FWD: Textiquette

There’s a pesky epidemic sweeping the mobile community. It’s called mass-texting. Musicians and other shameless self-promoters will often drop the mass-text the day before, of, or after a show in an effort to “get people out.” Sometimes it’s your friend. Maybe it’s the girl from Harmony class. Often, it will be a random number and you have to ask someone, ‘What the heck is the area code 513?’ After years of being a notorious mass-texter myself, I have realized certain rules—nay—guidelines, that validate a sense of courtesy, and in a sense, strategy, in the implementation of the mass-text: 

1. You’re allowed (1) mass text message for a gig. Forget about the two days before, one day before, morning of, or the classic “Hey! We’re starting in a bit! Head on over.” People know the game, and are short on patience as it is. Send the solitary mass-text on the day of the show as a reminder, and end the madness.
2. Be Succinct. In the past semester, I got a handful of mass-texts that were three messages in length. My cell phone went nuts—ding, ding, ding— and I made the mistake of thinking I was popular and/or loved by three separate friends. Nope. I was not only being invited to Poetry Slam, but also given specific details, and an elaborate emotional reflection of how much it would mean to the texting party if I showed up, and of course, the “C U there” tagline. OMG, texters. Here’s the format: Event/venue/time/sign off. Keep it to one message’s length, or even one screen’s length if applicable.
3. No ‘Thanks for Coming!’ mass-texts. Under no circumstance should you ever send the “Hey everyone. Thanks for coming out. It was a blast.” There are ways to disguise it (e.g. using ‘man’ or ‘dude’ instead of ‘everyone’) that will fool a handful of naïve Nokia users, but it’s still not recommended (It’s also a notorious Facebook inbox clogger. Put it as your status, and move on with your life).
4. Erase the ‘FWD:’ prefix. The one that is automatically added to most mobile devices upon forwarding a mass-text after you’ve reached your 10-contact quota. It doesn’t take long, and seasoned mass-texters appreciate the courtesy.
5. Lose the emoticons. If your LCD reads “Come see my band at TT’s tonight. We’re on at 10 =P ,” does the little tonguey smiley guy make you want to come show your support that much more? No sir. It’s irksome even without the emoticon, and has the potential to lose friends if superfluously implemented.

Most of these guidelines are applicable for Facebook messages, MySpace invites, and other ways we like to “keep in touch.” You want people to come see your band. Most of them won’t, but you simply can’t afford to alienate the few that might actually come. 

- Zac Taylor

Special thanks to Zac Taylor and crew at Berklee's The Groove for allowing us to re-run this little nugget of wisdom. Email them and join the conversation at thegroove@berklee.edu