Commentary
Tynt CEO: At Least Five Advantages Email Has Over Social
- by David Goetzl @dgoetzl, December 7, 2011
In his Insider Summit keynote address, Tynt CEO Derek Ball offered five reasons why email has an advantage over social media.
--It’s “asynchronous,” meaning time is not necessarily of the essence. An email received waits for the recipient and vice versa.
--Email is more personal than, say, Facebook or Twitter, which Ball referred to as “broadcast platforms.” “Most of what comes into your email is very personal and tuned to you,” he said.
--It is also very trackable with data on open rates and other behavior, while it’s “infinitely flexible” – there’s no need to build a following or “friend” people or join a group.
--And, Ball said, it is “decentralized.” There is no big brother – no central control. Facebook may change a rule and frustrate millions – email really has no rules.
We believe that over time we will witness a re-defining of terms. Facebook and Twitter will become recognized not as social media but as “social media networks”. They will also be viewed under the banner of “public social media”, while communications through email, text messages, phone and even face-to-face conversations will become recognized to Derek Ball's point as “private social media”. Marketers will accept that both the public and the private are incredibly important in building a brand. It won’t be an issue of which is better or more effective but rather a matter of the specific objective we are trying to achieve at the moment.