Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had announced that email is dead. At the launch of the social network's new messaging platform, he had said "we don't think a modern messaging system is going to be email", and that the new system was "not email".
Email has come a long way from the first message sent by programmer Ray Tomlinson across a network back in 1971. the number of email accounts worldwide will grow from 3.1bn in 2011 to nearly 4.1bn by 2015 according to Technology market researchers Radicati.
However the Email use is lower among teenagers, Young people aged 12-19 are using email less, according to comScore. Social tools communicate slightly more in the open, they create ambient knowledge and ambient awareness for others who are not even in the conversation. Emails are different. You receive a series of messages, you hold them in the inbox and have to move, delete or act on every one. Whereas with flow tools the flow moves past you whether or not you actually open the messages."
While the battle lines have been blurred and peaceful coexistence has ended between email and social media, the real war is for consumer data – and eventually it will be the consumer who decides the real winner.
Both use of communication are useful in business, emails have a sense of professionalism and doesn’t give out as much detail as social networking does. However quicker and easier responses can be done through social media which makes it sometimes favourable.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15856116
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2011/11/28/ben-hatton-email-and-social-media-are-battling-it-out-92534-29851925
I personally don't see the email disappearing any time soon. To me at least, email is different, I usually use the email to write more formal messages. Besides, if you wanted to use your Facebook account to email everyone and you had to email your boss and he is not your friend in Facebook... you are in trouble!
ReplyDeleteI think that E-mail will not disappear unless social networking sites somehow adapt to make their email services more formal and professional. I could not see myself writing an e-mail on Facebook to a company about a matter such as a job. However, I do agree that e-mail use has decreased as I myself use social networking sites to send emails rather than hotmail or instant messenger services as I used to use. I find that it is a lot quicker and useful to email on Facebook as I have access to a lot more information about my friends and because I spent so much time on Facebook!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I use e-mails less now because of the social networking aspect, I still believe e-mails are important if you want to send a more formal message. I use e-mail to apply for jobs, and this is still the way lots of people apply for jobs. However, when sending messages to your friends, then with social networking this is now much easier. So to summarise email for more formal writing, job applying etc and social networks for quick messages to your friends.
ReplyDeleteFor an organisation trying to kill of email, Facebook have a funny way of going about it. With Facebook, everyone can have a free @facebook.com email address with which they can receive email and interestingly, send email to non-Facebook users (http://on.fb.me/uevNiu).
ReplyDeleteSome companies, however, are taking things more seriously. Atos, the biggest IT company in Europe, is pushing to stop all internal emails within the next 18 months (http://tgr.ph/tLXS2u). Thierry Breton, CEO, believes far too much time is being wasted with pointless messages and only 10% of their 200 emails per user per day is pertinent to their job! Mr Breton attests that "Emails cannot replace the spoken word." yet interestingly suggests text messaging as an appropriate alternative (http://on.wsj.com/vEXtb3).
I can agree that excessive email can be down right damaging to productivity and at my last job I received far in excess of 200 emails per day and keeping up with current policies and filtering important content was a task all to itself. In contrast, at another of my former employers internal social networking tools were being actively sought to try and stem the tide of sensitive corporate information leaking onto public websites as employees tried to get information to each other in the most efficient way possible.
Atos, assuming it goes through with it's plan, will be an interesting casestudy for the future. While it may seem prudent to trim the 90% of useless emails from users inboxes the question remains how will employees discover the potentially critical information that was contained within the other 10%? Equally some portion of the "unimportant" mail may be essential to business relationships; while I dislike emails about kittens, some people find them an essential method to keep communication channels open.
Without careful consideration and appropriate methods to converse in business, the fall of email could have disastrous consequences however, I suspect, as one of the earliest uses of connected computers, email, in one form or another (I'm looking at you Facebook), will be with us for decades to come.
What i have noticed is that i check my Facebook messages a lot more than i check my email accounts. i think one of my email accounts has something like 20,000 unread messages...MADNESS !!..you know i am not reading that ! whereas my Facebook message may have about 3 unread messages which are deep in the pile somewhere. Facebook email address has now made it easier because people can now send you messages directly from their email account to your Facebook account. So just like email began to replace letters social media may possibly do the same thing to email.
ReplyDeleteBoth email and social network has their own unique essence, so I certainly don’t perceive the use of email as being ‘dead’. Well not yet, nowadays it’s all about integration, if you look at the TaoBao vs eBay (china) blogs in which I wrote, it shows a distinct comparison between the non-integrated company eBay (china) and the integrated company TaoBao. TaoBao use of Instant Messenger (IM) compared to eBay (china’s) traditional emailing system allowed TaoBao to gain 86% of the e-commerce market place sector, blowing eBay (China) out of the water. So in the end I feel that email, still has a long way to go, but I have to agree with Mr Zuckerberg to some extend and say that the end is near...
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ReplyDeleteYes i defiantly think emails have sense of professionalism especially when it comes to applying for future jobs.
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