Okay, here’s a perfect example. I wanted to get in touch with this guy I play pickup basketball with on occasion, to find out what days they’re playing, etc. He’s sort of the de facto organizer. So I get his address from my brother-in-law, shoot him a message, he replies with the next game time and everything’s hunky dory. That is, until the next day when I get some “you’ve got to see this” e-mail with an attachment I can’t even open. And they keep coming the next day, and the next day, and the next day … I know I could e-mail him and be like, “Hey man, do me a favor and take me off your forwarding list,” but it just seems kind of assholish, you know. And granted, it only takes about one second and 0.00001 joules of energy (force x distance) to click delete, but it’s the principle of the thing dammit! What if I needed that extra energy down the road to pry myself out of a crashed helicopter or gouge out an assailant’s eyeballs?
Of course there’s a flipside. Shit, I really hate when I debunk the living bejesus out of my own logic. Especially in a so-called rant, or even mini-rant, because it really sucks all the hot air out of my proverbial sails. The flipside is that this indiscriminant forwarding culture is the same one that may one day benefit me quite profoundly. I won’t go into the specifics of how this might play out, but take an example like JibJab (jibjab.com). If you’ve got an e-mail address then chances are you’ve seen at least one of their uproarious little vignettes. It’s free entertainment that’s actually entertaining, yeah? But once you’re at their website, you also have the option of purchasing various items, such as JibJab posters and DVDs. I’d venture to say they’ve sold a bit of this stuff. And the whole key is that the e-mail you originally received was a) not from any JibJab marketing guru but from one of your associates, and b) that e-mail did not ask you to buy anything at all. So it’s a brilliant marketing vehicle is what I’m saying. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and best of all, it spreads like syphilis at summer camp. Viral marketing I believe is what the gurus are calling it, actually.
Right, so forget all that nonsense about not wanting Acquaintance Spam. And if you were nodding your head before, thinking, yeah! Quit sending me that feelgood garbage! Then just think about how you might, one day, leverage the power of this medium to sell your own posters and DVDs. Now all you have to do is think of something to put on them.
Cheers!