Will Social Media Kill the Email Star?

Social media is the next big thing. So much so, that some online gurus are predicting the death of email in favour of social media and social networking. It is said that the ‘traditional’ communication channels, namely email and instant messaging, are becoming obsolete and no longer fulfil the needs of online users. So, what are the needs of the Social Media generation? One of the trends identified by www.trendwatching.com is the concept of ‘nowism’. This trend translates into society’s requirement for instantaneous information from multiple channels. Although the requirement for ‘nowsim’ has been clearly established, a consolidated tool that provides for instantaneous information across all communication channels has not yet been developed.

Yes, ‘nowism’ is highlighted by social media, but this medium alone does not address the vast array of requirements that fall under ‘nowism’. Nielsen recently published a study in which they found that consumers of social media were also the highest consumers of email. In the United States, email usage grew by 21% in 2009 and social media by 31% during the same period. Email is now the anchor for business communications and with the rise of mobile email devices, the growth is set to continue for many years to come. The latest report “China Mobile Internet Market Survey in 2009 Q4” issued by Analysys International, shows that the subscribers of China Mobile Internet has touched 205 million. China Mobile accounts for 69.07% market share, China Unicom and China Telecom accounts for 27.20% and 3.73% respectively.

Gartner predicts that 20% of organisations will be using social media and networking tools as their key communication medium by 2014 - that leaves 80% using email and traditional communication methods. Let’s take a moment to imagine a corporate world where social media is used in replacement of email communication... There are the obvious advantages of transparent communication between employees:

• the medium encourages collaboration amongst its users,


• the information is never lost as it remains in the ‘cloud’,


• interactions are instantaneous and lag times between responses virtually eliminated,


• Spam no longer menaces inbound communications to your profile (although social media spam is on the rise).

One of the concerns around using social media, at the expense of email, is the blurred boundary between business and personal profiles of users. An email identifies you by a signature and domain, distinguishing between business and personal communication, whereas a social media profile may include information that that is inappropriate in a professional environment. In addition, do you want to share your personal information with everyone? If you drop your car off at a panel beater, would you want your client to receive your status update in this regard?

Social Media uses email as its primary promotional medium. You require an email address to join any social network and all notifications around activity on your profile are sent to your email address. Is a collaboration of the two mediums therefore not the answer to the two arguments? Google Buzz seems to think so. With the ability to share information publicly or privately, integrate messages with your email, take note of real time updates and connect with other social networking sites, it presents itself as the answer to all. All companies wish to increase employee productivity and as Robert Scoble blogs, “an application that allows a spam-free in-box in which e-mail, SMS, RSS, IM, voice, and video - even “tweets” if you like - can co-exist” may do just that.

Social media may just be the best supporting act to the Email Star !

Nicola Els
Head of eBilling
www.striata.com