker.

Questions
We have all been to panel sessions where little slips of paper are distributed to manually collect questions from the audience. This has worked well for years, but also requires a pen, a flat surface, the ability to see in the dark and a bit of labor for the ushers to collect and bring them to the moderator. Imagine instead that, throughout the panel, your audience can text in their questions as they came to mind and that the moderator could receive them live as well. 

This can be setup quickly and easily in Resdida MOBILIZE, using our Field Data functionality. Here are the steps involved:

Step 1: Create a new Field Data Form in MOBILIZE, using the key term “panel”
Step 2: Create an instructions slide for the audience, similar to the below:

You can try this now, by sending the example "Panel-How did you get your start in technology?" to 80474. You will get a thank you/confirmation response acknowledging that your question has been received.

The moderator will receive the questions as they are sent and can interpret them to the panel seamlessly.

Quick Polls
Another way to engage your audience in-session is to do a quick live poll. Let’s say that you wanted to know how many people in the audience are with Verizon, ATT, Sprint or TMobile. You could post a slide asking folks to text in which carrier their organization uses. Then, you can use that information to help guide and tailor your discussion. 

Setup is pretty straight-forward and would use the Keyword functionality in Resdida MOBILIZE. The most time-consuming part is figuring out what you want to ask and the categories you wish to use. Here are the steps involved:

Step 1: Decide what information you want to collect
Step 2: Create answer categories, like ATT, Sprint, TMobile, etc.
Step 3: Enter the categories into the Keywords tab of MOBILIZE
Step 4: Test each category once by sending it in a text message to 80474

Arrange the carriers in a table and choose a keyword for each. Then create some example text to help the audience understand what to do to participate.

You can try taking the poll right now by texting any of the carrier keywords above to 80474. The data will flow into Resdida MOBILIZE and can be viewed in the interface. 

The key is allowing ample time for folks to take out their phones and prepare the text message. It’s usually best to precede the poll by asking the audience to prepare by taking out their cell phones and providing the audience with verbal instructions. Allow three minutes from the time of the announcement for folks to finish their SMS message. See Part II for tips on implementation. Watch the audience to see that folks are done before you continue. 

Once the texts are sent, the results begin to tabulate in the interface, and you will know the popularity of the carriers.

“Like” your Speaker
With the growth of the “un-conference”, it is important to understand which if your speakers is in greatest demand and to know this in enough time to plan the afternoon sessions. 

Empower your audience early on. Tell them at registration that if any speakers resonate with them to text the word “Like” and the speaker’s last name at any point during the conference. Then, tell the speakers to promote their chances of winning by displaying their last name and reminding folks to text “Like” plus their last name if they want to hear more in the afternoon. See Part II for more information on implementation best practices.

This is a quick setup in Resdida MOBILIZE using the Field Data functionality. The only thing you would need is a list of speaker names so that you can interpret the results.

In Summary
Mobile should be facilitating your sessions, engaging your audience, and preventing unnecessary paperwork. The keywords and field data functions discussed here are excellent ways to add flair and excitement as well. 

This is the final part of the six-part series on text messaging at events so don’t forget to visit other sections in the series for more examples, tips and tricks:

• Part I: The Key to Successful Text Messaging at Events
• Part II: The Steps to a Successful Text Messaging Program
• Part III: Using Text Messaging to Save Staff Time
• Part IV: Using Text Messaging as Marketing to Increase Event Attendance
• Part V: Using Text Messaging for Real-time Voting and Live Ratings
• Part VI: Engaging your Audience with Text Messaging

No matter how you incorporate mobile into your events, implementing is affordable, easy and not something that you need to tackle alone. Resdida is there to lend expertise every step of the way.

Drum roll please….. And the winner is?!?! Yes, you can let people use their cell phones for live voting and get real-time results anywhere there is an Internet connection, even on a smart phone.

There are a couple of ways to collect real-time information from the audience using MOBILIZE. Ask yourself: "Do I need just a vote or a numeric score, like a rating from one to ten?" In either case, setup is fast and straight-forward.

