Feature
The end of 2011 is near. Time to contemplate what 2012 will bring us and what won't make it to 2012. For some years now, email (born 1971) has been quite popular on the "dead list."
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently declared that email is dead. Is he right? Well, let's take a personal approach, and look at the facts from my everyday life.
A Year With Email
In 2011, I sent and received over 14,000 emails, spam not included. That's 40 emails per day, which is more than my phone calls, tweets, Facebook likes, shares, updates and chats put together.
The CMS Wire editors sent me a reminder for this article. By email. I sent them this article. By email.
I subscribed to Mr. Zuckerberg's social network and confirmed it was really me. By email. In fact, all social networks want me to confirm it's really me. By email.
LinkedIn tries to pimp its sexiness by proactively informing me about recent updates and hot topics that could interest me. By email.
Before I enter a conference call, the organizer sends me a phone number and the code. By email.
I receive invoices from social networks, SaaS providers and most of my contractors. By email.
Still Growing
Technology researchers Radicati see the number of email accounts worldwide growing from 3.1 billion in 2011 to nearly 4.1 billion in 2015. How many Facebook subscribers will Mark Z. have in 2015?
According to Nathaniel Borenstein, co-creator of MIME, this Internet standard for email is used a trillion times a day. How many Facebook "likes" are clicked a day?
Learning Opportunities
Webinar
Jun
1
How organizations can design, build and run Generative AI into the Customer Experience
Discover how to drive enhanced CX through Generative AI
Webinar
Jun
6
The Future of Social Media: Emerging Trends and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
The impact of emerging technologies like AI on social media
Webinar
Jun
7
The Building Blocks of Personalization
This webinar will explore how personalization can create powerful ecommerce shopping experience.
Webinar
Jun
13
The Future of Contact Centers with AI at the Helm
Learn how to balance human intuition and interaction with the potential uses of AI to create delightful and lasting CX
Webinar
Jun
20
3 Steps to Unlock Your Customer Data and Drive Revenue
Discover how Twilio Segment’s #1 Customer Data Platform helps implement data-driven strategies.
Webinar
On demand
AI for Marketers: Optimize Personalization Across the Funnel
Understand the benefits of utilizing AI across your entire marketing stack
Webinar
Jun
1
How organizations can design, build and run Generative AI into the Customer Experience
Discover how to drive enhanced CX through Generative AI
Webinar
Jun
6
The Future of Social Media: Emerging Trends and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
The impact of emerging technologies like AI on social media
You know why email is so strong? Because it's so easy to use. You just need someone's email address -- with that cool symbol @ -- and you send a message. Simple as that.
Of course, you need a program that sends and receives your email. Outlook, Thunderbird, Novell Groupware, whatever. And don't forget web clients Hotmail and Gmail. These tools are the true market leaders in CRM, ECM, ERP, SM, WEM, BI and most of the other IT acronyms we have invented. These tools contain all our contacts, contact moments, discussions, agreements, appointments, data and documents. God forbid something bad happens to them!
You can shut down any server in a given organization. Not many people will worry about it. But shut down the email server and you will have a user uproar on your hands that makes a riot on Cairo's Tahrir Square look like a picnic.
Closer to home: some months ago I configured our SaaS tools, social networks and such for my new colleague. Everything seemed to work fine, but somehow I couldn't get her email account started. Thus she couldn't confirm she really existed to these SaaS providers and social networks. In other words: no email, no Highrise account, no WordPress account, no Yammer account, no Harvest account. No work, no nothing!
Email isn't dead. If you don't have email, you're dead.
Power to the @!
Editor's Note: You may also be interested in reading:
