One of my favorite case studies was using SMS Quizzes to increase HIV awareness and knowledge. This style of intervention is near and dear to our heart, both because it was largely pioneered by TextToChange in nearby Uganda and because it is such an easy and clear way of helping educate a population on a public health issue. In this campaign, simple questions are sent out to the population, things like "Do you think a healthy person could have HIV?" and the users are prompted to respond. Based on their response they are educated further on the issue, either reinforcing their knowledge or being taught what the right answer should be. These sort of educational surveys are interesting for two reasons: one, because they provide some measure of the current state of the population when it comes to understanding various issues, and two, because the system corrects incorrect responses it also instantly educates participants.
Combined with even mild prizes, this is a low cost way to spread information and raise awareness. It also happens to be the sort of application that fits right in the sweet spot for TextIt. Building an SMS quiz is the same as building a flow, except you have a lot more options on how to handle results with a Flow. For example, on incorrect responses you could explain the right answer, but then also offer to find out more by responding with 'more', otherwise moving them onto the next question. Combined with slotting users in different groups based on their responses, potentially for further education, you could very easily build a very effective way to reach large audiences.
We think the flexibility of flows, and the richness of the interactions they allow, will really allow for a lot more experimentation on this approach. One thing we know is that every context is different, every intervention unique, but we know that some approaches have promise and we hope that TextIt allows for quicker iteration to find the right fit for your environment.
In future posts we'll talk about some of the other case studies and whether TextIt can help implement them, but if you have your own experiences, good or bad, please share. I also highly recommend reading the full set of articles, there are lots of gems in there.