Social Media's Secret Weapon - Email

Fred Wilson:

I remember four or five years ago, people, myself included, were asking if social media was going to lead to the end of email as we know it. In an ironic twist of fate, it turns out that email is social media’s secret weapon. And more and more social applications are leveraging the power of email to drive repeat usage and retention.

I spent a little time combing through my old answers on Quora because I thought that at some point I had written an answer explaining why instant e-mail notifications are so important to social media sites: people (like myself) live their work lives through their e-mail. It is the dashboard through which all things eventually must filter.

When I build Potluk, I built it with e-mail at the heart of the system because that is where link sharing communication is most useful. E-mail is behind the power of Facebook’s newest group features.

New social startups, especially consumer facing social services that want to see engagement numbers grow, would be wise to heed Fred Wilson’s advice.