There are no two ways about it: you're either a social networker or you're not. With MySpace and Facebook leading the charge, there are more ways to interact with your fellow man, woman and presidential candidate than ever before. While some people are convinced such networks are either for pure social self-promotion or a harboring ground for child molesters, almost 200 million folks have accounts on MySpace, accounting for big business with advertisers.
With this comes a new way to "talk" with people as these programs allow for communication within the program itself and thus, no need for an external email application. As networks become more ingrained as part of the everyday lives we lead, the question is how will this change the way we currently conversate, especially with email. (We just figured out email and now we have figure out something new, you say? Welcome to the new age of talking, where a face-to-face is becoming a way of the past. Need an explanation? Just IM me or shoot me a text,)
We thought this piece on C-Net this week regarding social networks replacing traditional email was interesting in that it's another voice sounding the death-knell on the email industry. Combine that with this head-scratcher on RSS we read this week (click here) and everyone seems like they're down on email. Ultimately though, what does these articles mean?
Absolutely nothing.
For most of us email marketers, the most important thing that can happen is that companies continue to realize the benefits of email. While there's definitely a place in the world for social networks and other forms of person-to-person talking, do you think a Fortune 500 company is going to use that to get their message across? Probably not. I am a member of both MySpace and Facebook and I would throw my laptop out the window if I started getting marketing messages. It's great that some high-schoolers were interviewed for that C-Net piece, but I'd put money in the bank that they will have to use emails to correspond with peers at some point and that it will be their primary way to communicate with other friends - guaranteed.
Email is not going away, because it simply can't. If you have an idea of what will realistically replace it, drop me an email at josh@sendlabs.com.
While you're at it, wanna join me on LinkedIn?
Josh Nason handles new business and marketing for SendLabs.com, the leader in hosted email marketing software that allows users to deploy, manage and design their own email campaigns. He is still awaiting friend requests from Barack Obama, Bono and Fidel Castro.