Today, email is still used very heavily in business and personal communications and related applications. However, the additional convenience and immediacy of new technology (especially cell phones) combined with the networking potential of the newest social media Internet networks and applications have already begun to revolutionize business marketing communications (again), as exemplified by the Obama election team's effective use of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter throughout the 2008 presidential campaign (Hempel, 2009: 93).
Social Networking as the New Marketing Media
Social networking is a significantly more effective communications media for the future of business marketing than email, although it is expected that email will continue to provide extensive business communications support and personal communications for years to come. Whereas email communications require users be at their computer terminals or relay messages to mobile devices, media such as Twitter offer an immediate text-based connection virtually anywhere. Real-time texting allows the advantage of instantaneous connection while at the same time giving the recipient the same ability to delay a response if desired, even if only momentarily. This is important because it provides the same reach as telephonic communications without requiring either a spontaneous and unprepared response or denial of the attempt at
either answering the phone or ignoring the caller).
More importantly, social networking sites now allow marketers and advertisers to follow users through virtual identities through their use of Facebook and Myspace even on remote computer terminals (Johnson, 2009: 35). That means that consumer identities and product interests are no longer tied to their home computers but potentially available to marketers perpetually, limited only by the extent to which consumers rely on social media in their online presence (Johnson, 2009: 35). According to many observers, the current level of incorporation of consumers' virtual mobile identities is still in its infancy (Hempel, 2009: 97-98). In all likelihood, the use of email for business marketing will continue to reduce its presence outside of maintaining communications with existing customer bases. Meanwhile, social network-based marketing already seems to be developing and becoming ubiquitous in its many business marketing applications even faster than email did a decade ago.
References
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Hemp, P. "Information Overload: New Research and Novel Techniques offer a Lifeline
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Harvard Business Review, Sept/09: 83-89.
Hempel, J. "How Blackberry Does It" Fortune; Vol. 160, No. 4 (2009): 92-100.
Johnson, S. "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live (in 140 characters or less),"
Time; Vol. 173, No. 23 (2009): 32-37.
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