News - The University of Montana

Wikipedia defines spamming as “the abuse of electronic messaging to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages.” The practice, the entry notes, “is widely reviled.”

Other definitions of spam use the words unwelcome, inappropriate and junk.

I recently wrote about the daily barrage of spam hitting campus from the outside. But what about spam from within? Can email from a campus colleague be perceived as indiscriminate, unsolicited, unwelcome, inappropriate, reviled junk?

I presume your answer is yes.

Which begs two questions: 1) Why would a campus department engage in a practice that invites scorn? And, 2) if not bulk electronic messaging, how does a campus department effectively and inexpensively communicate its offerings and events?

Why do we do it?

One reason we spam each other is obvious:  sending thousands of identical electronic messages is easy, and it doesn’t cost the sender a dime. Other reasons: The sender sincerely believes that every single recipient wants and needs to hear his or her message. The productivity output looks great (”I got our message out to 15,000 people in 5 minutes!” you tell your boss). And, I suspect, most of us simply a lack the time, skill and motivation to identify an appropriate target audience, consider their needs, produce quality messages and imagine creative delivery channels.

The tragedy of spam

Spamming may be free to the sender, but the cost is steep for the University. It goes far beyond the real monetary costs of bandwidth usage and data storage. I’m talking about the abuse of people’s time, attention and trust, and the lost opportunities for future constructive communication.

When messages we receive from “the University” are consistently impersonal, irrelevant and overwhelming in numbers, we stop paying attention. All future communication is compromised. Regaining the trust and attention of our audience grows increasingly difficult.

Internal spam is a classic “tragedy of the commons” scenario. The individual department benefits in the short run by using a community resource to successfully reach 1 out of 1,000 customers, while the University suffers the long-term consequences of 999 disenchanted (and increasingly disengaged) customers out of every 1,000.

 New rules

An anti-spam policy might curb negative behavior, but such a policy would not address the bigger issue:  how do we communicate effectively with our stakeholders? We need a new awareness and appreciation for what it means to communicate effectively in the Web 2.0 world. And we need to adopt more sophisticated strategies and technical solutions.

Here are six rules that would move us in the right direction:

1. Provide a remarkable product or service. You will cultivate a passionate audience who will do much of your communication work for you. Mundane and mediocre doesn’t compete well for attention and doesn’t travel far in social and professional networks.
2. Communicate well. I mean really well. Only communicate the very most important things. Stay focused. Keep it simple. Tell compelling stories. Make people laugh or cry and they will pay attention and remember.
3. Invest money. Recognize that communication is the most important thing you do. Hire talented writers, designers, speakers and communication strategists. Be willing to pay for ad placements, quality website design, media development and professional publications. Don’t hire your nephew at minimum wage to design your website. You will get what you pay for.
4. Make your information easy to find. Make your online content is available through RSS subscription. Optimize your online search results. Participate in online social and professional networks.
5. Communicate at appropriate times and in relevant context. Amazon does this well (you just bought book “A” and they immediately (timing) let you know that you might also be interested in book “B” (relevant)). Learn to recognize when someone has taken an action that invites related communication.
6. Seek permission to communicate with people, and never abuse the privilege they have given you to interrupt them with your message. Even opt-in mailing lists can become spam if you get greedy. Provide opportunities for your audience to tell you whether your communication is effective. And listen to them.