Wednesday, November 14, 2012
By Ryann T, Follow me on Google+
Mobile has changed the way elections are fought. The immediacy and the high open rates of text messages make it an ideal way campaigns syndicate information to volunteers. From mobile canvassing apps like Organizer and MiniVan, to informational tools like Votizen, mobile has become more and more pertinent to our election process. It’s also clear that voters are utilizing mobile to get more and more information about the candidates they support.
Parsing through mobile data usage on election night shows that SMS usage not only peaked, but skyrocketed in the states where it the election was most contested. Sybase 365, the mobile services arm of SAP and the global leader in mobile interconnection and mobile commerce services, reported signifcant traffic between 6:00 PM on election day until 4:00 AM as voters shared their reactions to the election results. In fact, traffic peaked at over 106,000 messages per second around 11:20 PM right after news organizations began calling Ohio and the election.
When filtering by battleground states, these trends are only magnified. Taking a look at Ohio, Virginia, and Florida compared to the national traffic the impact from these battleground states on overall traffic. SMS traffic from the Florida area codes were almost double that of the normal for that time.
The graph also shows the messaging traffic was 60% above normal on Nov. 6 from 11:00 PM to 2 AM time frames and 40% above normal from 2:00 to 3:00 AM before dropping down to normal levels.
Nationally, we see that texting peaked at 11:20 PM after most news organizations began calling Ohio and the election.
In Ohio, the swing state surge is largely in line with the SMS traffic of the national data. Suggesting, once again, Ohio is the bellwether of all sorts of national trends.
These trends suggest that SMS is looking to be mode of communication that consumers will continually utilize to syndicate important information. Text messaging, with its high open rates, and its propensity to be relayed virally, make it an ideal to medium to spread important messages. At CallFire we work with organizations of any size to help formulate impactful text marketing campaigns. To learn more about how your company can utilize SMS marketing, feel free to connect with one of our support agents by calling us at 877-897-FIRE or emailing us at support@callfire.com
Parsing through mobile data usage on election night shows that SMS usage not only peaked, but skyrocketed in the states where it the election was most contested. Sybase 365, the mobile services arm of SAP and the global leader in mobile interconnection and mobile commerce services, reported signifcant traffic between 6:00 PM on election day until 4:00 AM as voters shared their reactions to the election results. In fact, traffic peaked at over 106,000 messages per second around 11:20 PM right after news organizations began calling Ohio and the election.
When filtering by battleground states, these trends are only magnified. Taking a look at Ohio, Virginia, and Florida compared to the national traffic the impact from these battleground states on overall traffic. SMS traffic from the Florida area codes were almost double that of the normal for that time.
The graph also shows the messaging traffic was 60% above normal on Nov. 6 from 11:00 PM to 2 AM time frames and 40% above normal from 2:00 to 3:00 AM before dropping down to normal levels.
Nationally, we see that texting peaked at 11:20 PM after most news organizations began calling Ohio and the election.
In Ohio, the swing state surge is largely in line with the SMS traffic of the national data. Suggesting, once again, Ohio is the bellwether of all sorts of national trends.
These trends suggest that SMS is looking to be mode of communication that consumers will continually utilize to syndicate important information. Text messaging, with its high open rates, and its propensity to be relayed virally, make it an ideal to medium to spread important messages. At CallFire we work with organizations of any size to help formulate impactful text marketing campaigns. To learn more about how your company can utilize SMS marketing, feel free to connect with one of our support agents by calling us at 877-897-FIRE or emailing us at support@callfire.com