Community is a startup that lets celebrities and marketers communicate with their fans and customers via text messages and recently announced a new $40 million investment from Salesforce Ventures.  The platform makes it easy for brands to send text messages in groups or one-on-one to opt-in customers.
 
Brands and celebrities.  Kerry Washington, Jennifer Lopez, Tom Brady, Tony Hawk, Steve Aoki, Deepak Chopra, Ashton Kutcher, Global Citizen, The Shade Room, Bobby Hundreds, WW (formerly Weight Watchers), SluttyVegan, the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins and Meredith’s People magazine.
 
Matthew Peltier, founder and chief executive of Community said:

• “Messaging is the most direct and personal channel there is, and there’s a lot of value in that.  On social media, you don’t own that relationship. You are limited by the algorithms and short attention spans, and you’re competing in feeds where there is a lot of noise.”

• He added that the new financing “will provide us with the resources and opportunities to continue our purpose, while providing valuable marketing and communications avenues for our Leaders through the simplicity of text messaging, without getting lost in social algorithms, unlawful sharing of data, privacy issues, ads or short code spams.” 

According to the company website, there have been 3 billion text messages sent with open rates of 95% and clickthrough rates of 60%.

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