Yesterday, Time magazine announced their 2010 person of the year - and the award goes to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook. At just 26 years old, Zuckerberg is the 2nd youngest person to have received this title. He's even already had a box-office hit movie made about him.
The runner up list that he beats, includes the Chilean miners and the President of Afganistan - and the defeated list of notable 'people who matter' count the Pope and Barack Obama as key. So a 26 year old, former college student has managed to beat these global visionaries? It goes a long way to show how the internet, social networks and our digital reliance is now a part of every day life.
I'm an avid Facebook and social network user and working in a digital industry has brought each new social media advancement, feature and trend to the forefront of my working day. In a business-to-business environment, it's been great to see some of Emailvision's clients using these social media advancements to their advantage, in their email marketing programs. Integrating these social channels into email marketing allows users to create more measurable and successful campaigns.
While the media wait with baited breath to see Zuckerberg's next move, we'll see what Facebook Messages has to bring to the email marketing world. There has been mixed reviews as to how this will affect email marketers, my personal view being that whilst it will be a great feature for social interaction - I can't see it overtaking or competing directly with ISP's and traditional email.
For now, it's at least another confirmation to the world that social networks are here to stay. The challenge for marketers is to learn how to use them in tandem with their email marketing, integrate them with existing programs, and above all - monetize them.