Last Friday I received StrongMail’s newsletter, StrongMail Advisor. One of the items that immediately caught my attention was titled “The Convergence of Email and Social Media is Coming”. I know, I’m often blogging about this but, hey, it’s one of the things this blog is about.
The article refers to Gartner’s recent predictions that “by 2014, social networking services will replace email as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users.”
You might remember that I already posted about this and wasn’t very friendly for Gartner.
Had a bad day? Was really shocked? Don’t remember but I still stand behind what I posted back then. In fact, I even found it necessary to comment on a blog post regarding the Gartner predictions on Emarketer.com. OK, maybe I was a bit too unfriendly. I apologize.
Back to the post on StrongMail’s blog as I received it in my inbox. StrongMail’s Kristin Hersant says that the findings of Gartner “well might be true, for the 20% that need to collaborate; however, it in no way replaces the need for bi-directional communication”. They are nicer than I am.
You might think now “of course StrongMail is elaborating on this, it’s an email marketing company”. I hope you think that. It means you don’t take everything for granted, I like that.
However, let’s look at the arguments because facts are more important than fiction. And now I’m going to quote StrongMail: “Anyone who engages in a debate over which channel is superior is approaching this from the wrong angle. Not only do both channels complement each other from a marketing perspective, they are significantly more powerful when used together than either channel alone”.
I rest my case. You can read the rest of the post here.
And, by all means, if you don’t agree, please comment.
Update October 2015: StrongMail is now StrongView and has merged with Selligent
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