Having dubbed 2009 “The Year of the Social Inbox” yesterday, I’d like to spend some time this week digging into what that might mean for reputable email marketers — i.e., those who follow the SUBSCRIBERS RULE! philosophy.
Let me begin with a simple acknowledgment. The features of the social inbox will undoubtedly vary greatly by provider. For all the differences of the soon-to-be-evolved Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Live Hotmail and Google Gmail, they will also share the goal of aggregating online communications in a manner that puts the consumer in charge (not marketers).
With this in mind, I’d like to take a look at the potential ramifications of a very simple feature found in the limited beta of Yahoo’s Social Inbox. The feature, the “From Connections” mail view, is described in this video, and you can see the feature in the screenshots below:
"All" Email View in Yahoo's Social Inbox Beta
"From Connections" Email View in Yahoo's Social Inbox Beta
In the top, “All” default view, the inbox is unchanged from its current state. The user sees all of their messages including permission-based emails from the New York Times, The Cheesecake Factory, Yahoo, and Chili’s.
In the bottom, “From Connections” optional view, however, the user sees only those emails from people with whom they have “connected” via Yahoo’s connection process. According to this video, your connections need not be Yahoo users, just people who have confirmed your connection.
As Yahoo proclaims in the image callout above, it envisions that the “From Connections” tab will be used to “cut through the clutter.” With one click, users can see all their emails from connected friends.
The flip side, of course, is that with that one click, the “All” view is hidden, and so too are all of the emails in there whether they are transactional, permssion-based or even personal inquiries from people outside of the users “Connections.” For those keeping score at home, that’s what Yahoo means by “clutter.”
Putting on my consumer hat, I think I’ll love this feature. Just as on Facebook, I decide who are my Friends/Connections, and that enables their messages to get preferential treatment in my inbox.
Putting on my marketing hat, the “From Connections” email view in Yahoo’s beta raises the spectre of a new round of “Add to Address Book” mania. I can see the email headers now — “Add Us to Your Connections,” “Add Us as a Friend,” “Seriously, add us — we’re cool,” etc.
The issue here, however, is a bit different. The “Add to Address Book” effort was largely a creature to ensure email deliverability before the evolution of sender verification.
The potential “From Connections” view issue is one of visibility and response, not deliverability. Your message still gets delivered — but unless you’re a “Connection” your message will only appear in the “All” view of the email inbox. Whether this makes the “All” view a new form of email purgatory akin to the Junk Mail folder — only time will tell.
One thing is for sure, however — it has never been more clear that email marketers have a stake in the world of social media. So if you’ve been putting off dabbling in Facebook and tweeting on Twitter, better make a quick resolution to do so in 2009. The knowledge you gain may help you navigate the new twists and turns of the social email inboxes to come.
Tune in tomrorow as I’ll make the case that the social inbox is the best thing to happen to email in a long time (even with the “From Connections” view).
