Text Messaging: Better Than Twitter for Food Trucks
Food trucks and Twitter are in a relationship. They like each other and their fans think they are the best couple ever. But, I’m here to tell you, food trucks have a better suited marketing mate – SMS marketing or the highly popular, now of-age (just turned 18) text message.
Today, I’d like to offer a little insight on why food trucks and Twitter aren’t meant for happily ever after.
How popular is Twitter?
You can have 1,000 followers and that’s great, but if you look at the overall Twitter picture it’s not so great. Let’s look at a chart from a cool guy named Nicholas Carlson at BusinessInsider.com:
Carlson provided this context for Twitter:
175 million registered users equal about 56 million Twitter users following 8 other Twitter accounts. There’s really no way to know how many people are actively following your business when only a little over 30 percent of users are “active.”
How popular is texting?
Eight-two percent of Americans have a cell phone, says Pew Research Centers. And, a recent J.D. Power & Associates survey showed that mobile phone users received and sent 55 texts in a 48-hour period.
Comparing apples to apples?
We’re not comparing apples to apples exactly here, but the sheer usage of cell phones and text messaging make it a better option than just Tweeting locations. The real reasons Twitter and food trucks will never live in Far, Far Away:
- Twitter is a stream, not a single message. You have to Tweet and repeat a lot to get noticed.
- Your customer has to come to Twitter. Texting brings the message to their most attended possession – their phone.
- You have to ask twice for the text relationship. That’s a bigger commitment and a much better reason for a long-term marketing relationship.
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