Is the Use of Email going down?

Are emails important these days? If a study by comScore is to be believed then the web mail usage from ages 12 through 24 has dropped appreciably! In fact, these kids may be using Social Media – facebook specifically – more than any other way to communicate. That is why Facebook, has stepped into the business of email + messaging.

The chart below shows more details from the survey.

Marketing

While comScore comes with this survey, one wonders if the days of using emails is a thing of past and if the Social Media is really the best way to handle marketing. As much as Social Media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare – are really helping in marketing and advertising, the complete truth may be different.

As per a survey by ForeSee Results, Social Media drove just 5% of the visitors to the retail websites. Promotional Emails continue to be most influential, as is search engine and even traditional advertising.

Corporate Emails

For Corporate Communications, emails continue to be the main vehicle for contacting and communicating. But is that going to be so for long?

A French IT company Atos, has come out with a new policy “Zero Email Policy”. The company has stopped all internal intra-company communications on emails. Instead, the employees will communicate via Instant Messenger and a Facebook-style interface Social Media tool.

Breton, the French finance minister from 2005 to 2007, told the Wall Street Journal he has not sent an email in the three years since he became chairman and CEO of Atos in November 2008.

“We are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching into our personal lives,” he said in a statement when first announcing the policy in Feburary. “At [Atos] we are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organizations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution.”

Not that Atos’ example will be followed by all large corporates. But if it is a successful case study, then many may follow. Specially the smart companies in the Silicon Valley. That may change a lot of things.

Is your company and are you personally, using emails as the preferred way to communicate?

(Image courtesy: Sean MacEntee)