I’m pretty active on Facebook, becoming more active on Twitter, and increasingly jaded on email. At one point my email was so spam flooded that I didn’t have my Blackberry grab email, I just set my email server to forward email from about 20 trusted people I needed in real time to my Blackberry. However, at that same time, I had my Facebook Application for Blackberry, my friends knew to Facebook me instead of email me for rapid response.
The Share on Facebook Bookmarklet sits on my bar, ready to share an interesting news story with my friends, so imagine my shock that retailers were four times more likely to include a forward to a friends link than a share with your network link. Honestly, if I want to send something to a friend via email, I usually just email the URL, not wanting someone to capture my friend’s email from the link, but Sharing with a Social Network is a great way to reach dozens to hundreds of people. I might email a link to my wife or a business partner, but posting to my Facebook profile hits over 400 people.
Relying on email over social networks is ignoring the trends in online communication.