Live Voting

If it’s just voting for one thing versus the other, you can achieve this simply by creating short keyword identifiers for each item. For example, fast-pitch sessions are all the rage. The goal is to have small groups of entrepreneurs stand up and deliver an elevator pitch while the audience listens and then votes for the best. Let’s look at how something like this is designed and setup in MOBILIZE. Here are the steps involved:

Step 1: Get a list of entrepreneurs/companies presenting

Step 2: Create a short abbreviated name for each organization

Step 3: Enter the companies and abbreviations into the Keywords tab of MOBILIZE

Step 4: Test each abbreviation once by sending it in a text message to 80474

Here is a sample table of five entrepreneurs, try testing these for yourself by texting the keyword to 80474:

By sending each once in testing, you have confirmed that each is working and have leveled the playing field by giving each organization one vote. All is good! You are ready to have this work live at your event, from a technical standpoint anyway.

For participation, you will need to educate the audience a bit to get them interested in participating and doing the right things at the right time.  Part II discusses the intricacies of preparing the audience, but a few points are worth reviewing. To be successful, you will need to do the following things:

• Provide voting information verbally at registration

• Provide written instructions in the program

• Explain the text voting at the start of the session and ask folks to take out their phones and be ready

• Include abbreviations and written instructions in presentation slides

During the pitch session, the organizations will present their elevator pitches. At the end of each batch, the instructions/abbreviations slide will be displayed and the moderator will request that everyone take out their phones and text the organization abbreviation to 80474. Staff can then monitor MOBILIZE to determine the winner. Applause and happiness for everyone!

Live Rating

Maybe it’s not just “one thing versus the other” but more of “a scale from one to ten” that you need. That’s no problem either in MOBILIZE. In fact, we once had a client set up mobile ratings for 30 films in five minutes after five minutes of training.

A great use of mobile rating scales is for session ratings. Let’s say you have a one day conference with four 1.5 hour sessions that you would like to have participants rate from 1 to 10 via mobile. Here are the steps involved:

Step 1: List the conference sessions

Step 2: Create a short abbreviated name for each session to use as a key term

Step 3: Enter the sessions, abbreviations, and rating field into the Field Data Form tab of MOBILIZE

Step 4: Test rating each session once by sending a rating for each in a text message to 80474

Here is a sample table of four sessions, try testing these for yourself by texting example text rating to 80474.

By sending each once in testing, you have confirmed that each is working and have leveled the playing field by giving each organization one vote, and a good rating as well. Everything is set for live voting.

Now for participation, just as with the keywords, you will need to educate the audience a bit to get them interested in participating and doing the right things at the right time. Please see Part II for a detailed discussion of preparing the audience. To be successful, you will need to do the following things:

• Provide voting information verbally at conference registration

• Provide written instructions in the program

• Explain the text session ratings at the end of each presentation and ask folks to take out their phones and be ready

• Include abbreviations and written instructions in final presentation slides

At the end of each session, the presenters will explain the ratings and display the instructions slide. Participants will take out their cell phones and send ratings to MOBILIZE. Conference staff will then monitor MOBILIZE and analyze the session ratings. Mission accomplished and no paperwork to collect or process!

In Summary

Mobile should be facilitating your event activities, enabling greater efficiencies and preventing unnecessary paperwork. The keywords and field data functions discussed here are excellent ways to add flair and excitement as well. Implementing is affordable and easy as well but is not something that you need to tackle alone. Resdida is there to lend expertise every step of the way.

Events bring people together in support of a purpose, like networking, learning, celebrating, collaborating or simply sharing a common interest. With that in mind, how do you include more people and get more people to register, join and take part?

Save-the-date advertising is sent out a year in advance immediately when the venue is booked. Then, a series of marketing reminders are sent to the audience via email and mail. These inbox and mailbox items are very effective at reminding folks to schedule the time and plan expenses. However, there is growing opportunity in mobile that complements this traditional advertising very well. The usage of text messaging is growing worldwide, people have their phones with them and use them more frequently than their email on computers. Over mobile, the open rate is very high because the information arrives and is announced with a beep or buzz in the palm of the customer’s hand.

So “How” is very simple. Create an event information channel or an organization information channel (or both) in advance so that you can let folks subscribe to receive key information. The sequence of activities is planned out in detail in Part II , but in summary, would be the following:

• If you haven't already, find a suitable text messaging platform, like Resdida MOBILIZE 
• Setup your channel(s). This takes less than three minutes 
• Post instructions for mobile channels on posters, in newsletters and online to encourage folks to subscribe
• Plan, schedule and send relevant content

Once you have your mobile audience you can begin to engage them with relevant topics, coupons and incentives to forward invites to friends. Let’s take a look at each of these.

