This is an interesting article. I was unable to get the video to work though. 
 
We have been using email marketing for like 4-5 years and it has worked ok in the past. Honestly, we have gotten it to work 100fold by adding the social media to the mix. Basically in the past we used email to promote an event or client, or to discuss what's new with Brandwise. In the past 8 months we have been really seriously blogging and using the social media and by using the email campaigns to promote our social media accounts and certain blog articles, we have driven a ton of traffic to our web site. Using this also to tie in with landing pages, our email campaign has helped us convert some of our prospects into solid leads. I do not feel email is going anywhere, but we have not used any SMS campaigns yet, so who knows where the future will take us. I do think however these items are all just tools to get your message out. You will still need an avenue to promote your company no matter what the tool is. At this point I say get active using the email and add it to the mix when new things come along, this make a strong integrated approach.

"Email is a private channel whereas social media is public." - Melanie Attia, Campaigner/Protus 
 
Maybe she hasn't found the privacy features yet? When I look at what's coming in my inbox now it is mostly alerts. I get very few "people to people" messages. Most of my personal communication now goes on with my "friends" via Facebook / Myspace / Linkedin. 
 
I'd flip that statement round the other way. What I'm seeing in my research is that people are using eMail as a public face, but the meaningful connections are coming in through the social networks. Social Networking is much more effective at blocking unwanted communication (read: noise!) than spam filters.

Thanks, Dale - the video has been updated so it should work now.

I totally agree w/ the comments above, especially since many of our target niche aren't using social media very heavily yet.  
 
Granted, we have several hundred fans on our facebook page but our outbound email marketing can reach 20k niche members in one shot. And since our click thru rates are astronomical, we can verifiably see that email is doing more than our social media efforts. At least it's that way for the moment:-)

Social media are, for the most part, ephemeral, whereas email is a permanent record. When I discuss a project with a client I prefer to do it by email, because then I have a written record of their requests. Much less likely to let something drop through the cracks that way.

What else are people at this event going to say? E-mail IS dying and my industry is in trouble? I'm not saying that is the case at all but when you see these things from jut one side of the ledger it becomes, well, one-sided.

I am from the email industry, but I do think these comments have it exactly right.  
 
Email is not dying, and it's a simple answer because just think how many times you check your inbox each day. Email is getting harder to crack with spam filters and cluttered inboxes, but that is showing that you just have to raise your game.  
 
The great thing about the players in the Email Industry is that they have embraced social and want to partner with it rather than compete with it.

The reports that email is dying are premature...! People have been saying print is going to die - and yet more books were sold last year than ever before. People said video would kill the cinema, that CDs would kill live music and so on and so on. The truth of the matter is, email is just another communications channel. As human beings, once we have a channel we still stick with it. After all, road signs are no more than cave paintings, signalling what's around us. Email will be with us for as long as the technology survives. Don't panic!

Since Facebook and Twitter now allow us to DM each other, they, in essence, ARE email. Soon they will offer spell check, etc. I know people who only use Facebook DM for emailing purposes. It's all evolving and traditional email is clearly waning.

Ellie - really great to hear insights from everybody at the summit. Thanks for putting this together! 
 
We heard two things at the summit.. people are jaded by inaccurate data, and they're looking for solutions to tie in their SoMe outreach to their email communication. 
 
That sets the tone nicely for exciting new developments here at NetProspex over the next few weeks. Good stuff coming soon. 
 
I'm glad Harold made it onto the video, he's thrilled, but I'm afraid you've given him a big ego. We have a diva zombie on our hands!

Social media is the crowd and the place for introductions. Email is where business problems are explored and solutions discussed.  
 
Confidentiality is still important in business. As long as this is the case, email won't go anywhere.

Well, good or bad, e-mail used to be the "attention focusing" flow of information that we all used. Now, it even takes "too long" to read an e-mail and consuming information is now like drinking from a fire hose. Compressed format communications will win out in the end - twitter, video, pictures - - anything that takes less than 10 seconds to understand and decide to respond to or not.

Email may be the thing that connects the social web for marketers, but it's not always going to be that way for PEOPLE. People's profiles/social graphs are the next connection. It's getting to be more and more common that people don't have to use their email address to sign up for a new service. But this doesn't mean email is going away in the near future. People are still signing up to receive email from people and companies they love who are providing compelling content (whether the nature of this is educational, shopping-focused or whatever). And these types of emails are still driving massive revenue for companies who can send things to the right group of people and engage them the right way.

I think that people will continue to use email over social media in a number of circumstances. For example, in a business setting it seems more professional to email someone than to Tweet or Facebook them your questions. Also, if you are trying to reach multiple people at one time, email is still a more convenient channel than attempting to create a Facebook group or message multiple people at once.  
Social Media outlets such as Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter do seem like a more public outlet even with a direct messaging option. These tools, to me, are more for keeping in contact with friends or family, updating your status, playing games, or fact finding. I personally think that when conducting business email is a more professional option. 

TV was supposed to kill radio. Automobiles didn't kill trains. Steamships didn't make sailboats disappear. The medium may still be the message, but you choose it based on the audience you want. Which may not always be "social".

A thought to those who are saying Social Media is all about short messages and how can that be professional? 
 
Twitter - agree 100% 
 
Facebook / Myspace - don't agree. The interface is "eMail like", so you can do the 140 character thing if you want, but sending a personal message to someone can still be entirely professional and topped and tailed with Dear and Sincerely. 
 
The tools are there - just depends on how you choose to deploy it...

Marketing is all about targeting messages to the right person in the right media. So if someone likes getting emails and they clearly do from all the research i have seen around this year, that medium should still exist. Likewise, direct mail and so on. I am passionate about digital marketing but I am not dumb enough to think everyone else 
has made the switch and the same applies with email and social media. Think like a customer, not like someone running an agency that wants to sell services and then you may actually sell some.

Most of my messaging with friends is through social media, facebook and twitter.  
 
However, I still use email a lot for business...more than ever actually.

Whilst many find marketing or advertising SMS text messages irritating, SMS messages are replacing email as medium of choice for quick response communication.

Using Inbound Marketing without ever emailing your contacts is like never calling your friends. It's a good way to lose people.