SMS SOS

Over the past few months I’ve received a number of reader requests asking for some sort of SMS and/or IM alert service notifying them of new posts. After searching around I have yet to find a suitable service; consequently, I’m going to turn to the one resource that is better than Google: asking readers. Here’s a list of required features needed for a suitable solution…

SMS SOS
SMS SOS
  • Compatible with WordPress and provide an opt-in widget
  • Must protect subscriber privacy (no spam SMS, or bogus auto-agree to third party SMS, etc.)
  • Able to send an SMS to all major cell providers
  • Automatically send an SMS message after every new blog post
  • Include post link, title, and short excerpt in SMS message

If anyone knows of a service that fits within the above criteria, I would be grateful if you sent me a note or left a comment with details.

Thank you in advance!

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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2 thoughts on “SMS SOS”

  1. Keeping in mind that you have international readers, perhaps you could best achieve this by “tweeting” a notification (with link) of each post via Twitter.

    I don’t know that this would necessarily be automatic from your perspective, although there are some tools out there (e.g. on facebook) that allow linking of Twitter and blogging activities. But since tweets can be delivered via SMS, those readers who want this sort of notification can simply choose to follow Adaptistration on Twitter. (I realise the disadvantage with this is that readers would need to sign up to Twitter if they don’t already have accounts.)

  2. Thanks Angela, I do have an auto-twitter post option enabled (although I have experienced a great deal of trouble getting it to work even though I’ve tried several different plugins). I do think the SMS update option through twitter is one users might find useful but I would also like to cut out as many middle-men as possible (plus I haven’t read Twitter’s end user agreement for that service yet).

    Does anyone out there use the twitter SMS service?

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