DoSomething.Org Has 1 Million Texting Teens

Lance Ulanoff2013-04-16 21:56:41 UTC

DoSomething.org, the service that uses SMS messaging to connect teens with volunteer opportunities that don’t require money, a parent or a car, is now texting with more than 1 million teens. The not-for-profit organization made the announcement Tuesday at AllThingsD's Dive into Mobile Conference in New York City.

In a world filled with teens carrying powerful smartphones capable of far more than just simple texts, it's somewhat surprising to hear how heavily DoSomething.org still relies on this feature-phone staple. "Texting is like the stepchild. It’s not as sexy as the mobile web or apps, but I’ll take it any day," quipped DoSomething.org CEO Nancy Lublin. She added that it's in a better position that email. The autofill for "email is for..." in Google is "email is for old people." (Try it; it's true.)

DoSomething is not just focused on volunteerism. It’s conducted a number of unusual push-style text programs. One that addresses teen pregnancy virtually impregnates your phone. When this cyber baby is delivered April 23 at 6:31 a.m. (text "baby" to 38383 if you want to try it), it will spend the rest of the day delivering annoying virtual baby texts. "If you can’t handle that baby, you should probably keep your zipper closed," said Lublin.

The organization also launched a text program to highlight hunger in America. "April is the hungriest month," explained Lublin. The program encourages teens to join "Team Crunchy" or "Team Smooth." Both refer to the kind of peanut butter you like. That food also happens to be an excellent source of protein, something the hungry in America desperately need.

For DoSomething to remain effective and, perhaps, capture the many millions of teens who are not using the service, it needs to go where they are. One of those places is YouTube. Lublin said teens listen to a lot of music on YouTube and the video service offers a number of key benefits for an organization like hers.

First of all, it supports bulk messaging to a channel. Secondly, as Lublin delicately put it, "They don’t fuck with the developers on YouTube." The site is all about content — no worries of an API changing and ruining or killing the experience DoSomething builds.

DoSomething is also working on changing how counseling hotlines work. This summer it'll launch a Crisis Text Hotline that could change how at-risk teens seek help. Lublin, for instance, said some of the issues teens deal with could be correlated, even though traditional hotlines are siloed. DoSomething's plan is to bring in multiple call centers at once, but make that transparent to teens so they don’t feel like they’re being handed off.

"Speed and accuracy is critical," said Lublin. The organization is working with MIT's Media Lab to auto-tag incoming texts.

There are, as Lublin is quick to acknowledge, far more than 1 million teens in the U.S., but she is committed to getting them on the service, too. She wants DoSomething to be on all social properties. "We want to be in their pockets."

Photo by Mashable

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