Jett,
I think by IM, you mean Instant Message. We have that at work and can stay logged onto one another and communicate all day.
What we have here is "in-game chat", forum posts, wall posts (you go to someones profile page and in the lower right area you can leave a message on their wall), and then if you "friend" someone, i.e: send them a friend request and they accept or vice versa, you can then send them email type messages and receive same.
Welcome to the best golf site in the world!
SM