These days it seems that everything is going mobile! Mobile web use continues to grow and more people are looking for (and finding) places like churches and ministries on the move.
Now there’s an easy way of having a button on your site that can send your contact details, via SMS/TXT, to the phones of people who want to find you!
Sendola
Sendola is new service from a Telecoms company in the UK. It’s a free service, where you sign up, add your details and get the button to go on your site.
When users click on the button, they’re prompted to enter their cell/mobile number and your info is send directly to their phone in an SMS message.
As well as your normal contact info like phone, email and web; if you have a physical location (as pretty much all churches do!), add an address and your location is send in the message as a link to a map – nifty! You can also have links to all your social network accounts.
There’s a Sendola WordPress plugin, so you can easily add buttons to your site and there’s even an API for creating buttons–if you’re API minded!
This service could be a great and easy way of getting your church or ministry’s contact information to a wider range of people!
Learn more on the Sendola website.
Eric J says
I just tried this out and it’s not in vcard format so you cannot easily import it into your phone! A bit of a bummer. Also it didn’t like my password change and my password reset email was blank!
This is a great idea that still has a few rough edges to be worked out.
James Cooper says
Thanks Eric, yes it’s still a young service and hopes to grow (see the comment below!)
Sendola says
Hi, thanks for the write up! Sendola is a fairly new product but growing quickly and we’re planning on adding a lot more features in the near future, so it should get better and better.
I just want to reiterate that Sendola is completely free to use, and works worldwide.
Eric, thanks for your comment. On the mobile page that you receive as a link in the SMS, there is a vcard download link near the top of the page (just below the Call and Map buttons). Here you can download the vcard file and import into your address book. If you tried this and had problems, please let us know what phone you are using – send us a tweet or email.
James Cooper says
Hi Sendola! Thanks for leaving a comment here. It’s great to have some feedback from you about where the service is going – sounds exciting!