Tuesday, February 4, 2014


SMS text messaging has been discovered by businesses all over the world as a powerful tool to make money. Whether it’s selling a product or sending billing reminders, the goal is often commerce-driven. And, while CallFire is a leader in the industry for companies using cost-effective ways to market themselves and manage accounts payable, SMS texting is extremely useful as a means to deliver informational, emergency and potentially life-saving messages.

As an example, government has been using SMS texting to disseminate notifications in the event of dangerous weather and other urgent situations. This trend has now been widely adopted by schools that are using it in those same scenarios as well as a more reliable and efficient way to stay connected and share information with students, parents and staff.

A typical application of SMS in schools is notifying parents of a school closure due to extreme weather. In fact, within the last six years, it’s become the law per the Clery Act to to notify students and staff of an on campus emergency. Other uses have been implemented as a way to minimize truancy by sending texts to the parents of absent children. Other schools are using mobile marketing strategies to inform pupils of upcoming events.

In South Carolina, Southern Wesleyan University introduced bulk SMS messaging as a way to warn students of impending hurricanes and tornadoes. They introduced the program and invited students and staff to opt-in during chapel meetings and via email and brochures. So far the program has been a success and each time

a notification is sent out, there is a bump in the number of subscribers.

Schools with a shoestring budget and small administration teams are some of the most well-suited organizations for harnessing the power of text messages. CallFire, with its affordable SMS marketing plans, are opening up the possibilities of this technology to groups of people who are not in the profit-making game but are rather using it in the interest of sharing information as well as the community’s safety.