3rd September, 2010
Zain Nigeria has introduced a special service that enables mobile phone users to keep up with the latest trends, news, business tips and gossips on leading social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo via SMS (short message service).
The new Social Networking services will help users rise above the barrier of internet data access and enjoy a quick link up with friends, former school-mates, colleagues and notable personalities amongst others, on Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo simply by sending SMS to specified numbers
According to Deepak Srivastava, Zain Nigeriaâ€
Facebook is a social networking service that provides an avenue to connect friends, family, and business associates. It is the largest of the social networking community which allows users to add other users as friends and send messages to them, update their personal profiles with pictures and messages, receive comments from friends, and several other exciting ways of using the service.
Twitter is a social networking and macro blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text based post of up to 140 characters displayed on the authorâ€
Zainâ€
Yahoo Open Chat is an SMS-based service which enables customers to send and receive Yahoo chat messages, without the need for internet access. This service is exclusive to prepaid customers who have valid existing and operational yahoo accounts i.e. valid Yahoo user name and password.
To enjoy the Facebook SMS service, customers are expected to send “ON†to 40405 to activate the service on their phones, and follow all subsequent instructions.
On how to connect to the Twitter Service, he said, customers are required to send an SMS with the word, ‘STARTâ€
Srivastava said that customers can connect to the Yahoo Open Chat service by sending the letter L followed by Customerâ€
The first three days of activating Yahoo Open Chat is free while customers are billed N100Â for subsequent three days. Twitter and Facebook SMS cost N9 and N10 respectively per SMS