FB email, put a fork in it
Today Facebook quietly put a bullet in the heart of it’s email program. Instead of running mailboxes, mail to Facebook addresses now simply forwarded to the users primary email address. Color me unsurprised.
Today Facebook quietly put a bullet in the heart of it’s email program. Instead of running mailboxes, mail to Facebook addresses now simply forwarded to the users primary email address. Color me unsurprised.
Having listened to the Facebook announcement this morning, I am even more convinced that emailpocalypse isn’t happening.
Look, despite the fact that companies like Blue Sky Factory think that this means marketers are NEVER EVER going see the inside of an inbox again this isn’t the end of email marketing.
Yes, Facebook email is a messaging platform that marketers are not going to have direct, unlimited and unfettered access to. I have no problem with this. Unfettered access to a messaging platform has been abused by marketers long enough, that I heartily approve of a platform that gives real control back to the recipient.
With that being said, there are a couple blindingly obvious ways to avoid having to give users control of their own inbox.
I don’t follow many brands on twitter or facebook. Those that I do are local businesses we actually shop at. It’s been interesting watching these local groups use the social networks to market.
One is The Milk Pail Market in Mountain View. They have a reasonably active Facebook page. How have they been using social marketing?
One of the strengths of email that instant messaging lacks is asynchronous communication. With email, you send someone a message and they may or may not respond right away. Sending somebody an email means that you are not necessarily expecting an instantaneous reply. In fact, that’s the whole point of not using the phone or instant messaging. You are not expecting your target recipient to be at your beck and call.
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