Text Message Content

Posted by Rahna on September 11, 2008 under Social Media | Be the First to Comment

Here’s a question: What do college kids use text messaging for?  

I don’t think that there is any question that college kids are among the biggest users of text messaging but what is the content of their text messages?  

Business people use their Blackberry’s to give basic information. “I will be five minutes late to our meeting.” “What is so and so’s phone number?” Each of these is basic information dissemination, but what is the primary use for college kids? 

I was having a discussion with someone the other day who had been out of college for six or seven years, and he contends that the primary use for college kids is to flirt with each other.  

I was working on developing a marketing program and one of the ideas was to give free t-shirts to kids who would text five of their friends to let them know about an upcoming event. I spoke with one college kid who said that this is a fairly common practice on his campus and an easy way to generate word of mouth activity.  In speaking to my client, they felt that the primary use of text messaging was for flirting and therefore, this is a tactic that would not work as well. 

It is an interesting question. I will have to research it.  I’d love to know what anyone thinks. If you have any information, let me know; I’d love to hear it.