I’m reiterating a post that WebProNews wrote a couple of days ago regarding the future of emails and how it’s being impacted by social media. In this article, the author pointed out that:
People might turn more and more to social networks for casual conversations, link sharing, and things like that, but call me when your banking and all your professional communicating are done through Facebook.
I totally agree that people are more inclined to use social networks for casual and social conversations. But from a strict business standpoint, I don’t think email will be going away anytime soon, as I believe they still have a place in business and marketing, just as billboards, TV spots, and print media still do today. As he pointed out, banking through social media (a la Facebook) isn’t practical (maybe not yet) and probably not going to happen with most people, and I for one support and relate to that mentality.
I also think that there is a prevalent mentality that emails (or even using email marketing as an example) are going to continually be static while other marketing avenues are expanding and evolving. Like other marketing avenues, whether social or not, emails and email marketing will be evolving alongside other mediums, although I think it’s difficult to tell how fast or slow this evolving will transpire. Currently, email marketing is still a strong asset and factor for inbound marketing, just as social media is as well. Combining the two together, in addition to other methods of inbound marketing, make a better overall marketing infrastructure than using each medium separately by itself.
Will email be replaced by social media? I agree with the author: I don’t think so, at least not anytime soon.