When I started the moderately successful Web 1.0 company RadicalMail, it was based on the premise that the inbox would be your primary form of communication. Our slogan ‘Checked Your Inbox Lately?’ was our mantra, and we bought into the fact that the inbox would become another channel to reach audiences and communicate message.
The problem was simple: though we were innovators, we had tons of followers. The inbox became and continues to be a breeding ground for con-artists and gun runners, and not a day goes by when I don’t look at a piece of SPAM and ask ‘how the hell did I get this?’
Not a day goes by when I don’t thank my lucky stars for email, either. Because even with Twitter and Facebook and whatever other Plurks might be out there, email has a function that just isn’t satisfied by anything else. In an age of complete impermanence, where messages vanish into Tweet air, the inbox offers history and context. Proof of communication. Attachments to the real world and maybe even a PDF of something printed. I write in whole sentences when I craft my emails and try not to drool. I think and I craft.
So though the next buzz is the WAVE and everything else, email in its most simplest form will be around awhile. Don’t believe me? Try living without it for a day and then tell me which social app you find most useful.
A quick word on email etiquette: if you’re not answering every email written by a human with a soul, then you have failed to leverage what I still consider to be the most important communication tool online. Not answering emails even with a simple ‘tx’ is really inexcusable. And don’t whine to me about how much email you get. Talk to Mark Cuban or Gary Vaynerchuk. They get way more than you do and still manage to close the loop. Connect.
That’s what we’re here for.
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