Relevant Content

No one likes SPAM, no matter the format. Relevant content is critical to keeping your audience as well as engaging them. If folks sign up for the ACME event channel, they will be expecting to hear news about the speakers, venue, vendors, promotions, activities, and other critical event-related information.

Most importantly, it’s best to be very clear in all communications and set expectations for the mobile experience. In signup instructions, tell potential subscribers the truth about what to expect and how often and answer key questions in your marketing materials. You can use a worksheet, like the sample below to think through what you are offering.

Making sure your message is consistent across all email, mail, web, print and “in-store” materials will be important for setting expectations for your audience. At the very least they should understand the nature of what you intend to send and how often you intend to send messages to them. The worksheet can become something similar to the sample advertising for the mobile channel shown here.

Then, be sure to keep the promises you make. That may mean special staff training and extra care around what messages are created and sent.

Keep them informed with relevant content they are expecting to receive, like information about the venue.

The text messaging channel can be used to assist with registration information, questions, and communicating key dates. Registration information, like websites, forms and phone numbers can be pre-programmed as content in MOBILIZE and scheduled in advance to deliver as planned.

Mobile creates an opportunity for dialog that will encourage people to register, join in and participate. Every transmission should be thoughtfully planned with the audience in mind. With MOBILIZE, you can plan and schedule well in advance to send at the pace you want.

Coupons and Incentives

One of the best ways to encourage participation is to offer coupons for registration. You can provide an opportunity for savings, like coupons to receive 50% off of a second registration or buy-two-get-one registration savings.

You can provide the coupon code right over the mobile phone and even encourage folks to forward coupons on to colleagues, friends and family. The more widely the coupon is shared, the more viral publicity and opportunity for growth is available for your event.

You can provide incentives to attendees to participate by providing a prize. A common and very effective incentive is holding a raffle of subscribers for one lucky participant to receive a free registration for the next year’s event. You can also provide an incentive for mobile subscribers to participate in event activities. For example, send a mobile coupon for 50% off of the services of a vendor or special seating for folks showing a mobile ticket at the keynote. To take care of your event sponsors, send an offer for drink tickets at the reception.

In Summary

In the end, your mobile text messaging program has been developed into an asset, a mobile CRM for folks who champion your events, your organization and your cause. To make the most of this, you can keep the channel active throughout the year as a great way to promote products, events and donation opportunities. Mobile text messaging fits nicely into the marketing tapestry in support of all of your efforts. It’s just a matter of process and procedure, and the details of the steps involved are spelled out in Part II. Be sure to review steps and your marketing timeline for ensuring everything gels and works together.

Implementing is affordable and easy as well but is not something that you need to tackle alone. Resdida is there to lend expertise every step of the way.

Time is money, and in this economy there isn’t much of either to go around. I know from my own experience running events that things are hectic and time is scarce. The last thing anyone needs is another moving part to manage. The more you can get done ahead of the event the better. Imagine for a moment what your experience could be … automating customer service, directing attendees to sessions, and making timely announcements. You can simply leverage text messaging to save staff time while actually increasing the level of service you provide. But how?

With Resdida MOBILIZE, it’s not difficult or time consuming, and it can all be set up ahead of event time. Here I will show you how to quickly and easily automate key announcements and reminders, automate FAQs and provide easy access to customer service. 

Key Announcements & Reminders
Running events, you often feel like a traffic cop. There are lots of halts, go’s and general ushering of attendee traffic. Timing is everything and every minute counts in order to meet the tightly run schedule for the day. The goal is to get people into the next session, seated and ready to begin on time, every time. 

There are several things you can do in advance to take some of the pressure off and ensure that attendees are informed and know where they need to be next. An easy option is to setup a Conference Channel and instruct attendees how to join. See Part II for detailed steps for instructing and encouraging adoption. Setting this up in MOBILIZE takes less than a minute. Once it’s set up, it’s very easy to use and manage.

Let’s assume you are staff for the ACME Conference. It took me less than a minute to setup the ACME Conference Channel; in fact, text ACME to 80474 to subscribe right now. If you do, you will see that the system will ask you to confirm by returning Y. Then, you will see a confirmation and welcome message for the channel.

