iClickNation.com

Social bookmarking links and tell-a-friend forms are two of the most popular tools that marketers use to seed their campaigns. For example, if you like this article, you can bookmark it using one of the social bookmarking icons below or click on the envelope button to email it to a friend (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Although these two methods are quite effective, I think there might be room for one more opportunity: instant messaging (IM).

IM can be utilized as a more efficient form of the tell-a-friend option. This technique not only reaches its target quicker, but it also can’t be stopped by spam filters.

Nowadays, people are using IM for more than just conversations. Instead of using email, friends are now sending quick “check this out” link via IM. Twitter and Pownce members are also engaging in this quick form of link sharing.

Although not everybody will want to engage in a conversation each time they find an interesting link, there are instances where this could prove quite useful.

So how would it work? I’m glad you asked. After running across an interesting article, you’d simply click on a logo associated with your IM of choice (such as MS, AOL, Google, and Yahoo). From there the widget would launch the selected IM application with the appropriate link and intro text already populated into the dialog box. You simply choose the friend you want to forward it to and click send. That’s it. The seed has been planted.

So who should develop this tool?

Personally, I think a company such as Meebo.com would be wise to take on this task. A simple widget can quickly secure them a spot on thousands of blogs and microsites.