Fueled by the “Feed Me: Bite Size Info for a Hungry Internet†panel at SXSW, several bloggers and reporters have joined a discussion that ponders whether social media, news feeds and lifestreaming are replacing traditional email. “We are all in the process of creating e-mail 2.0,” David Sacks, founder of business social network Yammer said, reported the BBC.
To be sure, social media services like Twitter, Yammer and Facebook are creating new value and interactions. Utility often overlaps and extends beyond email.
But replacing email? That notion is highly misguided. Why? MG Siegler at Venture Beat was on to something when he said “A lot of these services even look a lot like email.” Beyond look and feel, consider this: Every social media service in existence defaults to email. Every single one. Every single social media service I know of relies on email for account creation, basic communication, and to drive engagement, particularly with the most disloyal users — because email is the default.
By definition, social media networks are not replacing email, but rather they are subservient to email. Email is the ultimate social network, and email blows away all others.
David Sachs has something a tad different than Twitter and Facebook. Yammer works with users of a single corporate domain, making it more of an email-replacement tool than the other services. It serves him well to raise awareness of this unique attribute of Yammer, especially since one of the existing corporate email giants will probably scoop up Yammer before it becomes too much of a threat. Why shouldn't the SaaS success enjoyed by Salesforce.com and its ilk happen with corporate email? He got it right with Paypal. My guess is that Yammer-like features inside the firewall will be very attractive to companies like IBM and Oracle, among others.
We're experimenting with yammer inside my company. Haven't found the perfect
fit yet. Email still rules by far.
This might not replace email, but it could replace email addresses:
http://domainsynergies.blogspot.com/2009/04/are…
This might not replace email, but it could replace email addresses:
http://domainsynergies.blogspot.com/2009/04/are…