Email Spam Happens All Too Often
Posted by Neville Hobson
Kevin Dugan recounts an experience he had at his local coffee shop regarding his mobile phone number:
[…] my barista encouraged me to sign up for information on future promotions and events.
She told me to write down my cell phone or, if I was willing, my email.
This struck me as odd. Personally I’d hand over an email address before I’d give over my cell phone number. My barista noted that most customers don’t consider a quick text (a temporary message passing through their phone) to be as intrusive as an e-mail (a permanent, official message clogging up their inbox).
I’ve not experienced that here in the UK but it’s surely only a matter of time before you see something similar happening, for a reason similar to that which Kevin cites.
But would I actually give out my mobile phone number in such a case?
If it were a coffee shop I didn’t know, or one of the rather anonymous chains like Starbucks, Costa or Pret, it’s unlikely unless I felt I could trust them with that information.
I find an email address much easier to give out on demand because I have an unlimited supply of one-time or disposable addresses that are wholly apart from my own email addresses, thanks to OtherInbox.
So if a business decides to email me after they said they wouldn’t, or deluges me with marketing spam, I can comfortably ignore it all if I used a disposable address.
Sadly, such email-spam things happen all too often. No trust there.
The trouble with mobile phone numbers is that disposable numbers such as my email example don’t really exist as far as I know: I can’t just make up a number on the fly as I can with email addresses.
But maybe none of this really matters depending on your generation, as Kevin notes with some US behaviour stats:
Media Post [notes that] “52% of Millennials strongly appreciate communication via cell phone or text message and 55% said the same about social networking sites. This compares with the General Population at 38% and 39%, respectively.”
Bottom line is that yesterday’s approaches are working less effectively today and they aren’t going to work at all tomorrow.
I agree with Kevin’s conclusion. Trust’s important, though. Maybe the younger you are, the more willing you are to trust.
About the Author: Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology. Neville is a UK-based communicator, blogger and podcaster. He helps companies use effective communication to achieve their business goals. Visit Neville Hobson's blog: NevilleHobson.com.