Here's the latest edition of the B2.0 Weekly Update podcast:

On Sunday, the Obama campaign used Twitter to inform followers that their VP pick would be announced sometime between now and the start of the Democratic convention.

The way that this is being handled is causing significant buzz in the marketplace…

http://my.barackobama.com/vp

The interesting thing here is the offer the campaign is making. If you want to be among the first to hear who Obama's tapping to be his vice president, you can sign up to receive a text message or email notification. Below is the sign up for to receive an email notification:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/firsttoknow

There are a few takeaways here. The use of text messaging to instantly communicate information of value to those you wish to engage creates opportunities to learn more about them. And by giving people the option of whether to email or text them, you learn which method of communication they prefer.

And just as the Obama campaign offered people interested in being the "first to know" that opportunity if they provided contact information, you can do this as well. A good business example of this is what Borders has done. You can sign up for their free Borders Rewards club by providing some basic contact information. By doing this they send out emails with discount coupons of up to 40% off. That was nice but it was still inconvenient having to print the coupon off and bring it into the store. Sometimes I'd be in the store when I would receive the email and had no way to use it. But then Borders started offering text message coupons, and all you have to do is show the text message to the cashier and they would immediately apply the discount. I went with the text message offer, while I'm sure those who prefer email stuck with that.

So you may want to think of ways you can entice customers and prospects to let you communicate with them via text messages and/or email. It's cost effective and keeps you instantly connected. And more and more people will initially read their messages on mobile devices. But it's important to let them make the call on how they want to be reached, which is why the Obama campaign was smart to let people sign up for either text or email option.

Also capturing contact information is as easy as creating a basic web page that is integrated into a service like Zoho CRM or Microsoft Office Live Small Business. For example Zoho, free for the first three users in a company, has a function that allows you to generate a contact form that pushes the information submitted on your web page directly into your Zoho CRM account. So you'll have a central location for the contact information you'll collect, which is critically important. You can also set up auto-responders to let people know you received their information.

One last thing, don't let typing stop you from sending text messages and using sites like Twitter. You can use a free service like Jott, that will actually let you create and send text messages by creating a voice message. Your voice message will get translated into a text message and will be sent out on your behalf.