Where Is UR Txt Msg Strategy?

Four years ago, my preteen daughter sent me a text message. "Where R U" she asked. My initial thought was, "@ wrk". Before sending a response, however, I considered the real meaning of my daughter's question. She was not actually interested in my physical location. Instead, she really wanted to know when I would be home. She cared about timing, not location. I replied, "@ wrk, b home in 30."
 
As I meet with people in large enterprises, I often ask the same question -- "Where R U?" Or more pointedly, when will your organization fully embrace interactive text messaging? When will text messaging be fully integrated into your proactive marketing, customer care, and collections processes? I have found that very few organizations in 2010 can answer this basic text-messaging question.
 
The rise of mobile messaging
 
No longer do American consumers lag the rest of the world in text-message adoption. Text messaging has become the preferred communications channel for millions of people, and not just teenagers. Ninety-one percent of all Americans currently carry mobile phones. Twenty-five percent of households do not have landline phones. We send over 3 billion text messages per day.
 
While U.S. consumers are fully embracing text messaging, very few enterprises have followed suit. Some organizations have begun adoption, but others continue to overlook the mobile data phenomenon entirely. Here are four critical considerations that an enterprise should consider when implementing an interactive mobile messaging strategy: