I love posting short updates on the Web using my Palm Centro. I caught this habit in 2001 when PinoyExchange.com (PEx) introduced its Wireless Journal feature.  For only  P2.50, I was able to send through SMS short thoughts, notes, mini-poetry, and quotes to my own WJ page.  But PEx eventually stopped this feature.

Years later, a new site called Twitter emerged and began offering a similar service.  It even went a step further as, for some time,  it allowed members to receive their friends’ updates as text messages.  Posting SMS updates to Twitter was expensive then, though, as users had to send messages to an international number.  But phTwitters.com later solved this, allowing users to send updates to a local SMS gateway. When Plurk became popular, phPlurk also became available.

With new social networking sites that followed Twitter, such as Plurk and Jaiku, a social networker like me couldn’t help but wish that I could update all my services at the same time. Hellotxt.com and Ping.fm (see Jerry Ong’s post) made it possible.

But what if I want to use my cellphone — particularly the text messaging service — since connecting to GPRS or 3G remains costly? Today, I learned that it is also possible with the help of Ping.fm and Yahoo! Messenger for SMS.

To update your status on different social networking service thru SMS, just follow these steps:

  1. If you don’t have YM, download it at http://ph.messenger.yahoo.com.
  2. Login to YM, then follow the instructions on how to setup Yahoo! Messenger for SMS. Note that when prompted to enter your number, you must replace the initial zero with +63 (i.e. +639193451234).

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  3. After enabling Yahoo! Messenger for SMS, sign up for or login to your Ping.fm account.
  4. Click on “Add more networks” on your Ping.fm dashboard.  On the next page, just follow the instructions to set up your networks (Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo360, Flickr, FriendFeed, MySpace, Xanga, WordPress.com and others)

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  5. Go back to the dashboard and click on Yahoo Messenger under Services/Tools.

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  6. You will be asked to allow access to your YM account by sending a verification code to YM user pingdotfm.
  7. Once your YM account is given access, you may start posting by sending YM messages to pingdotfm.
  8. To post updates using SMS, you must be logged in to YM for SMS.  Remember to sign-in to your mobile when logging out of YM on your computer.

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    9. Send messages to 62580 (Smart) or 2258 (Globe)  in this format:  to pingdotfm your message.

    10. Enjoy posting!


Ederic Eder

Ederic is a Filipino communications worker in the telecom, media, and technology industry. He writes about K-dramas and Korean celebrities for Hallyudorama.

He used to be a social media manager for news at GMA Network, where he also headed YouScoop, GMA News and Public Affairs’ citizen journalism arm.

He was with Yahoo! Philippines for more than three years before returning to GMA Network, where he was also previously part of the News Research section.

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