Texting Players

damolee

Just wondered if anyone had good advice on a club wide system for texting players? I know about companies like O2 and Vodafone where you can get online and send messages from a webpage but this would be done by each individual team manager on their own personal account.

What is the best, and cheapest, commercial service out there that clubs use regularly?

Clareman

I think Teamer (http://www.teamer.net/) is regarded as the best option for getting in contact with teams

damolee

Clareman wrote: »

I think Teamer (http://www.teamer.net/) is regarded as the best option for getting in contact with teams

But I know that Teamer put adverts at the bottom of their text messages, and I would like to avoid this. Happy to pay a few cents per message to avoid this advertising......

Any other companies out there?

thegen

damolee wrote: »

But I know that Teamer put adverts at the bottom of their text messages, and I would like to avoid this. Happy to pay a few cents per message to avoid this advertising......

Any other companies out there?

I use Teamer. There is no charge for using it. The adds are how they make money.

Is there a reason why you want to avoid the advertising at the end of a teamer text?

damolee

thegen wrote: »

I use Teamer. There is no charge for using it. The adds are how they make money.

Is there a reason why you want to avoid the advertising at the end of a teamer text?

I just think its a little tacky to have to send text messages with advertising I'd have no control over at the end of the text messages... Also, isn't Teamer set up as a team by team system, what I am looking for is an option to set up a club service where I can add all the players in the club and all the teams...

Toblerone1978

We use bulktext.ie for our cycling club. A great service and the cheapest out there if you want to avoid teamer.net.

cgifts

Our football club uses www.texting.ie. We find the service good and does what we need.

damolee

cgifts wrote: »

Our football club uses www.texting.ie. We find the service good and does what we need.

I have gone to the homepage but there is nowhere to sign up.....? Just a login page and a userguide in pdf format

cgifts

After looking into it some more - texting.ie is part of www.gaatext.ie which is part of bulktext.ie which was recommended by Toblerone1978

I just had the texting.ie link in my bookmarks - which is the login page from gaatext.ie

theoneeyedman

I know it's not what you asked but O2 prepay does 'freetexts to any network' for 20e credit pm........there is prob a limit to text but i know i have used it for last 3 or 4 years without being pulled up on it @ c.25 texts maybe 3 times week + normal usage....might be an option for individual managers

damolee

theoneeyedman wrote: »

I know it's not what you asked but O2 prepay does 'freetexts to any network' for 20e credit pm........there is prob a limit to text but i know i have used it for last 3 or 4 years without being pulled up on it @ c.25 texts maybe 3 times week + normal usage....might be an option for individual managers

Yep I had thought of this but this equates to 240 euros a year and this would be crazy money to be spending on each team mananger....

theoneeyedman

damolee wrote: »

Yep I had thought of this but this equates to 240 euros a year and this would be crazy money to be spending on each team mananger....

would be if it was solely for this alone but i was using my own phone.....also realistically you wouldn't use it for 12 months unless you were very sucessfull

Starie1975

damolee wrote: »

I just think its a little tacky to have to send text messages with advertising I'd have no control over at the end of the text messages... Also, isn't Teamer set up as a team by team system, what I am looking for is an option to set up a club service where I can add all the players in the club and all the teams...

For the past few years we've been using text messages from a bog standard phone, draining out the credit pretty fast.

This year we're going to use teamer.net. Tacky? Ya maybe but it's free and we need to save every cent.

I've used it for our Interfirms team, 90% of the lads have an E-mail and the rest get the message on the phone. No one can say "we didn't get the text" all texts are recorded plus if they can't make training/match they can fill in there excuse. We also plan to use it to inform club members of matches and events.

Coillte_Bhoy

I get regular group textsfrom organisers re; poker tounemanets and they are always a uk number. Might be woirth lookng into

UpTheSlashers

How many texts would be sending a month? Most networks give 300 free "webtexts" a month. Google "meteor webtexts".

rebel girl 15

UpTheSlashers wrote: »

How many texts would be sending a month? Most networks give 300 free "webtexts" a month. Google "meteor webtexts".

There's 250 free a month on o2, plus they are giving away free sim cards at the moment, so you could get another one and set up the webtext on it as well

jwcurtin

I think Vodafone have 600?

entropi

Our college send their texts using Teamer.net to most, if not all of our sports teams...it seems to work well (although the 6:20am texts about hurling are not nice:p). Strangely though, my home club just had a list of numbers and the team captain would send out a general text to the team using Meteor webtexts in batches.

kippy

Cant really beat teamer for value for money. Been using it for almost 2 year now for soccer and tag.
No one seems to mind the adds to be honest and the level of management it gives you is excellent, once you have set up the initial teams/members etc.
The issues with using some of the other services (such as standard web texts, standard phones or indeed some of the other "paid for" sites) are that you cannot track easily who is available and who is not available etc, without a significant amount of manual work from the texter. Teamer does this automatically.

Say hello to my little friend

Last post on this topic is almost a year ago. Does anyone have any experience since on best way to text teams. Does teamer.net have any additional cost for players.

breffni666

I have 40 kids at our hurling club on my O2 free webtext. 1 text a week x40x4= 160 texts messages per month for free. + 40 spare if needed. Handy service if you dont have many people to text.

breffni666

Teamer is ok if you want replies to texts and automanage players responses. With webtext if you put TB on the message players generally text back to let you know if they will be there or not. Lots of organisation on Teamer

bruschi

Say hello to my little friend wrote: »

Last post on this topic is almost a year ago. Does anyone have any experience since on best way to text teams. Does teamer.net have any additional cost for players.

would still suggest teamer too. it does not cost managers or players. they are introducing a teamer app for the iphone which will cost money, but having seen the trial of it, I'm not sure if it is worth paying for the app. but the internet based system is free and very useful.

I would use free web texts from meteor then for general texts if needed.

ontheditch2

Cheap and cheerful- Teamer. Works great for me and my teams that i am involved with.
Teamer now also now do a text message for 4c or something like that where you are without the advertising and write what you want on it.
locallotto.ie also do a text service, again about 4c a message.

Other than that, most people have free messages on their phones, and 300 free webtexts.

My opinion: Teamer is the way to go.

kippy

Id still recommend teamer.net. While there may be an initial setup that takes some time, its no longer than setting up players numbers for an online O2 text or something like that.
Best thing about it, and O2 online texting or anything like it, is it is very easy to track who is available, update a time change or indeed for the guys who have gotten the text to change their status.

Say hello to my little friend

Are any of the ads sent out that might be unsuitable for underage players to recieve.

Starie1975

Say hello to my little friend wrote: »

Are any of the ads sent out that might be unsuitable for underage players to recieve.

Just a warning, You shouldn't be texting underage players, only their parents.

fatherted1969

My club uses sportsmanager for texting out to the club members. Sportsmanager is an online registration service for all playing and non playing members. I think you can buy text bundles by the 1000 as far as i know. You'd have to be well in in your club to have access to that setup though. I find myself that i always use my own phone for texting out to my teams, you can text out from work or when out and about if there's any late changes and your not near a computer. Make sure you dont text underage players i only text parents match info. As the gaa is mainly voluntary i never look for reimbursement from my club, i suppose theres a cost attached to all these roles

beargrylls93

damolee wrote: »

Yep I had thought of this but this equates to 240 euros a year and this would be crazy money to be spending on each team mananger....

theres no limit on it though , i once sent 52000 messages in half a year , nearly ten thousand a month , cant be a cap when you think about it...