Spread your New Year toast with Online Texting

A couple of weeks ago I set up 56 scheduled SMS Christmas greetings at online texting site www.looknothumbs.com. I did this around December 18th. It only took about 10 minutes, and then I completely forgot I’d done it until Christmas morning when, in the space of about an hour I received 34 text messages on my mobile phone - replies from friends and family around the world who’d received my message, scheduled for 8.30am.

I hadn’t anticipated that, but it turned out to be a nice way to include everyone in our family Christmas morning as I watched gifts being unwrapped and my living room being trashed by small children. The replies included comments about similar mayhem in friends homes, which was also fun to share.

So for New Year I’m doing it again. Here are the steps, in case you have a few minutes and want to check this out:

1. Register on www.looknothumbs.com (or register interest first to get your invitation) and buy some text credit.

2. Import or enter some mobile numbers into your LookNoThumbs address book, and create groups if you want to send the same message to lots of people (ideal for holiday greetings!).

3. Send a text message to each group or person, setting the delivery time for 1/1/2008 some time in the morning. I’m sending to 2 groups - one for friends and one for customers - plus a few individual texts where I wanted to personalise the message.

Just for fun, leave your phone on around the time you’ve scheduled your message, and see who’s still up partying and responding to your greeting.

Remember, the great thing is that you can set up your greetings now for delivery on Jan 1st, so you don’t have to fumble with your phone when you should be spreading your toast.

Happy 2008 everyone!