Social Media Trendwatch: A Return to the Inbox

One trend I'm noticing where social media is concerned is a move back to the inbox. ClickZ columnist Stephanie Miller says that "e-mail will continue to be a hub for our social activities."

Her rationale: "[C]onsumers want to have centralized management of their friends and connections, but also because the mailbox providers - Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo - want desperately to be more central in our digital lives."

I echo her opinion as does Constant Contact, the company who recently acquired NutshellMail, an application that brings updates from major social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace right into your inbox. I've found it to be a timesaver and a way for me to stay on top of updates from friends and followers. It fits neatly into my digital lifestyle. 

Another example of the integration of email and social is Tweetbeep, a notification service that sends Twitter updates to my inbox. 

The main issue has to do with control. Aside from the fact that our inboxes tend to be very crowded, they do provide some semblance of control. It's a private space unlike Facebook et al which according to Stephanie are "public, frantic and loud." 

Years ago quite a number of Internet trend watchers said "email is dead." Today, that is hardly the case. If anything else, the inbox is becoming even more important. 

What are your thoughts about the integration of email and social media? Or, for that matter the integration of social media with other forms of marketing.

UPDATE: Here's a great article on the topic of social media and email from Practical Ecommerce, Tools to Combine Email Marketing with Social Media. There is also a webinar Tuesday, July 20, sponsored by Blue Hornet and Shoutlet, Social Email: What's New? What's Next? that might be worth attending.  

Comments

[Henry Neff]

I agree with you Paul. I have been using NutShellMail for quite some time and have found it to be a great time saver. I also use Constant Contact to manage my email newsletters and email to my mailing lists.