by Jimmy Marks

Happy 34th birthday, SPAM.

That’s right, the world’s first SPAM message was sent today. It was sent to 400 users on the ARPAnet, the very first version of the Internet. And, as you might guess, people who received this unsolicited message were upset about it.

Isn’t this just the way technology works, though? A broadcast medium emerges, people are interested, then more people, then someone seeks to monetize that medium. After all, someone had to pay for “Little Orphan Annie” on the radio, for “The Flintstone’s” on TV, and for “Stories about who Kim Kardashian is dating” on TMZ. So, why wouldn’t you reach out to as many as 2400 users at once?

Still, we wish no one had ever sent that first SPAM message. Why? Because:

1. It wears away at the ease-of-use of email - If you never got another SPAM message, you’d never have to add extra SPAM folders, create a “priority” inbox, buy extra virus- and malware-scanning software…you’d get messages only from people and companies you knew and used.
2. It’s dangerous – People who don’t know a friendly email from an unfriendly one can open themselves up to all kinds of problems. Forget viruses – consider phishing scams. One misplaced username and password and a person can lose their identity, their money, even their job.
3. It’s costly - varying reports state that SPAM costs us (“us” meaning “everyone in the world who uses email”) about $130 billion yearly. Consider, too, that each SPAM message has its own carbon footprint. According to this report from McAfee, the sum of all SPAM carbon could power 2.4 million U.S. homes. Couldn’t we stand to have that energy power…I dunno, anything else?
4. It damages trust – As a company that sends emails for hundreds of businesses across the country, we want people to get helpful messages with useful content. When everyone looks at every message they get with a jaundiced eye, it makes it harder for us to do our job. In a perfect world, users would subscribe and unsubscribe and we’d all get along just fine. Alas, that world isn’t coming any time soon.

So, happy 34th birthday, SPAM. Now, hurry up and die already.

That’s right, it’s DigitalMailer’s 12th year in business. What started as a few employees and a little ambition has grown into a company with multiple sites, over 170 clients and lots and lots of great stories.

Our company began shortly after the “Dot-Com Bubble” burst. In a time when others were fleeing from online services, we decided to stand our ground and fulfill our goal – helping financial institutions of all sizes move their users away from costly paper products and toward compliant, secure, sustainable electronic documents and marketing pieces. It’s this desire that has served us so well for these past twelve years, even up to this very day.

We can’t tell you how proud we are of the work our clients and colleagues have done.  We’re thrilled to be one of the most trusted names in electronic documents, online marketing, social monitoring, compliance communication and emergency response technology. When problems arise in the finance industry, we create programs that help our clients get up-to-date and compliant. Client satisfaction is always our most important goal – and that’s never going to change.

We look forward to many more years of helping clients connect, communicate, and grow. Here’s hoping you’ll join us.

We’ve been really excited by the reception we’ve had over our new SocialSentry product. Plenty of you called to talk to us about the product – how it works, how it helps, what it tracks – and we decided we should talk about it over lunch.

Thus, we’ve decided to set up a new “Brown Bag Webinar” all about SocialSentry. On Friday, February 3rd and Tuesday, February 7th, join us for one of two sessions (East and West Coast) and let us tell you all about SocialSentry. Bring your lunch!

Click here to visit our webinars page and sign up!