Now, let’s say you know there will be cocktails on the 23rd floor at 6pm Tuesday of the conference. Let’s look at how you would schedule a text message reminder so you don’t need to worry about catching everyone at 5:45pm.

Start by creating “stories” for this and every other announcement or reminder that you’ll want to send during the conference. Here’s an example of the cocktails story below.

Then, add this Cocktails story to the Channel and schedule it to send at 5:45pm on Tuesday. While you are at it, schedule the remaining announcements to go out “just-in-time” during the conference.

Now you are done! MOBILIZE is now your traffic cop letting folks know where to go next as well as other mission critical information during the event. The only thing left to do is get folks to subscribe before or during registration.

FAQs
In addition to a channel, you can serve attendees and save time by pre-programming the answers to Frequently Asked Questions into MOBILIZE. Let attendees send a text message with the speaker’s last name to learn where and when those sessions are, or let them text INTERNET to learn the WIFI codes to access the network. This effort is easy to pre-program and saves paper and staff time during the event asking these questions. Be sure to place this information on the mobile information page in the event program. See Part II for more details on fostering participation.

Taking a closer look at the Internet example, setup is easy and takes less than a minute. You enter into MOBILIZE the key term INTERNET and the automated response “ID: acme Password: conf2011.” Instead of running around last minute printing handouts with Internet info and taking countless questions, you can use your mobile program to save time and trouble. Plus, if the ID or password were to change, you would just update MOBILIZE. Results are immediate and simple. 

You can try it now for yourself by texting INTERNET to 80474.

Because MOBILIZE can adapt with you and absorb new information as it comes down the pike, it surpasses paper publishing by far in effectiveness and is the “green” solution as well. Instead of quickly running off to print those quarter-sheet info flyers, you are taking two seconds to make the change and inform folks in real time.

Customer Service
In addition to frequently asked questions, there are questions that fall outside the ordinary or times when the audience needs to quickly report a problem. Especially for events that are spread-out in large venues, it can be very helpful to offer the opportunity for folks to ask questions and report problems remotely via their mobile phone. This gets the information to staff faster and makes the process more convenient for attendees as well.

This, too, is easy to set up in MOBILIZE and is related to our functionality for collecting data from the field. You would choose a key term for the audience to use. In this example, I will choose AQ for Acme Question. You would choose an auto response to acknowledge that the question was received. Finally, you would instruct the audience to send questions following an AQ- to 80474.

Staff will receive information instantly from within the session that the projector has failed and can quickly dispatch AV resources to the Starlight Room. The attendee receives the auto-response “Thank You” message as a confirmation that the information was received. The issue is resolved quickly and everyone is satisfied. 

In Summary
Automating essential repeatable tasks like key announcements, reminders, FAQs and customer service can improve the conference experience for both the attendees and the conference staff and allows for a more “green”, efficient and environmentally friendly experience as well . Staff time saved is priceless and putting technology to work for you feels great. Implementing is affordable and easy as well but is not something that you need to tackle alone. Resdida is there to lend expertise every step of the way.

A mentor once said to me, “To achieve success, first you have to define it.” It makes sense, right? I need to know what I wanted to achieve before I can know whether I have achieved it. Same here! Success for your mobile program is what you make it out to be and should be based on your goals. Common measures of success include empirical measures like:

• Adoption (Percent subscribed of total) 
• Participation (messages received/subscribed) 
• Response (attendance, registrations, etc.)

Getting folks to subscribe, participate and respond to your mobile initiative takes some sales and marketing skill. Among many things that work, we are talking signs, ads, announcements, assistance at registration. I’m offering a recipe today to increase your chance for success.

You can create the right mix of the ingredients above and use a PARFAIT approach to achieve success for your mobile experience through promotion, advertising, repeat messaging, fostering a great experience, assisting wherever possible, instructing carefully and timing everything to the right cadence.

Promote and Incentivize
Lay your mobile foundation in advance and promote your mobile initiative. By this I mean starting two months in advance letting people know about the mobile program, including your purpose and reasoning behind creating your mobile program and their purpose and reasoning for wanting to participate. Driving the behavior is all about what it means to them. So start telling them and warming them up as early as possible. Questions that will help you find their incentive, include:

• Will it provide them valuable information that they can’t get elsewhere?
• Will it keep them “in the know” and ahead of their peers?
• Will it let them participate with the panel, take polls, vote on content?
• Will you offer them “a chance to win” when they subscribe? Maybe a free ticket to this or next year’s event?

