Text As Communication Platform? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Bryant]

Some of you guys know I've been a long time Gary Vaynerchuk guy.

I very much like the direction and feel he seems to have turned the last couple of years where it's less "grinding" and more practical how to type stuff.

His most recent direction is text.

As he says, "I'm putting all my ####### eggs in the text basket". 

He creates an avalanche of content every day that's distributed across all the platforms. And on most, he now includes:


Tweet Me! @garyvee
 

Text Me! 212-931-5731


Basically, it's another version of signing up for the email update list in that you give the content creator the ability to send you a text. 

What's MASSIVELY different about it though is for most people in 2019, a text has a much higher score on the "do I get my phone out of my pocket for this" scale than an email does. An email has essentially zero on the scale. A push notification might be a 4 or 5. A text is probably more like an 8.

I'd love to get your thoughts on this and how you view it.
 

Looks like https://www.community.com/ is the platform. 

Whenever we've considered text in the past, it was insanely expensive compared to email. I wonder if this is changing. 

Thoughts?

 

[Ron Swanson]

I use text, but it isn't my primary communication tool and I'm notorius for not checking it for several hours or up to a day or two.  This is mostly due to my work life being heavily tied to email and/or Slack.

 

[AcerFC]

Agree with the guy on the scale of which I will check my phone. BUT, I don’t need people texting me stuff they would send in a daily email. I would :unsubscribe: 

 

[shadyridr]

Agree with your scores. I'd hate to get fantasy football texts but that's just me. I use an app for injury updates and get push notifications. I ignore the fbg emails like they're spam. Just being honest. 

 

[belljr]

I hate getting texts from companies etc.

 

[Juxtatarot]

The only texts I like from companies are security related such as credit/debit card fraud monitoring.

 

[xulf]

The reason people check texts over emails is because it is not full of garbage spam.  Just as emails are now white noise, so too will texts become if commercial entities go down this road.  

Going to texts wont solve a problem rather it will create one for the consumer who will ultimately change their communication methods to avoid the nonsense.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Thanks Guys. 

And to make sure I'm clear, the only way anyone would ever receive a text is if they asked for the text to be sent. It would be 100% opt in. 

I had one guy tell me he'd be furious if he got a text. The only people who'd ever get them would be people WHO ASKED FOR THEM TO BE SENT.

I was just trying to get a handle on how many people might ask. 

 

[Joe Bryant]

I hate getting texts from companies etc.

I don't understand this. Do you ever get any texts that you have not asked to be sent to you?

Is it not super easy to reply STOP and opt out?

 

[[scooter]]

Thanks Guys. 

And to make sure I'm clear, the only way anyone would ever receive a text is if they asked for the text to be sent. It would be 100% opt in. 

I had one guy tell me he'd be furious if he got a text. The only people who'd ever get them would be people WHO ASKED FOR THEM TO BE SENT.

I was just trying to get a handle on how many people might ask. 

Well, here's the issue as I see it: many people may start off being "100%" in favor of asking for texts to be sent to them. But everyone has a boiling point where they go from "100% in" to "STOP BOTHERING ME!!!!"

I don't know where that boiling point is for me. I feel like I'd have no problem getting 1-2 texts a week from Footballguys -- especially if those texts contained vital breaking news. But if you start sending me 5 texts a day that are full of clickbait headlines then I'm going to reach my boiling point by the 3rd text.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Well, here's the issue as I see it: many people may start off being "100%" in favor of asking for texts to be sent to them. But everyone has a boiling point where they go from "100% in" to "STOP BOTHERING ME!!!!"

I don't know where that boiling point is for me. I feel like I'd have no problem getting 1-2 texts a week from Footballguys -- especially if those texts contained vital breaking news. But if you start sending me 5 texts a day that are full of clickbait headlines then I'm going to reach my boiling point by the 3rd text.

Absolutely. This has to be something the user WANTS. 

But to be clear on your first point, does everyone know you should be able to reply with STOP and instantly the texts stop coming from any company that's sending them?

It sounds to me like people are not realizing they're in total control of what is sent to them. 

Do you think they realize this?

In other words,  no one should ever say "I hate the texts they send and wish they'd stop bothering me" more than 1 time. 

 

[General Malaise]

I always get a bit disappointed when my text goes off and I think "hey, a friend is reaching out!" only to discover upon excitedly retrieving my phone a reminder text from RiteAid to reorder my prescription.  Bit of a for me. 

 

[[scooter]]

Well, here's the issue as I see it: many people may start off being "100%" in favor of asking for texts to be sent to them. But everyone has a boiling point where they go from "100% in" to "STOP BOTHERING ME!!!!"

