It seems as if every shipping company out there is now sending out several e-mail blasts sending holiday greetings to all and asunder. And in many cases several people from the same company are sending these out as well. Today I fought off hundreds of mails from people all over the world wishing me a happy holiday. But is sending all of these e-mail greetings around the world so wise?

If you have been thinking about doing this I would recommend three good reasons not to:

1) These messages get deleted by the vast majority of recipients. They consider it spam;

2) For those who do reply to this creates backward spam to your inbox; and

3) If people see this as spam, doesn’t it paint your company in exactly the opposite picture that you want to be seen in?

I know everyone wants to wish others well this holiday season but we might all be better off with less of the holiday spam. We should reconsider whether this is a proper use of our business e-mail. And please think first of the recipient!