• by brandon , June 2, 2008

A few of my fellow bloggers and I recently returned from MediaPost’s Email Insider Summit. The event was quite worthwhile and a positive experience. Our role at the Summit was speaking on the keynote panel: “Does Email Have a Future?”

One of the topics that received a lot of attention at the Summit was Email vs. Social Networks for personal and professional communication.

As of the current state of the Web, I believe that social networks will eventually overtake the role of email. In order for that to occur, however, a standard will have to be implemented among social networks in order to share data seamlessly and efficiently among social networks.

For some, social networks may seem as a somewhat "unprofessional" method of communication for a professional setting. However, let's also remember that personalization and transparency are two key issues which aid in building brands online, and the degree to which companies are transparent is increasing. This is being done largely through social networks and social media marketing initiatives, such as blogs.

When I say that social networks will be used in place of email for online, corporate communication, I do not mean that Facebook or MySpace as we know them will be utilized.

The interface for such communication via a social network would probably exist within an online interface which is, most likely, yet to be developed. The target audience for such a network will have to begin as a service without a specific target audience or specifically for corporate communication, but more importantly, not targeted specifically to a college or younger demographic.

If a social networking standard is developed, the programming standard itself could be utilized without having to have any one specific brand or web site behind it. The development of such a system could be done in a manner which allows various social networks to talk to each other and exchange information.

With those factors in mind, the "personal" and "unprofessional" perceptions of social networks will become less of a negative issue and more of an expected aspect of online communication.