It’s difficult to imagine that email was introduced to the world as a way of copying files from one computer to another. 40 years of data-bending innovation later and email has functionally evolved to include the inbox, @personalization, forwarding, and the carbon copy. Forgive my discontentment, but is that all?
I won’t discount that email has seen notable development, such as becoming more widely available, free and fast—not to mention all the storage you can possibly imagine. Though in this technological era, these qualities are a given. In fact, emails have become so frequent, prevalent, and fast that I’m tired of the clutter it proliferates.
We’ve witnessed the creation of the social network, a concept so disruptive that it has simultaneously infiltrated and constructed new ways of relating to one another. And now, social functionalities have reached the enterprise, spurring developments such as big data analytics, sales, and various management softwares. According to a few Salesforce keynotes, we’re seeing an entirely new structure taking place in business.
Email hasn’t yet found a place in this structure, and some claim that it will be surpassed. Such accusations have spawned a dichotomizing trend of email as opposed to the social network.
However, the truth is that email isn’t going anywhere. Nearly “90 million Americans access email through a mobile device and 64% check email on a near-daily basis.” Social won’t wipe out email—rather, email will become social.
Email-- meet sales, filtering, visibility and analytics. You’re much more than an inbox of limitless conversations. In fact, you’re the place where I store my most critical data. You have it all, now let’s put that data to work. Let’s be shareable, intelligent, and visible. Let’s boost collaboration and profits. Let’s save time.
We’re seeing a slew of recent innovators who are catching onto the social email swell. Streak puts sales inside your Gmail inbox, Accelo captures and shares emails across a team, and SugarCRM includes an email archiving feature.
Rather than just another buzzworthy tech trend, we are seeing an evolution of email that is changing the structure of business as we know it.
Do you think email will be revolutionized or will social networking take-over communication?
How can we leverage email data to our benefit?
How does social affect the enterprise and more importantly, us?
