In the fourth instalment of our 'Going social' series in our monthly online magazine Insight, CIMAsphere blogger and FCMA Linda Cheung weighs up the merits of Twitter over email. Could 'microblogging" services like Twitter usurp the centrality of email to business by offering a more effective communication toolset?

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Without wishing to highlight my age, I remember email being something new and exciting when I was at university. We had time limits on our usage and emails could only be sent internally.

When I started work there were seniors who thought email would never take off. My business partner, a former lead program manager at Microsoft, remembers email conferences continuing to run until 2005. However, I still struggle to think of life before email. As with speaking in person, or on the phone, I think of email as a way to talk.

Could email be replaced by Twitter? An influential speaker and writer recently told me that he was thinking of dropping email to force people to reach him through Twitter.

Said influential speaker (SIS) is constantly bombarded with sycophantic emails, to encourage his attendance at events and endorsement of products and services.

SIS likes that the 140 character restriction of Twitter 'gets rid of the fluff' and if someone pesters him too much he can simply block them.

Discussing SIS’ comments with a group of marketers recently resulted in a déjà vu moment – hearing their questions I was back with those email cynics from my first job...

What about keeping messages private?
Well, you can use Twitter’s direct messages (DMs).

What about attachments?
You can upload the content (for example to Scribd, Slideshare or GoogleDocs) then include a shortened (for example bit.ly) link in your tweet.

What about emails where you need to copy in a large group?
You can ask everyone involved to label their tweets with a specific hashtag.

How about corporate use?
Take a look at Yammer, SocialText, Salesforce Chatter and other similar tools as an example.

I wonder how long it will take before Twitter (or similar) is just one more way for us to talk...

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Previous 'going social' articles in Insight:

Going social: what is social media for?
Going social: creating a profile that works
Going social: online and offline networking united

October 2011 Insight homepage

[image licensed Creative Commons courtesy of Loic Le Meur on Flickr]