MTN Facebook users can now get SMS notifications

MTN customers can now send updates to their Facebook statuses via SMS and even receive free SMS notifications when their friends update their statuses.

SMS Notifications include such activities as friend requests, messages received, wall posts, and status updates. The MTN Facebook mobile service allows customers to specify when and how they receive notifications by indicating the preferred time of day they would like to receive SMS updates.

“Social media is an ever-growing phenomenon in South Africa,” says Serame Taukobong, Chief Marketing Officer of MTN SA. Most of our customers have limited access to the Internet, but would like to stay in touch with their friends and family on Facebook, and this is yet another way in which MTN is empowering loyal customers to stay connected to their online world, everywhere they go.”

Using the service is as simple as logging into your Facebook account and opting to receive free notifications via SMS. The opt-in process is an easy three-step process:

1. Log in to your Facebook account. 2. Click on 'account settings' and select 'mobile'. 3. Select whether or not you would like to opt in or out of the SMS notification service, or add another mobile number.

Once an MTN customer has opted in, he or she will be able to interact with their Facebook profiles at any time via SMS. Subscribers can update their status, search for phone numbers, upload photos and videos, and do almost anything from their cellphones.

Once registered, customers will also be able to turn off their Facebook SMS notifications from their phones by SMSing the word 'STOP' to 13999.

“While receiving SMS notifications is free, all SMS responses by Facebook users are charged at standard rates. With the simplicity and cost-effectiveness offered by this new service, we hope to see more South Africans register and use one of the world's largest social networking platforms. Now that's Ayoba,” says Taukobong.

Notes to the editor:

To receive tips on ways to interact with your Facebook, send an SMS with the word tips to 13999 or go to http://m.facebook.com/sms from your mobile phone.