Top Spam Competitors

Some of the more popular email alternatives are becoming bigger players and may pose a threat to compete directly or indirectly with one of our favorite marketing communication tools. The rise of IM, mobile marketing, RSS and desktop apps question the future flexibility of email and have creative ways of 'Spamming' the message out.

According to Marketing Sherpa's Email Marketing Metrics Guide 2005, "Worries about spam for Instant Messaging are growing, but there are barriers to IM spam, or SPIM.

IM list access is controlled by the company. If you want to makret to a large number of buddies you must talk to AOL first.

It is still uncommon for corporations to have standardized IM nomenclature. Unlike email, spimmer cannot use one address to spray messages to a group.

There is no mechanism for using op-out permission in IM. Users must actively decide to accept a new buddy capable of sending a message. However, there have already been cases of fraudulent 'robot buddies' that steal buddy lists and spread virally while recording sing-in names."


With the rise in use of IM in the corporate environment you have to wonder how far off are the new nuisances such as SPIM and when are the robots really coming?