Is social media replacing email?

Ben & Jerry's bold move dropping email in favour of social media is leading the call that social media is taking over from email as the channel that users prefer to use to communicate with brands.

And in some ways if most definitely is.

In terms of building brand, community and buzz, social media is fast becoming the channel of choice. You can have conversations here that you can't have by email. And that is the point, there are different conversations.

Email is still very strong, especially as we move away from "brand" to marketing and sales. Social media is a great place to develop a relationship with your customers, to build your soft brand messages (the real you behind the business) and create conversations. But when it comes conversions based on targeted messages, I still believe that email is a better medium.

It is also essential to remember the near ubiquity of email, both in terms of having an email address and in terms of regular usage. Facebook and Twitter are big (and amongst Ben & Jerry's target audience, very big), but there are still a lot of people not using them.

For me, social media is another channel with pros and cons. It is not an alternative to email, as it is not "the same" in terms of what it can deliver to whom. Which channel is right for you will, as always, depend on who you are trying to reach with what message.

UPDATE: it's always nice when Econsultancy agrees with you ... "Social media claims more of our attention. But email's not dead yet."

Published by: Mr Tom Barnes

Published 30th July, 2010

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