Mobile Marketing - A Mobile Technology Glossary

Our previous posts last week on mobile marketing and mobile technology have caused quite a lot of interest.  One of the questions that I have been asked is about some of the new terms, acronyms and language that is used when experts and businesses are talking mobile.  It is always a good idea for experts and customers to talk the same language, so here is a short mobile technlogy glossary to help you:

3G
3G is third-generation mobile technology that includes wide-area wireless voice and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment.

Alerts
Text or multimedia notifications containing time-sensitive information such as news, updates, weather that are pushed to opted-in mobile subscribers.

Bluetooth
A communication protocol that allows mobile phones with Bluetooth capabilities to send and receive information wirelessly over short distances.

Click to Call
A link on a mobile Web site (WAP site) that initiates a call from that phone to a phone number.

CSC
CSC is the abbreviation for common short code.

End User
A wireless subscriber.

Keyword
Keywords is an unique word (or number) assigned to customers who would like to offer their customers or friends the ability to join their group text messaging list from their own mobile phones. Frequently, the keyword will be the name of the business or something that is memorable. For example: JFred’s Seafood Restaurant may choose “Fres” or even “seafood” as their Keyword.

LBS (Location Based Services)
Location-based services provide information to cell-phone subscribers based on their current location. For example, providing information on nearby restaurants.

MMS
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is similar to SMS except MMS can include not just text, but also sound, images and video. MMS messages can even be sent from a mobile phone to an email address.

Mobile Originated (MO)
An SMS or MMS message that was originated on a mobile phone.

Mobile Terminated (MT)
A SMS message originated from another mobile phone or PC and sent to or “message terminated” to a mobile phone. The MT message would be viewed by the recipient in their text message 'Inbox'.

Mobile Marketing
Any activity that enables a company to communicate and actively engage with its customers via a mobile device.

Mobile Search
Initiating a search from a mobile device.

Opt-in
Opt-in is a way of collecting mobile and Internet users' personal data and verifying that the subscribers intention and agreement to receive mobile messages. Within the opt-in context, user acceptance is necessary before any mobile marketing solicitation.

Opt-out
The process where the subscriber revokes their consent to receiving mobile messages. All mobile messages should contain instructions to Opt-out.

All new technologies and/or business initiatives always bring a new set of terms and acronyms so we hope this list helps you and your business make some sense of these terms. Contact us at WSI Digital Marketing for help and advice with your mobile marketing plans.