Creating a Voting program in SMS

Collect customer input and opinions by creating fun and engaging SMS polls. Collect mobile numbers with each vote and see what your audience has to say.

Overview

Use the Voting program to collect and count specific responses. This program type can be used for polls or votes and will automatically tally up the responses, which can either be a keyword or a text string. Tallying is based on exact matches to other entries.

Important: Voting is an advanced SMS program type. In the US, a client is required to have a dedicated short code and the short code must meet US carrier approvals to run this type of program via SMS. Therefore, by default this program type is not available and requires Provisioning to activate after the criteria for the client to use this program type has been verified. Contact Client Support to request access.

Example of a completed Voting Program template:

sms_voting_sample template.png

Video

See how you can create a Voting program.

For more information, watch this video: http://cdn.training.silverpop.com/training/eng/mobile/sms2/smsvoting/index.html

Configuring the Voting program template

Follow these steps to configure the Voting program template:
  1. Open the Voting program. See Opening the SMS Program Template for details.
  2. Complete the Basic Details section.
  3. Complete the Message Details section according to the type of competition you are creating.
  4. For Advanced Options, complete the Action Settings section.
  5. Click Save.
  6. If you want to cancel any edits made to the template, click the Cancel button.

Basic Details

Select basic options or advanced options based on the type of Voting you would like to set up.

Name: Name your Voting program.

Campaign: Select a campaign to assign the program to a parent campaign.

External Campaign Reference: Not applicable.

Program Duration:Choose the Defined Start and End Dates option.

Start Time & Date: Specify a start time and date for the Voting program.

End Time & Date: Specify an end time and date for the Voting program.

Text to Code: Select the code used for this program.

Time Slot: An Advanced Option. Choose Yes to define the hours that the end-user is allowed to send MO for this program. When activated, the program will be active only during the specified time of day.

Secondary Keyword: An Advanced Option. Choose Yes to specify secondary keywords. The user has to submit two keywords to enter the program. For example, VOTE MIAMI.

Keywords: Type keywords to be used in your voting program. On a Shared code, if a desired keyword is not available, the system will generate an error message.

Additional Keywords: Choose Yes to assign more than one keyword to your program. Type the additional keywords in the text box. Use a comma to separate each keyword.

Message Details

Note: If you send a message using more than 160 characters and the carrier supports concatenated SMS, the longer text will be sent as a concatenated message.

Originator: This field shows when a non-US code is selected. Used only for countries that support Sender ID. Select the MT sender. This field is provisioned for you. To request a custom originator ID, see How do I request a custom originator ID?

Voting Type: Choose 'By Answer' or 'By Keyword':

Voting By Answer: This option is best when there are a large number of possible categories for which to vote. Set up one keyword where votes will be taken from the text after the keyword, e.g. KEYWORD VOTE. This program lists all text after the keyword in each MO and tally any identical answers.

Send Response: Select 'Yes'. Sends a message to the end-user after the end-user sends a vote.

  • Reply: Enter the message text that is sent to end-users once the end-user sends an MO for voting. To add dynamic fields, such as coupons or mobile user properties into the message text, select the desired field and click the Insert button. The member's reply will return a different message for mobile users that are already in the list associated with the program.
  • Invalid Vote Reply: Specify a message to be sent to the end-user if the end-user sends an invalid reply.
  • Stop Message: The message the end-user gets when s/he sends '[Keyword] STOP'.
  • Help Message: Text sent when the end-user sends '[Keyword] HELP'. The Help message provides the mobile user with additional information or contact information to the customer service line.

Voting By Keyword: Set up a keyword for each voting option, which will be used to tally votes. Voting By Keyword only accepts votes for the specified keywords and tallies the MOs for each one. To add more keywords, go to the Basic Details section. Choose the Yes radio button in Additional Keywords and enter additional keywords; use a comma to separate each keyword.

  • Send Response: Select 'Yes'.
  • Reply: Enter the message text that is sent to end-users once the end-user sends an MO for voting. To add dynamic fields, such as coupons or mobile user properties into the message text, select the desired field and click the Insert button. The member's reply will return a different message for mobile users that are already in the list associated with the program.
  • Stop Message: The message the end-user gets when s/he sends '[Keyword] STOP'.
  • Help Message: Text sent when the end-user sends '[Keyword] HELP'. The Help message provides the mobile user with additional information or contact information to the customer service line.

Action Settings

Action: Select an action from the list of options of what you want the system to do when you receive MO information. For example:

  • Save Entries and Forward to Email: Sends an email each time an MO is received for the program. The message details are in the body of the email.
  • Save Entries and forward .csv file to Email: Sends one .csv file at the end of the program with all of the entries for the entire program in the .csv file. These emails may be sent to multiple email addresses by entering them in the Email field, separated by a comma.

Email(s): Enter one or more email addresses to receive entries. Separate each email address by a comma.

Pre-program Message: Select this option to send a message to the end-user when s/he sends the keyword before the program's Start Time & Date. Define when you want to start sending this message (before the Start Date).

Originator: This field shows when a non-US code is selected. Used only for countries that support Sender ID. Select the MT sender. This field is provisioned for you. To request a custom originator ID, see How do I request a custom originator ID?

Finished Message: For late entries. Select this option to send a message to the end-user when s/he sends the keyword after the program End Time & Date. The message should inform the end-user that the vote was not counted because the program closed. Define when you want to send this message (after the End Date).

Opt-in End User: Specify if you want to opt-in the end-user into an Acoustic Campaign database.

Text to Join Program: Select the Text to Join program that will be used to opt in the end-user.

Viewing results for the Voting program

Follow these steps to see end-user entries while the Voting program is running, so you can perform a number of actions, such as presenting vote progress.

  • present the progress of the vote as the program is carried out (e.g., announce the latest results of the vote midway through the program)
  • encourage further votes
  • remove an option from the voting process. For example, when broadcasting votes for talent/reality shows. Typically, when votes are taken early on in the results show to remove one contestant and then later on in the same show, votes are taken to remove another contestant or to announce a winner.
  1. In the SMS Campaign Manager menu, go to Interactive > Interactive Programs.
  2. Select the Voting program.
  3. At the top of the Voting program summary page, click the Votes button.
  4. (Optional) Click Export Votes to download the results to an Excel (.xls) spreadsheet format.