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Email in Decline?

Posted by Rick Hosmer on February 09 2011| 0 Comments

I have been noticing lately how many times I will message someone through their Facebook or LinkedIn page rather than by regular Internet email. With some clients, the majority of my communication with them is through Facebook. No need to remember an email address and their photo shows up right next to my message, so I can see who I am writing to. I began to wonder if standard email has started to experience a decine due to social media use.

As if reading my mind, Diane Mahan sent me an email today with data showing that email use has indeed declined over the past couple of years, even though the Internet-using population of the U.S. has increased.

From MediaPost.com, here is how things are currently looking in email land:

Overall Internet-based email usage declined 8% from 2009-2010, according to comScore. The decrease is especially noteworthy considering that the total U.S. Internet population grew 4.4% from 211.7 million to 221.0 million over the same period, according to figures released by eMarketer last year.

There were even steeper drops among specific cohorts, with email use plummeting 59% among 12-17-year-olds and 18% among 25-34-year-olds.

A smaller (but still substantial) drop was also seen among 45-54-year-olds, where email use dropped 12%. The only increase came among 54-64-year-olds, where email usage rose 22%, reflecting growing Internet adoption by this age group.

SOURCE: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=144606&nid=123591

I am not going to trash my copy of Entourage any time soon. And we expect to migrate to the new Microsoft Outlook as an email client sometime in 2011. But the nationwide trend is interesting and reflects the evolution of my own online communication habits. How about yours?