Advertise the Program
Incorporate mobile into all of your advertising starting as far in advance as you can. If you haven’t yet chosen your full range of programming, you can make a start by simply saying that you are excited to have a mobile offering in the upcoming event and encourage folks to stay tuned. It is recommended that you begin letting people know over every medium possible starting at least two months in advance of your event. 

Even if you don’t intend to fully use a mobile communications channel for the event (if you are only planning to do polling or voting, for example) you should set one up to let people start to familiarize themselves. If your event is Acme Event, set up an Acme Channel and tell folks, for example, to text ACME to 80474 to get started with the mobile program at the event. 

Don’t worry if you aren’t sure what to say exactly or what your channel might be. Resdida staff can help you get this set up and help you with the ad content. You will want to convey this message in all of your email, web, mail, TV and radio advertising. 

Repeat Messaging
Through all of these means of advertising, you can achieve repeat messaging before your event and get the audience warmed up to the idea of mobile at the event. This messaging should be repeated throughout the event location and throughout the programming as well verbally, through signs, and in program materials.

It helps to have signs about the program and instructions on the registration table, in signs at registration and in the event lobby as well as in sessions in the form of slides or signs on the wall. It is also helpful to place an instructions page in the event program guide or as a handout in the event bag. Our most effective events have used a few minutes of the opening session to explain the program and encourage people to take out their phones and subscribe right at the moment. Having that time set aside for them and having an explanation and request from the speaker dramatically increased their participation. The more reminders the audience has the more chance they will have to follow the instructions and participate in the program. 

Fostering a Great Experience
One of the greatest barriers to participation is the worry of getting spammed via mobile. It is important to reassure the audience of your purpose for having the program and that you have no intentions of sending anything beyond that purpose. Most importantly, it is critical that the platform is run by event staff who respect those wishes and are careful with the number of type of messages sent. 

Assisting at Every Turn
Creating a great experience also involves solid customer support. Have event staff available at registration to answer mobile questions and help walk people through the various ways of using mobile in the event. Also train presenters on how the mobile will work in their sessions and provide staffing to assist the audience during live polling and voting sessions. Resdida staff can be there for your event to assist with audience support and address any concerns. 

Instructing Carefully
Carefully created instructions can make a tremendous difference to participation. Texting isn’t second nature to everyone and a good portion of some audiences haven’t heard the term SMS. The key is creating instructions that are “in English” and easy to follow. You will want to create signs that emphasize where the eye needs to focus, like what they are sending to where. For example, “Text ACME to 80474.” Verbally, you might say “Everyone please take out your phones now. Open text messaging and send a new message. In the body of your message, type ‘ACME’. Send your message to 80474.”

It is most effective to have a Mobile Program table next to the registration table staffed with proactive Mobile Program advocates. As people visit the registration table, they are directed to stop by the Mobile Program table next to enroll. 

Timing All of the Above
I’ve mentioned that many of the above should be started in advance of the event. Timing is very important and below I outline a timeline for planning and implementing the techniques that will drive your success across all mobile event features.

The timelines above are generalized but provide a good framework for what to be doing when. Remember too that you don’t need to be doing them alone by any means. Resdida staff lend their expertise to help you get things just right along the way. Also, depending on the program you design for your event, you may find yourself doing some or all of the above. The next installment of this series will start digging into the details of the features you can implement for your events.

Success Measures
Once the event is over, it’s time to return to those success measures. As mentioned, it is common to look at adoption, participation and response. 

For adoption, you will need to know the total number in attendance and the total number of subscribers/recipients (displayed in the top menu of MOBILIZE). If your event had 100 in attendance and 85 unique recipients in MOBILIZE, then your adoption percentage would be 85%.

Participation is measured as the number of messages received divided by the number of recipients participating. This is a great way to look at engagement. So if 500 messages were received in MOBILIZE and there were 85 recipients, your participation metric would be 500/85 = approximately 12 messages per person.

Response is a bit tricky and depends on what specific features you implemented and any behavior you sought to drive. For example, if you sought to drive attendance by advertising in the media with a coupon code, you can use redemption numbers for the mobile coupon to determine success.

In Summary
Achieving greater success using mobile can be as simple as planning and following a general recipe in the event process, think PARFAIT, and include promotion, advertising, repeat messaging, fostering a great experience, assisting wherever possible, instructing carefully and timing everything to the right cadence. This is not something that you need to tackle alone. Resdida is there to lend expertise every step of the way. Shoot us an email to learn more and be sure to check out our upcoming posts on the topic.

Reprinted from resdida.com

I have led and have been on teams running a lot of events and have to admit that I thrive a little bit on the chaos and excitement. There are tons of people, tons to do to make sure venue, food, much to take care of it’s hard to imagine implementing a mobile component too. Yet when implemented well, mobile can save staff time, increase attendance, provide real time results and improve audience engagement.

I’ve been onsite with a number of our clients as well and have learned what it takes to achieve results. The smallest of adjustments to process and careful planning are the difference between a mere 10% adoption and a solid 90+% adoption. These figures are also true for diverse audiences in terms of age and tech savvy. Over the next five weeks, I will go in-depth on all aspects of best practices for using text messaging at events. They will be released weekly and will be labeled Events Parts II through VI. A general overview of each is outlined below.

Part II: The Steps to a Successful Text Messaging Program

What does a successful text messaging program for events look like? True, success is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but it’s generally based on empirical measures like percentage of participation and the level of activity (number of messages exchanged). You will see other intangible benefits in audience behavior like timely and larger response to announcements for sessions announced and expressed appreciation. To achieve greater participation and activity, it is critical to include certain elements in the event process, like signage, advertising, announcements, and assistance at registration. There are certain techniques that when deployed before and during the event can make a huge difference to success, and I will go through these in great depth in Part II next week.

Part III: Using Text Messaging to Save Staff Time

How can a text messaging service save staff time? Firstly, it is automated, so you can schedule key announcements days, weeks, or even months before. If you know there will be cocktails on the 23rd floor at 6pm… schedule a blast reminder so you don’t need to worry about catching everyone at 5:45pm. It is also a great customer service platform. Participants will write you back with questions and important information regarding operations. For example, one event we worked with set up an “Ask a Question” service. Took less than a minute to set up, provided great experience for participants who could stay in session and was fast for staff to answer. Look for Part III, which will cover leveraging text messaging to save time for event staff.

Part IV: Using Text Messaging as Marketing to Increase Event Attendance

How can a text messaging service increase attendance? It works just like traditional marketing but arrives in the palm of their hand with a much higher open rate. Create an event information channel or an organization information channel (or both) in advance. Let folks subscribe to receive key information. Post instructions for mobile channels on posters, in newsletters and online to encourage folks to subscribe. Once you have your mobile audience you can begin to engage them with relevant topics, registration information, coupons and incentives to forward invites to friends. Best of all, you can keep the channel active throughout the year as a great way to promote products, events and donation opportunities. Don’t forget to check back, because Part IV will cover event promotion via text message in great detail.

Part V: Using Text Messaging for Real-time Voting and Live Ratings

How do you get real-time results with a text messaging platform? To me, there is nothing more thrilling than seeing our Resdida MOBILIZE platform return results from live voting. There are actually a couple of ways to collect real-time information from the audience using MOBILIZE. Ask yourself: Do I need just a vote or a numeric score? In either case, you can set up a real-time audience poll in less than three minutes and see the results anywhere in the world where an Internet connection is available. You can even check results on your smart phone. Check out Part V to learn more.

Part VI: Engaging your Audience with Text Messaging

How can a text messaging platform improve audience engagement? Above, I mentioned the event channel which is a great way to keep the audience informed and moving along the schedule as planned. However, it’s also possible to engage the audience in session with quick polls and in session questions. In addition, you can mimic the “Like” concept found on social media platforms to help guide content and speaker choices. This is ideal for the “un-conference” experience. Look forward to Part VI to learn more about this in depth.

Whether you have a conference, “un-conference”, film festival, fast pitch, workshop, or any type of event, implementing a mobile text messaging component for your event can provide a better experience for everyone involved from staff to speakers and participants. It’s a powerful technology. It’s affordable. It’s underused. Resdida is here to help you understand your options and be successful. Shoot us an email to learn more and be sure to check out our upcoming posts on the topic.