The community competes with all kinds of services competing for space in your text inbox, from Attentive to Twilio to Zendesk. And many of the software platforms companies use to manage their relationships with customers now have features that facilitate texting.
But what sets Community apart is the dialogue that celebrities and brands have with their customers, which provides a wealth of information about themselves, which the brand has and does not share with other Community clients.
Oseary was initially attracted to Community because of his role as music manager, he said.
“I don't know who came to the concert tonight. I have no way of talking to them anymore after they leave the concert. I don't know who bought the album,” he said. “With Community, once they text the number, we now have a way to stay in touch directly. And that information belongs to no one but the artist, the talent, or the people who built the business.”
The company advertises a phone number that users send to sign up for updates. McDonald's posted its number on a billboard in Times Square this month. The service also allows brands to segment customers who sign up for SMS, so if an artist has a concert in Atlanta, only people in Atlanta will get the SMS.
Using text messaging to connect with customers, for all its promises, poses unique challenges. Brands are required to engage their customers in the message, which is difficult to do unless the brand is already established. And customers may want to hear from fewer brands in their text inbox than they do in their email inbox.
“As opposed to email, where you have to scroll down and hit a link that says unsubscribe, if you don't like a text message you receive, you only have to write one word: Stop,” Mr. Kutcher said. (That's some news you can use.)
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Rupert Murdoch made another deal. Fox News settled a defamation case with Dominion Voting Systems at the last minute for $788 billion. The deal allows Murdoch and his company executives to avoid having to testify, but also hands Staple Street, Dominion's private equity owner, a big salary having bought the company for $38 million in 2018. His son Lachlan, CEO of Fox Corporation, also settled a defamation lawsuit against the Australian publisher this week.