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Is Email Dead?

October 15th, 2009 by Erin Posted in Business, Small Business, Twitter | No Comments »

There have been a lot of rumblings lately about email.

People say that with the invention of Google Wave and rise in social media – email has died a slow death.

The philosophy is this:

According to Jessica Vascellaro at the Wall Street Journal, we still use email – but not the way we used to.  It wasn’t that long ago when we would log on and off the Internet – in turn checking our email periodically throughout the day.

But that isn’t the case anymore.

Now, we’re always connected either through Facebook, Twitter or some form of instant messaging.

Put it this way. Let’s say you want to catch a movie with a friend. You send him an email – and wait. Two hours later, still no response. As you get ready to shoot off a second email to your friend – or in fact pick up the phone to call him – you see on your Facebook mobile app that your friend is indeed sick with the flu (H1N1?) – and is at the doctor’s office.  Your friend has, in a sense, answered your email via a Facebook status update.

Ok. I get it.

Social media has taken the place of email to a certain extent.

But let’s not forget how many folks out there – hardworking lawyers, investors, software developers, accountants, small business owners – who find themselves composing and responding to emails several hours a day. I, myself, am one of those people.

Email is not dead in the working business world. In fact, it’s alive and well.

WSJ’s Vascellaro points it out herself, writing that email continues to grow. In August 2009, 276.9 million people used email across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to Nielsen Co., up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008.

Business professionals simply don’t communicate with each other via social media or IM.  In fact, many employers – roughly 54% - ban social media sites at work.

Will Google Wave change the way we communicate with colleagues and friends?

Probably so.

But in the meantime, let’s not get carried away and cast off email before it’s past its prime.

I like my Yahoo and Gmail accounts – and I’m not ready to give them up just yet.

 Tags: end of email, small business email, social media and email, social networking at work