I don't know where that boiling point is for me. I feel like I'd have no problem getting 1-2 texts a week from Footballguys -- especially if those texts contained vital breaking news. But if you start sending me 5 texts a day that are full of clickbait headlines then I'm going to reach my boiling point by the 3rd text.

Absolutely. This has to be something the user WANTS. 

But to be clear on your first point, does everyone know you should be able to reply with STOP and instantly the texts stop coming from any company that's sending them?

It sounds to me like people are not realizing they're in total control of what is sent to them. 

Do you think they realize this?

In other words,  no one should ever say "I hate the texts they send and wish they'd stop bothering me" more than 1 time. 

Of course people know that they can reply with STOP.

But what often happens is that a person will sign up for text alerts because a company will imply that the texts will be relevant and rare. And then when the texts turn out to be not-so-rare and not-so-relevant, then it creates distrust and causes damage to the relationship.

Also, regarding your last line: you really don't want a customer to EVER say "I hate the texts they send".

 

[NotSmart]

I suspect this is a generational thing, which is another way of saying most of us are probably Boomers.

I make an effort to not be staring at my phone too much, but I think the younger generation prefers using their phone over a desktop/laptop.

I only want high priority interruptions on my phone from texts, for me that's:

Family, friends, work, financial alerts (e.g. credit card was used), provider alerts (e.g. dentist appt. tomorrow), and a few specific items I opt in to be interrupted by (e.g. fantasy sports injury alerts).

Most other things I can check twitter and email for.

tldr: Texts are an intrusive communication method that I am selective about allowing.  I don't see any footballguys content as falling into that category for me - I'll read the emails.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Of course people know that they can reply with STOP.

But what often happens is that a person will sign up for text alerts because a company will imply that the texts will be relevant and rare. And then when the texts turn out to be not-so-rare and not-so-relevant, then it creates distrust and causes damage to the relationship.

Also, regarding your last line: you really don't want a customer to EVER say "I hate the texts they send".

Of course. That's why I said This has to be something the user WANTS. 

I just don't undestand the people people thinking the texts are bothering them. If the texts ever become just anything slightly less than something they want, the solution takes 2 seconds and it's done. 

But this is excellent information to have. If people see these as something they're unable to get out of, that's great to know. 

 

[Joe Bryant]

I suspect this is a generational thing, which is another way of saying most of us are probably Boomers.

I make an effort to not be staring at my phone too much, but I think the younger generation prefers using their phone over a desktop/laptop.

I only want high priority interruptions on my phone from texts, for me that's:

Family, friends, work, financial alerts (e.g. credit card was used), provider alerts (e.g. dentist appt. tomorrow), and a few specific items I opt in to be interrupted by (e.g. fantasy sports injury alerts).

Most other things I can check twitter and email for.

tldr: Texts are an intrusive communication method that I am selective about allowing.  I don't see any footballguys content as falling into that category for me - I'll read the emails.

For sure. 

We are definitely an older crowd here. Meaning the vast majority of the internet consumes content different than most of you guys. 

The beauty of it would be that it's 100% an opt in thing. ONLY the people that wanted them would get them. 

This would be the equal to FBG offering content on Facebook. 

For the guy who hates Facebook, he simply doesn't consume it there. 

 

[Joe Bryant]

JJ Watt is now doing these too. https://twitter.com/JJWatt/status/1196950526228865024

Interesting.

 

[NotSmart]

For sure. 

We are definitely an older crowd here. Meaning the vast majority of the internet consumes content different than most of you guys. 

The beauty of it would be that it's 100% an opt in thing. ONLY the people that wanted them would get them. 

Opt in and easy out are definitely the way to go. 

To help us understand, what kind of content would theoretically be being sent by text by FBGs?

Text seems like an inefficient way to consume anything very lengthy.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Opt in and easy out are definitely the way to go. 

To help us understand, what kind of content would theoretically be being sent by text by FBGs?

Text seems like an inefficient way to consume anything very lengthy.

Absolutely. Opt in and super easy out. 

And to be clear, I'm just spit balling here. I have no plans for anything beyond what I posted in the original post. I've seen Gary Vaynerchuk offer this and also JJ Watt and I was only asking if folks here would be interested. 

If we did do something, I would see the key factor being it must be important content. If not, most people won't want to see it via text. 

 

[belljr]

I don't understand this. Do you ever get any texts that you have not asked to be sent to you?

Is it not super easy to reply STOP and opt out?

