When you have given them your IM address, they can send a message to you that appears on the
bottom of your screen, you click on IM and it asks if you want to
make them an IM "buddy".
If you click ok...then their
message appears instantly, you type a response back to
them....which they see instantly.....
Now if Bill gets on your bad list....You just go in and
delete him from your buddy list.... He cannot contact you on IM again...
You cannot
do that on your phone number, some people get new unlisted numbers,
etc., to get rid of Bill's calls, etc.
One heck of a lot of hassle. Here with IM you can dump him
permanently in an instant... He is out of your hair.
Comes Saturday night and you are stuck at home, you just click
on IM and look at your list of "buddies".
A little
light along their name shows which of them are using their computer on
the net right now...
You pick one you think would be good to talk to, click on their
name and
type in....Hi Mathew, got a minute to talk?
Mathew sees this message (limited to a couple sentences) across
the bottom of his screen...
and if he is busy ignores it...or he clicks on IM and sends a message instantly
back.. and they are into a big
conversation..
Now if there is some big news for them to discuss with friends,
he can add some friends and she can too...
Pretty soon they have a group of 5 or 6 people discussing in real time the new whatever.... Anyone of them can sign off anytime they
want to...
Any of these "Buddies" can be anywhere in the country, (or
world).
Distance means
nothing..
Let us say you are chatting up a good prospect at a singles event.
You can spend the rest of the evening chatting up a good prospect you
have met or you can say "if you give me your IM we will be able
to continue our chat later," ok? I know you
want to get back into the swing of things here.
Now you and they can get back into meeting and
mixing with people all evening and you know you will be
chatting later again.
Unlike giving out phone numbers, you have complete control of
who you respond to and you know what they want...(see a small
message) before you respond. (Or you can
decide not to respond now or even later) You can
totally delete them anytime from your IM list with the click of a mouse.
Instant messaging is going to become
even bigger then
email.
It is revolutionizing how we keep in
touch, rewriting the rules of human to human communication.
It is estimated over 150 million people around the world are using IM
and over 50% of businesses are already actively using it as a vast
improvement over email.
One of the reasons is it is
estimated that over 60% of business phone calls never reach the person
intended.
On a phone call, with caller ID they see who it is, not knowing if it
is going to tie them up for 5 minutes or an hour, they let it go to
voice mail. With "IM" they know what the call is
about.
It the message running across the bottom of the screen reads: Tom
says "Have two tickets to tomorrow nights concert, interested? you then
can consider whether to answer or not?
Tom needs to know now.... Not
tomorrow evening when you get around to
reading your email.
Let me compare it this way.. Let us say your telephone
has 20
green lights, each with a "buddys" name alongside it. When the green light is on it means they are home and
open to receiving phone calls.
So you know at a glance who you can
call and who you will have to wait a while to contact.
When one of these calls you, you know
who and exactly what they are calling
about. Before you respond. This is
exactly what IM is and how it works. It makes no difference where they live all IM
communication is free.
Email them and it may sit for a day
or more with no response.
Phone them and you may irritate them by calling at an inopportune
time. or they let it go to voice mail. even when in, or you never call
at the right time to catch them in.
With IM you send a
message only when they are in and open to calls.
For example...you can send a message that reads, Harlan says:
Calling just to chat....let me know when
open to chat, I will be on til midnight...
You can even invite others to join in the
conversation, some do this at an appointed time each week. We are
considering doing a divorce support group using IM on Sunday afternoons at 3.
You can even send pictures with
some IM services such as Yahoo and most recently, even voice....
Ebay will send you IM on when
you have been outbid etc. and there are some online gift shops (such
as MSN eshop) that will discuss with you live
what to get for mom etc., with more and more merchants get on to using IM.
Smartchild is the latest under beta
test....and it will, after signing them up as a buddy, do instant
search for you using IM and will answer plain questions
instantly, like what is the motorola stock price today? You will get
an instant answer across the bottom of your screen etc.
There is even IM video conferencing and IM
live views for individual live buddy views (with $30 cams) while you
chat.
There is an IM short hand....which we have
put together in a list for you to print out and send a copy to friends
over the net that they can print out so all learn to decipher this
acronym IM language. Go here:
http://datingagain101.com/shorthand_im.html
There are about 6 IM services you can sign up with.. Your friends have to sign up
for the same one you are on.. AOL
and MSN are the two biggees.
Here is a URL address or two that can supposedly sign you up and
make it work on all available. try http://imici.com
or http://odigo.com Otherwise we suggest
you sign up to start with MSN Hot mail to
begin.
Here is how you sign up (free) for
IM.
There are
3 sources... AOL, Yahoo, and MSN. We recommend MSN (hotmail) and you need to have
your buddies on the same one...they are not interchangeable
People
Do Not Want Your Phone Number Anymore, "IM" Is What They Want 
Sign up for 
