We all know now that email is not a tool for acquisition...but is it also dying as tool altogether? Probably not anytime soon --- as it is still the number one activity on the Internet (followed very closely by search); but a conversation I had with a friend of mine got me thinking that search and social networking (user generated content) is really starting to dominate.Basically, the conversation was around the fact that he had such a ridiculous email address that he created when he was 12 as his AOL screen name and email address. Now, I will spare making more fun of him here; but I had my own silly AOL Identities "VipRgal" (I thought I was going to get a Dodge Viper someday...) and something along the lines of "LafeTafe22"; but the point is we made these accounts not knowing that we may carry them around for longer than we wanted. Now, my friend still checks his goofy email account regularly as this is the only address that some of his childhood friends have...but the whole point of this story is that couldn't they find him and get in touch with him easier through Facebook...or possibly Google him and find him through LinkedIn. Chances are, most of these friends have misplaced this email address, but since he has a web presence it wouldn't be too hard to get a hold of him quickly...hence the lack of necessity to have people's email addresses.
Imagine this though --- what if he had a personal blog through his company...not only could his friends (and of course possible employers, etc.) find him; they would know what he was up too and his passion for his job! It drives my mom nuts that I don't keep an updated address book or my contacts organized through Outlook; but in my world it isn't important --- if I need to get ahold of someone I am likely connected to them on Facebook or LinkedIn and can easily send them a message. Or if not, I can Google their name and probably come up with some contact information. May be I am just lazy...but as we all get more and more of a presence on the web the necessity of being tied to an email address or storing everyone's contact information will be less and less.
So while you are thinking about your corporate blogging solution and working on that internal buy in --- one great exercise may be to have everyone "Google" themselves --- see what turns up, because guess what...your prospects, partners and clients have already done this. How much better would it be if YOUR blog about your company showed up!