Unfortunately the ones I want get lumped in with the ones I don't.   There is no send only some.  So my credit card has fraud texts plus statement ready and paid as an off or on, when all i want is fraud

And yes I have received spam texts

 

[xulf]

Absolutely. Opt in and super easy out. 

And to be clear, I'm just spit balling here. I have no plans for anything beyond what I posted in the original post. I've seen Gary Vaynerchuk offer this and also JJ Watt and I was only asking if folks here would be interested. 

If we did do something, I would see the key factor being it must be important content. If not, most people won't want to see it via text. 

This opt-in / out talk is meaningless in my opinion.  This will go down the same path as emails... where I NEVER opted-in to receive 95% of them.  My email address was sold or web-crawled from malicious entities and the same will happen with texts (in fact I already get spam texts about buying my house weekly with a changing sent from number).  An unsubscribe or STOP does nothing but confirm and validate a legitimate contact hit from the senders end. 

 

[Don Quixote]

I would not want a constant stream of texts, but I might opt-in if it just breaking news type, like “Player X ruled out for 4-6 weeks” or “Player Y surprise inactive.”

But I would not want “Check out this week’s preliminary rankings/Random Shots/etc” texted to me.

 

[Joe Bryant]

This opt-in / out talk is meaningless in my opinion.  This will go down the same path as emails... where I NEVER opted-in to receive 95% of them.  My email address was sold or web-crawled from malicious entities and the same will happen with texts (in fact I already get spam texts about buying my house weekly with a changing sent from number).  An unsubscribe or STOP does nothing but confirm and validate a legitimate contact hit from the senders end. 

That's a bummer if that's happened to you with other companies. I subscribe to a ton of different email newsletters and I haven't seen this problem at all. 

But that's terrible if it's something you're seeing. 

 

[Apple Jack]

My Eye Dr sends me texts and it's annoying. I haven't done anything to stop it yet because I actually do need to go in soon I'm using those as reminders, but I don't recall ever opting into texts. Isn't opt-in a legal requirement for a company to text their customers?

 

[Mister CIA]

I think the majority of your FFA clientele doesn't take fantasy football as serious as, say, 10 years ago, so the negative responses in this thread make sense.  It follows - we're old too.

And delivering content via text seems odd in the extreme.  If I'm jonesing for FF content so bad that I'd like to receive texts about it, then it's likely I'm already consuming the content you  would text to me.  I don't want Netflix texting me about anything - but I do love the emails they send me.  I think this model fits you.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, build it and they will come.

ETA: What I'm really trying to say is, when you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.  It's math.

 

[skol asylum]

I know I pay for it and I know it's great content and a ton of work goes into it, but honestly most weeks I don't have time to read all the FBG emails and have to trash them to reclaim my email inbox. Wouldn't be interested at all in receiving that data via text.

 

[skol asylum]

I know I pay for it and I know it's great content and a ton of work goes into it, but honestly most weeks I don't have time to read all the FBG emails and have to trash them to reclaim my email inbox. Wouldn't be interested at all in receiving that data via text.

I feel bad even typing that because I know you guys work so hard. My loss for not taking the time.

 

[Ron Swanson]

It could be interesting as an extension of the Myfootballguys platform. Highly personalized and actionable information about my team based on my scoring system, waiver rules, players, etc.  In other words a text that says, "Joe Jackson your top WR just got put on the IR, since you have open waivers go put in a claim for Jim Jackson, WR".  That would be cool. 

 

[Tick]

I wouldn't sign up unless I had pretty good customization controls.  I would skip if it was giving me alerts about players I don't own or notices of articles I don't want.  Since these controls aren't available on the email subscription, I'm not confident they would be around for the text notices.

I would cut it down to:

• Gameday-only texts about status changes for my players on MyFBG.
  
• Notification/link for a couple of articles I read weekly.
  

You mentioned push notifications.  If the MyFBG app had push notifications for these same things, I'd prefer that.

 

[shuke]

Breaking urgent news only.  Like big injuries during the week where a WW pickup would be huge.  

Or if you could customize it to get info on specific players, especially on game day.

 

[AAABatteries]

You mean like from @shuke @Otis and @Studs & Duds?  
 

IN!

 

[jvdesigns2002]

I put probably not.  For the business that I'm a manager of--we do repairs and orders--and we have a landline texting system that allows us to contact our customers individually via text if their repair/order is ready.  Basically when we take their repair/order in--we ask if they prefer to be notified via phone call or text when it's ready---and we mark it on their file.   Many people do elect the texting option--and it works well for us. With that said--I do think there would be a ton of resistance if we used group texting to market and pitch stuff.  There's  already enough pitch fatigue involved with every other form of communication.