The Weekly Five: Creative Ways to Use Mobile Groups

1. Club/Organization Group

Create a group for your club or organization to broadcast last minute event reminders, change in plan announcements, or cancellation updates to all of your members. Not sure who is going to show up? Later we’ll have 2 way functionality for members to RSVP to events.

You might be saying, heck, I’m not a club leader, well…subscribe to your favorite mobile groups to stay connected to what’s happening on the go…no more need to go hunting down information, it now comes to you. TIP: Save the event text message so you don’t have to scribble location/time details on your hand!

2. Party Groups

Are you someone who frequently throws parties or organizes friend gatherings? Set up a group, invite your entourage, and throw a party at the last minute. Keep your friends in the loop while they’re out and about searching for their next kegger! Send out a message to everyone to organize who is bringing what.

3. Are you a business owner?

Set up a group for your business, invite your coworkers, and send out work schedules and reminders for who is working the next coming day. No one will ever miss work again…and if they do…they’re fired!

4. Are you a club promoter?

Set up VIP or clubbing groups to notify your posse where the next club event is, how to get on the VIP list, or how to get a discount for the next party. Use Mobile Groups to establish a stronger connection between you and your following! In the future…you’ll be able to sell and distribute mobile tickets…set your group up now to be get ahead of the game.

5. Need an extra boost of motivation in the morning?

I know I do, I love sleeping in way too much. Subscribe to one of our quotation groups and receive an inspiration/motivational quote to your cell phone. TIP: Or create your own personal private group and set a personal wake up message to use as your alarm…"ALEX GET YOUR LAZY *** OUT OF BED...YOU HAVE TONS OF WORK TO DO TODAY!"

How do you use your Mobile Groups application on Facebook? Got a creative idea? Throw up a comment! We would love to hear from you!

Did I mention it is FREE to send out messages? (Standard rates may apply for receiving...no biggie, just sign up for an unlimited texting plan with your wireless provider)



ENJOY!

LAUNCHED!

We are proud to announce that Mobile Groups has gone live and is ready for you to use!

Add it to your Facebook profile!

MOBILE GROUPS!

We'll be up shortly!

Many of you have called us over the past couple of days and have asked the very appropriate question: "What happened to the launch?" We're sorry about not having made this post earlier; the first thing we would like to say, in the words of Douglas Adams, is "DON'T PANIC!"

Alex and I are ever so slightly delayed in the launch due to some very minor changes during testing and pending contracts and approvals which should be settled in the next day or two. For those of you who have been here before, you know just as well as us there's always a little thing or two to correct before shipping the app.

In just a short while look out for application/group invites on Facebook or find Mobile Groups in the application directory! We will also be posting links, which bring you straight to the application download page.

Hope you all had a happy holidays.

-The Textworks Team

Reasons to Live The Entrepreneurial Life

What does Michael Jordan have to do with entrepreneurship?

Read our new article that came out in The Heights to find out. Here's a preview:

Beethoven's teacher called him "hopeless as a composer." He held his violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions, but he became known as one of history's greatest composers.

Walt Disney was fired by his newspaper editor who said he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He went bankrupt several times, but finally built Disneyland.

Babe Ruth held the record for strikeouts (1,330), but later held the home run record with 714.

Thomas Edison's teacher said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "unproductive," made eventually 1,000 unsuccessful attempts, but invented the light bulb.

The director of Blue Book Modeling Agency once told Marilyn Monroe that she "better learn secretarial work or else get married."

You may call them composers, athletes, actresses, inventors, or visionaries; I call them entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur is defined as a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

However, its origin stems back to 1828 when it meant "one who undertakes or manages," from the original word, "entreprendre," which means to "undertake." I consider these people not only by their professional labels, but also by their entrepreneurial character to live an "entrepreneurial lifestyle," developing their specific skills and undertaking their dreams while they develop themselves as individuals.
My business partner and I are frequently asked why we want to be entrepreneurs, why we are taking time off from school, or why we are taking a "risk." It's not always easy to convey our reasoning or explain our burning desire and passion to follow these dreams. I bring up these examples to make an analogy that the core of entrepreneurship isn't only about starting a business from scratch, but that it's more about actually living an entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Click here to continue reading the article...

Facebook Application: Alpha Launch

What's up everybody! I know it's been a quite a while since our last post. We have been incredibly busy with final exams and papers (as I'm sure all of you student readers are as well). Also, alongside our Facebook Application Developer Ari Rubinstein, Alex and I have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on the Textworks Facebook Application "Mobile Groups." We are very excited to let you all know that we will be officially launching the alpha stage version of Mobile Groups next week!

For those of you who don't know, when an application is in the "alpha stage" of the software release cycle, it typically means that it is up and running, but the developers are actively monitoring and fixing any bugs or kinks. In our case, it will also mean that we are including only the core features of the application to make sure that they are running smoothly. We encourage you all to post suggestions/comments so we know your feedback. After the application is clearly running well, we will continue adding new features to make Mobile Groups an even better application for you!

Here are the main features that will be included in the alpha stage version:

-Create a Mobile Group. Create a group for campus organizations, teams, groups of friends, parties or just for fun! You will be able to specify the Group Name, Short Name (displayed on text messages), category, description and public/private.

-Join public Mobile Groups. Just like Facebook Groups, private Mobile Groups will be invite only, but you will be able to Browse all public mobile groups by various search criteria.

-Assign Admins and Message Senders.

-Invite Friends. Send them invites to join groups and add the application (Spread the word!)

-Events. Schedule an event that appears on the group profile for everyone to see and add SMS reminders to remind them wherever they are.

-Scheduled messages. Schedule a message to be sent out at a specified future date/time.

-Instant Texts. Send a mass text to your group members instantly at any time.

-Opt-in/Opt-out. Members can opt-in or opt-out of any event reminder or scheduled message listed on the profile.

In the very near future (Beta stage):

-Home page. Landing page with a Mobile Group News Feed, Recent activity, application news, etc.

-Friends' Mobile Groups. View the groups that only your friends belong to and join!

-Campus Mobile Groups. View the groups that only people at your school create/admin.

-2-way Messaging. Respond or RSVP to event reminders, scheduled messages and instant texts.

Tell us if you have any suggestions for additional features...they may already be in the works, but we'd love to hear your thoughts. Otherwise look out for Mobile Groups next week!