Will Social Media Replace Email?

Social Media Insights is a new daily newsletter from Business Insider that collects and delivers the top social media news first thing every morning. You can sign up to receive Social Media Insights here or at the bottom of this post.

---

Social Media Can't Replace Email (Social Media Today)
There are many reasons that social media platforms will never fully replace email within the working environment, despite Yammer and others bringing social media and social messaging platforms into the workplace:

• Email provides a level of privacy and professionalism
• Email inboxes provide a one stop-hub for tasks and one-to-one communications
• There's not the worry about privacy issues with email as there is with social media
• Email works across all platforms and applications
• Email has become more than just a two-way communication tool
• Social media does not provide a professional online space for business one-to-ones
• Social media has a major issue with ownership

Social media may be becoming one of most common ways we choose to communicate but email is still required and will continue to be used as it provides users with their own hub where they manage communications in one place. Read >>

LinkedIn Can Teach Facebook About Being A Public Company (Search Engine Journal)
Thanks to Facebook’s faltering stock price since its IPO, many in the business world wonder if social media companies like Twitter and Pinterest will ever become business models worth investing in. It would seem that monetizing social activity is the current holy grail of business. After the posting of last quarter’s earnings, LinkedIn is proving it possesses the grail. The success of the business networking site has inspired much discussion of what happens next in the industry. At $20 billion, should Facebook buy LinkedIn? Or should it just rip a page out of their book? Read >>

Why Not Using Social Media Is Hurting Your Brand (Splash Media)
Are you in social media branding denial? If your business is not in social media, your brand will be at a disadvantage. Here's why it's essential:

1. The conversation is already out there. You're either joining in, or you're missing out.
2. Facebook alone has 618 million daily active users, how can you not step onto that playing field?
3. It's an easy and immediate way to connect to both your fans and your potential customers.
4. It's a way to support your traditional marketing ventures.
5. There’s a huge benefit to having access to real-time market intelligence and feedback.

Social Media Branding is an extremely powerful tool, and not something that should be rushed into without time to outline clear goals and objectives. Read >>

Twitter Charging $200K For Promoted Trends (Mashable)
Twitter’s ad business is still a work in progress, but here’s one positive sign: Prices for the company’s “promoted trends” have been steadily rising, and are now at the $200,000-a-day mark in the U.S. Twitter’s newest price hike went into effect earlier this year, and represents a 33 percent increase over the $150,000 rate the company was asking for in 2012. And it’s up 150 percent from the $80,000 a day it was getting for the ads back when it launched them in 2010. The promoted trend lets an advertiser insert its own message atop the “trends” list on Twitter.com home pages and on Twitter apps; Twitter sells a single message a day, per territory. Except when it doesn’t. Read >>

Branching Out: How One Hospitality Business Is Testing Vine (Big Hospitality)
With Valentine's Day fast approaching, hotels, restaurants and pubs and bars are looking for innovative ways to market their business but one hotel believes its campaign is truly unique - it is testing brand new Twitter video app Vine. Read >>

Twitter Mobile Users More Engaged With Brands (MediaPost)
At a recent conference, Guy Yalif, head of global product marketing at Twitter, highlighted that the company’s biggest mobile adherents are more likely to be active, engaged users and a receptive audience for brands. Yalif said 200 million people log into Twitter at least once a month. And of those, 120 million, or 60 percent, do so at least once on a mobile device. Within that is a “large chunk” of users who interact with Twitter primarily through their mobile devices. Yalif also noted that some 80 percent of viewers have a mobile device in front of them while they’re watching TV, and two-thirds of these are mobile-first Twitter users. "Invest in a TV ad and make those dollars work harder for you,” said Yalif, adding that 95 percent of the social conversation about TV is happening on Twitter. Read >>

Are Hashtags In Commercials Effective? (Sysomos)
Brands that suggest their own names, rather than that of the commercial, come out on top. Take the Super Bowl for example. Read >>

Greylock Partner Shares Lessons On Time At Social Media Titans (Business Journal)
Josh Elman was a product guy who started in the early days of the Big Three social networks - Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Now he is helping others get their start as a principal at Greylock Partners. Every decision he saw these companies make was incredibly thoughtful and incredibly deliberate. They made a lot of decisions and moved really fast. And every single time that you get someone to join your service, it can add value to everybody else on the service. That’s a very powerful asset that compounds over time. If you don’t think about how you can be part of the media world in the right way with whatever company you are building, you’ll totally miss out. Read >>

Becoming A Social Organization (social4ce)
A social organization or a social business is about people and relationships. Because people are at the core, relationships come front and center and all relationships are built on trust. People want to buy from sellers who act more like friends. They want to call someone in product support who really cares about them and wants to help them. Your clients are seeking a relationship with you that is not one-sided. Building your community over social media takes time, as building trust takes time. And trust enables people to do business with each other. The best communities have strong community managers, who provide leadership and direction for the group. They help establish the goal of the community experience and define the business problems trying to be solved. Read >>

BONUS: How Grammy Nominees Stack Up On Social Media (Activ8Social via Mashable)
What if Grammys were given out based on popularity on social media? This infographic examines which nominees are dominating Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Read >>