In part 1 of my entry on Twitter and MMA dojos that can be found by clicking here, I explained three easy ways to apply Twitter. My main focus was on promoting and marketing from an owner/instructor perspective. Here’s the list I provided but just note I elaborate in the original post so be sure to read that first.

Benefits of Twitter in the dojo

1) If I want to make announcements about a canceled class,
2) To promote a sign-up special I might consider offering the public, I can post that on Twitter
3) Twitter can provide micro-interactions with my community

I’ll expand on a couple more from the original post after some references to what Twitterfone is.

Now, ALL this can be done even simpler using an awesome service from the folks over at TwiiterFone. Providing updates to the community can’t be any easier; literally all you do is make a phone call, you’ll be prompted to leave a message, speak and then hang up. The message is converted to text and posted on your Twitter account. The link is also provided so that the viewing user can play back the audio.

If you can handle the shaky cam, this guy gives a quick demo on TwitterFone.

This blog post references some similar services. I’m giving Jott a wirl but still have to give it some time. I feel that a service like this is great for those of us who travel and train. If I found a great place to train while on travel I can simply call it in. If I have an emergency as an instructor and can’t access a computer, I can just use my cell phone to call in and make the announcement to the students. Here’s an example of my tweet from which I used Twitterfone to call it in.

Benefits continued…

4) Announce guests so students will not miss out. I’ve often seen in dojos like AKA or Cahill’s where practitioners of their respective styles will come and just participate in the session or even provide instruction. As a student, I definitely do not want to miss those days as it provides techniques that others potentially use around the world.
5) Provide any feedback post workout. Perhaps you had something philosophical come to mind only AFTER practice is over. How to get that thought to your students? Call up Twitterfone and the students learn even outside the dojo.

I really don’t know how it could get any easier so there’s no excuse for you owners and instructors to save some time. One thing I’m curious to know is whether these services can be used for the blind? Being flashed based I’m assuming that the readers that are available do not work so great with flash. If there’s anyone out there who has text-to-speech (aka readers) sotware that they can lend me for testing on this, that would be great. If anyone can use a service like this its definitely those who are visually impaired.