There's no question that social networks are radically changing the online user experience. According to a Nielsen Online study released last week, "Member Communities", a category that includes blogging sites and social networks, is now the fourth most popular online sector. It ranks behind "Search" and "General Interest Portals", but nudging ahead of email.
In terms of global reach, here are the rankings and % of active reach:
Search 85.9%
General Interest Portals 85.2%
Software Manufacturers 73.4%
Member Communities 66.8%
Email 65.1%
That's right - if you believe this report, social networks have a greater reach and appeal than email. In fact, the report also notes that while the overall time spent online increased by 18%, time spent on Member Communities increased by 63%.
Another interesting point - one in every eleven minutes spent online is spent with Member Communities, up from one in every fifteen minutes a year ago. Apparently, the big loser in slicing up the "time spent" pie is instant messaging which isn't particularly surprising since most social networks either have an IM component or leverages an IM-like communication model.
If social networks are indeed overtaking email (even marginally), what are the implications of this shift for businesses? Here are a couple of implications to think about -
Will email be supplanted as a primary channel for reaching customers?
It's a provocative thought but I don't think this will actually happen- at least not anytime soon. For one thing, most of the social media "use cases" or "usage patterns" are still primarily personal end user oriented. Businesses are still trying to crack the code on how to leverage social media so projecting it as a channel to subsume email marketing is a reach, at best.
Here's another reason it isn't likely - according to MarketingSherpa analyst, Sergio Balegno, email and social networks are really complementary channels. Email is great at targeted, permission based communication while social media is great at extending reach or coverage.
"Email becomes the channel for social media to communicate with the market and social media becomes the channel for email to extend its reach"
How will the "Member Communities" model, based on relationship, monetize this advantage in terms of advertising?
Google has introduced the idea of a "smarter" ad targeting audiences based on not only profile information but behavioral attributes. It's what they call "interest based" ads. Will social network sites continue down this path with targeted ads based on the vast amount of information they have on you? Think about it - they not only have significant profile information, they also have conversations, status updates, applications/games downloaded to create very precise, targeted messaging. Since social network communities are based on trust and personal relationships, will users view it as an intrusion to their personal space if ads are based on personal conversations and activities?
Will email be supplanted? In what ways are email and social networks complementary for businesses? Let us know what you think. You can read the entire Neilsen Online Report here.
I agree with your statement that email will not be thrown to the side of the road...yet. In 10-15 years? Probably is my guess since mobile will take over anyway.
However, in terms of reach or effectiveness, I think the appropriate channel has a lot do do with demographics and where your audience is. I use social media channels to generally reach those under 35 years old. My e-newsletter primarily reaches those over 35. It all depends on where and how your audience uses technology.
I think there's an exciting future out there for email. It's always been a great "marketing glue" for sticking multiple channels together. In the future we'll see email being used in a much more focused and professional way in comparison to how it's used today. How this will work is yet to be seen. However, for email marketing to be fully replaced, we'll need to stop using it in our every day life. If we use it in our every day life it'll be used by marketers to contact us. Just like phone, post and face-to-face. Would we be brave enough to suggest that face-to-face marketing is dead?
Kat - you're absolutely correct about the right channel for the right audience. I wonder what you make of the 35-49 year old segment being the fastest growing segment for Facebook in the past year? Might this cause you to adjust your approach?
Ian - you're right that it's one thing to see more adoption for social networks, it's quite a leap to say email will get pushed aside. At least for the business world, it's too entrenched as the defacto means of communication and that's unlikely to change in the next 3-5 years
The social media forum is constantly being reinvented in hopes that information, updates, and alerts can easily be submitted over the internet for easy access and in a real-time fashion. The functionality of social media is broadening its range, resulting in more and more people signing on and connecting. One must consider, however, where we are headed. Social networks are now above email; one would not believe this trend would occur five years ago. What will keep users faithful to one type of media over another? Check out how, eZanga.com (http://www.ezanga.com), a search engine that specializes in pay-per-click advertising, has revamped social networking with their recently launched site, http://www.HopOnThis.com. Integrated rewards possibly the next best thing in the social media sphere?
I just got a copy of ePostMailer.com and I would recommend to anyone who needs to send out an opt-in email mailshot. Its the best desktop based email marketing software I have used so far.
Lisa - eZanga's integrated rewards is an example of several new approaches that will emerge to monetize search and social networks. Thanks for sharing.
James - thanks for sharing your thoughts
Andre,
You're not the only one dupped by this research, which misleadingly uses email and "web mail" synonymously. Adweek ran with it as well.
Nielsen was good enough to acknowledge that their claim was misleading in a comment posted they posted to my blog:
http://spinfluencer.blogspot.com/2009/03/social-networking-overtaking-email.html
I build online newsrooms for organizations and am always on the look out for data about the effectiveness of the different social media communications channels, and am I firm believer that online newsrooms, email and search engine optimization are the most important channels to concentrate on first.
When I saw this research, my eyebrows raised. But after consulting a seasoned market research pal, I discovered that the "social networks overtake email" claim is extremely misleading.
Best regards,
Eric Schwartzman
founder
http://www.ipressroom.com
Eric - thanks for your thoughts here. Actually as I finished publishing my post, I did suspect that the report probably referred to webmail access, although it didn't call it out explicitly...which I regard as a failing of the report. That said, it's important not to miss out on the shift that is taking place - the prominence of social networks is rising and the trend is not slowing.
As i mentioned in my post - email is not going away anytime soon but the implications of social networks increasing influence will have a critical impact on how businesses reach their customers.