Email Is DEAD. So What's Next? (#SWChat)

Introduction

It won't come as a surprise to you that talking about the death of email is my favourite subject. When we talk about workplace productivity, email is the biggest blocker to being efficient with most of us spending between 3-6 hours a day purely reading and sending email.

Back in September 2008 I made a prediction, that email as we know it today will no longer exist in 10 years time (see The Death Of Email by 2018 ) and when I did I was literally laughed at by most people.

Time Remaining of my prediction:

Today no one seems to be laughing.

In fact quite the opposite. Companies like Atos have already stated that they will ban internal email by 2014 and other comapnies are following suit. There are even social products on the market today that are integrating email into them. Is this the beginning of the end of email?

On today's live panel debate it was the general consensus that email is not dead today, however we do need to start addressing the behaviours in how we use email. Stopping cc, bcc, and reply all were some of the key messages (see full playback below).

One thing is clear, the next generation coming through are not brought up on email but instead on social applications like Facebook and Twitter. These behaviours they are bringing into business and is why today we are beginning to see a communication gap between traditional and social which needs to be addressed.

There are still 6 years to go on my prediction of the death of email as we know it, a prediction that people are now debating rather ridiculing.

So before you send your next email STOP, and THINK, is there a better way - a more SOCIAL way of communicating your message.

Event Questions 

Q1) Email is dead. Agree / disagree?
Q2) A week without email. What would be the real impact?
Q3) Is integrating email with social tools into a single platform the next big thing in comms?
Q4) What email etiquette would you advise others when communicating with you?
Q5) If starting a new company with 1000 employees, what comms tool(s) would you use internally today?

(watch video panel playback below of these questions being debated)

Related Articles

• The Death Of Email By 2018 - via @davidchris
• Time To Kill Email [video playback] - via @HuffPostLive
• I Banned All Internal Emails At My Company for A Week - via Forbes
• Ten Top Tips: Why Ditching Emails Is The Way To Go - via Management Today
• What To Do When...You Are Caught In An Email War - via Karen Adamedes
• Why Atos' Zero Email Policy Does Not Make Sense - via Grexit

Spreecast Social Video Channel

Participants: Greg Lowe (from car); Jenn Emerson; Luis Suarez; Richard Rashty

Producer: @LizCpher

Recording: (watch playback embedded below)

Useful #SWChat Links

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Next Generation Communications (#SWChat)

Thanks to everyone who took part in this weeks Social Workplace Twitter Chat event (#SWChat).

Next Generation Communications?

We are in the no-mans land of communications. The younger generation preferring social style of communication, but businesses still primarily using traditional forms like email. Is it time for businesses to start thinking about the Next Generation Communications to help bridge the gap between social and traditional, and how should it be approached?

Event Statistics

• No. of Tweets = 1100
• No. of Contributors = 89
• Reach = 231,000
• No. of impressions = 2,300,000

Summary

Full Transcript Report via @hashtracking

Questions Asked

Q1) Email is on it's way out - Agree / Disagree?

Q2) How many hours a week do you think you spend on email vs social comms for your company?

Q3) Should companies follow Atos' example of phasing out employee to employee comms?

Q4) Are social comms (e.g. IM, Twitter, FB etc...) really more efficient than email?

Q5) What advice would you give to a company making that transition from traditional to social comms?

Q6) What are the barriers for a company to move to the Next Generation form of comms?

Q7) In 140 characters or less, define a sales pitch to your CEO why they should consider phasing out email e/ee to e/ee comms

Shared Reference Material

• What Is Your Communications Transitional Strategy? via @davidchris
• Atos intends to drive staff to 'inbox zero' by 2013 via ZDNET
• The Death Of Email By 2018 via @davidchris
• Talent Management When the Old Outnumber the Young via HBR
• Social Media vs. Email — Are We Asking The Right Questions? via @theMaria
• Technology doesn't engage people, people do via @bigdragazzo
• 5 Key Tips When Adopting Social Media via @SocialAxis
• Trains, Sliding Doors and Social Networks via @grantmason
• Do You Know the Most Popular Online Marketing Method? via WebSense
• Ditch Your Inbox: Luis Suarez Interview via Unified Communications Online

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So long and thanks for all the fish #SWCONF

The first Social Workplace Conference held by Crexia and chaired by Jon Ingham has come to an end and what a conference.

David Christopher on stage at #SWConf 2011There's nothing like leaving a conference feeling inspired, not only by some of the speakers presenting their own case studies but by some of the delegates as well.

Going on first is always a daunting task (it's a little like the comedian who goes on first to warm up the crowd for the other comedians), but it did give me the chance to sit back and enjoy the other presenters.

For the first part of my presentation people were clearly thinking "my, how that Lee Bryant has let himself go. He used to be so slim..." until they realised that we had a dodgy clicker that wouldn't change slides.

Unfortunately the speakers hall was only half full when we first started due to London traffic issues, and atmosphere was a little reserved. But as people started to arrive the atmosphere improved greatly and the two tweeting walls worked a treat to capture questions and share highlights.

7 Steps to Social Adoption (click to enlarge)There were a few ripples of laughter at my Social Media in Business: It's just a bunch of tools right? Slideshare where it highlighted that the IT department recognised the need for a social networking platform and deployed it quickly. I really cannot fathom why people thought that was funny (ahem!)...

Unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to talk more about Open Collaboration to truly engage employees through passive contribution to projects. Maybe next time.

Lee Bryant from Headshift was next on the stage talking about humanising social technologies, followed by Benjamin Ellis from SocialOptic who talked about many things including gamification. Benjamin certainly knew how to interact with the crowd and was probably my favourite speaker of the day.

Martin Couzins from itsdevelopmental grabbed myself and Benjamin just before lunch to do a quick duo interview via his iPhone which was actually a lot of fun.

After lunch we had the outspoken and flamboyant Elizabeth Lupfer from Verizon who was wearing the biggest heels i have ever seen and which probably contributed to her nearly falling over before reaching the stage. Elizabeth talked about "The House that Social Built" which was a different perspective to approaching social.

There were a couple of panel sessions either side of Jon Mell (whom did a great job providing a social insight to IBM) which did seem a little disorganised and confusing, reinforced by some of the faces of the panel. However there were some great points made, particularly the first panel on Social Media and Employee Communications.

However the fact that Jenni Wheller was on this first panel was of great disappointment to many of us.....we had lost our ferocious wall twitterer. This meant it left some of us with sore thumbs trying to tweet on our smart phones attempting to fill the twitter void she had left.

If you want to view the keynote presentations then you can view them on Slideshare:

• David Christopher (StopThinkSocial & Oracle)
• Benjamin Ellis (SocialOptic)
• Elizabeth Lupfer (Verizon)
• John Mell (IBM Europe)

Finally, I did meet some fantastic people at the conference which I do hope to stay in touch with and whom will hopefully be able to attend the Social Hangout event I will be hosting shortly in Reading.

Apart from the 3 hour drive back (which would normally only take an hour) it was a phenomenal day and a big thank you goes to Vic Okezie of Crexia and Adam Britten for all their hard work in setting up the event. I'm looking forward to the next Social Workplace Conference now in May 2012.