David Leonhardt’s SEO Marketing Express

Here is a great list of reasons why you would want to shorten your URLs.  Here is the abridged version of the list, but the link above gives a more detailed explanation, well-thought out and pretty obvious for anyone trying to spread their website by means other than links. 

• Avoid broken links in your emails/messenger text
• Save characters in your SMS
• Tell others your links via phone
• Hide your affiliate links
• Much better for audio recirdings or repeating the URL over the phone

If you want to attract attention, it helps to make them think.  I ran the following item in my Daily Dose of Happiness ezine:

RELAX

For more permanent stress-relief, paint your walls blue, green or a combination of the two.  Since these are cool colors, they can also help keep tropical homes cool.  Not recommended in Iqaluit or Hammerfest. 

A fairly straightforward little item, with a touch of cuteness at the end.

Actually, it was a touch of interaction.  You have no idea how many people pulled out the atlas to find out where Iqaluit and Hammerfest are located.  And one Norwegian subscriber even emailed me to cheer the inclusion of her country in my ezine.

Make them think.  Make them look something up, but make sure that what they have to look up is not something really important to your message, because not everybody will look it up. 

David Utter writes in Dreaming Of Search In 1994 :

Instant messaging and VoIP have begun to supplant email for regular communications anyway, a change we will lament. The best part of email is its asynchronous nature. A message sent at 9 could be answered at 10 without either party feeling intruded upon or ignored.

I agree.  A discussion requires instant communications, best by telephone of one sort or another.  But for most communication, which requires a simple one-way transfer of information, email is at least as useful, much less disruptive and far more efficient.  Plus it leaves a trail to refer back to, especially when you want to refer back to commitments you, your supplier or your customer have made.  Plus email allows you to forward information, even months later, to new players who get involved. 

Unless a discussion is required, email is by far the most effective tool we have right now.