The following is the weekly guest series by Derek Johnson, Founder & CEO of SMS marketing software Tatango.

With the explosion of the mobile internet over the last few years, I regulary get asked if clients running SMS campaigns can place a URL within a message to their SMS subscribers. This URL usually points to a mobile enabled website, mobile video, or to a social networking profile on sites such as Facebook or Twitter. I tell customers there is no problem, but I always give them the following warning. A high percentage of SMS subscribers will not be able to access the URL on their mobile device as they’re not web enabled.

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The following is the weekly guest series by Derek Johnson, Founder & CEO of SMS marketing software Tatango.

At Tatango we use the Mobile Marketing Association’s (MMA) U.S. Consumer Best Practices as any Christian would use the bible. This document guides every company’s decision in the world of mobile marketing and is looked to daily for both insight and resolution.

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The following is the weekly guest series by Derek Johnson, Founder & CEO of SMS marketing software Tatango.

There are two types of short codes in SMS marketing: ”random” short codes and “vanity” short codes. Random short codes are exactly what they sound like, a combination of 5-6 numbers picked at random, outside of the clients control (i.e. 95632, 20924, 425031) and vanity short codes are 5-6 numbers that are picked specifically within the clients control, i.e. 12345 (sequential order), 90210 (Beverly Hills zip code) and 411247 (411 – directory / 247 – all day every day).

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The following is the weekly guest series by Derek Johnson, Founder & CEO of SMS marketing software Tatango.

After Groupon announced their plans to go public earlier this month at a $30 billion valuation, they’ve been taking punches left and right in the media. Even TechCrunch, which has always had a soft-spot in their heart for Groupon, let guest Rocky Agrawal spend an entire week ripping the daily deals giant a new one with posts such as the following:

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The following is the first in a new weekly guest series by Derek Johnson, Founder & CEO of Tatango.

Recently I’ve been having horrible nightmares. These nightmares aren’t the kind I had when I was a child though, these are much worse. These nightmares take me into the future and give me a glimpse of what the SMS industry has become

My nightmares always start with the consumer. I see consumer after consumer grow frustrated with the concept of “SMS marketing”. I watch as their phones beep every few minutes signaling the arrival of another unwanted SMS advertisement. Parents take their mobile phones into the stores requesting SMS be removed as a feature, while children become immune to the flood of SMS spam, just as in present day I’ve become immune to email SPAM. What hurts me the most is that I hear business owners joke to their cohorts that it’s now referred to as “SMS spamming”, not “SMS marketing”.

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