Is Email Dying?

Some would say that email is being replaced; it has peaked - RSS feeds, social networking, online file storage & URL truncation (TinyURL and Snurl) are all contributors to its demise.

Email is a “catch-all” for every type of communication. What has happened is it has split into more functional technologies: RSS feeds replace list servers, instant messaging replaced the instant communication and social networking replaced the distribution lists.

There are many applications that can be used to send someone a private file without using email - Google Docs, DropBox, SugarSync, ADrive, Flip Drive, Flickr, Picassa, Zoho, etc. Also, all of these programs provide you with more storage space than you could ever use, they allow for version control, give you networked backup, web access to your files from any computer with an internet connection on the planet and let you publish documents and share them with whomever you like.

Twitter, Plurk and other microblogging tools are great ways to send quick notes people and social networking applications (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) are far more advanced messaging services than our ancient email friend.

One of the latest statistics reports out of the Nielson camp states that communication through social networking is outnumbering emails sent. Nevertheless, the numbers of emails sent haven't drastically reduced.

With all that said, I can confidently say that email is far from a dying breed. I think I can convince you with one simple rhetorical question: Do you invite someone to lunch by e-mail or Twitter?

The realities of Social Media marketing – it’s not so simple

Everyone from Ashton Kutcher to the average Joe is looking to utilize Social Media as part of a personal or brand marketing strategy. Social media programs have become legitimate marketing tools, providing an effective communications channel. The problem is that these strategies require a great deal of resources to maintain. It’s also very difficult (without a trained Social Media Specialist) to find the ROI in a world so intangible.

Creating corporate blogs, Twitter accounts, and Facebook implementation programs are a few of the many possibilities, and even still there are many more options for marketing teams looking for new bang from their PR buck, but there is no magical formula that consistently works – nor is running a viral marketing campaign as easy as some may think.

I came across these “Five Things You Need to Know About Social Media Marketing and PR” over at the PageOne PR blog; I think the beauty is in its simplicity:

1. Social media requires a willingness and readiness to engage
2. Your audience might not naturally pay attention
3. Social media never stops
4. Social media requires A LOT of planning
5. Social media is everyone's responsibility

Friendsourcing: it’s happening more and more

We’re familiar with outsourcing - sending our tasks or whatever to totally outside people. We’re familiar, too, with crowdsourcing - asking the world to answer questions for ourselves. In either case, these methods are generally going to people who we trust marginally, perhaps only because that’s their job (outsourcing) or because we hope that correct answers will bubble to the top (crowdsourcing).

The mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have helped to evolve a new strain of crowdsourcing called friendsourcing.

Friendsourcing is the act of finding help with business or personal projects through friends and it may just be the next big thing. After all, “trust” is an important factor in just about any transaction. And who else to trust better than your long time, faithful friends, right?

2009: The Rise of Social Media

I can recall when Robert Scoble the famous American blogger best known for his blog, Scobleizer had a few thousand followers on Twitter he was king and it was a big deal. Now Twitter is 100 times more popular and Ashton Kutcher, or aplusk as he likes to call himself, has more than 2 million followers (he is currently the TwitKing… or KingTwit ;)

Okay, so I’ve taken a cheap shot at Ashton (in all fairness, he seemed like a cool guy on CNN last week) and you’re wondering where I’m going with this. Well, my point is that this is the year of Social Media. In 2009, the growth of nearly every aspect of Social Media continues to be enormous and it shows no sign of slowing down.

Let’s continue to use Twitter as our prime example and look at some astonishing statistics. Twitter grew at a swift, monthly rate of 77 percent from February to March and by 1,382 percent year over year! According to Nielsen, Twitter attracts nearly 7 million unique visitors each month. At that pace, Twitter will have almost 100 million visitors by this time next year - Woooowzaaa!

Finally, for all of you skeptics that think Twitter is just a phase, let’s look at the big picture: Nielsen’s latest online research shows that social networking is now more popular than email. According to the study, 66.8% of Internet users use social networks, while only 65.1% use email.Remember when we had all of those cynics who refused to open a Facebook account? Well they eventually did.Are you still holding out on Twitter? Believe me, you’ll give in sooner or later…