You’re right — PR and marketing folks are probably the biggest adopters of social media. But for us, it’s become a way of life. Like your point that everyone uses e-mail and that in many ways, it levels the playing field for people of all ages. Thanks so much for comments!

Email is not going anywhere and I’d be very interested to see if anyone outside the PR/social media world shares this opinion. I’ve heard rumblings about the death of it only inside the aforementioned fishbowl.

You are bang on about email’s distinct advantages. One, that I don’t think you explicitly mentioned (though it seemed implied) is the fact that we’ve been using it for awhile so now even grandma regularly sends messages via email. Certainly the 60 yr old CEO is more likely to be familiar with it than Facebook or Twitter.

Your pt re management through email is also important. I manage a remote team and the misunderstandings and screwups that come as a result of emails, Twitter DM’s, IM etc are a killer. This has been particularly acute amongst younger employees who’ve grown up with this stuff for most of their lives. The only around this has been to constantly remind employees that while email, twitter etc are great tools there nothing beats face to face or the phone as they provide much better opportunities for reflective listening.