Email is the hub of social media

When someone follows me on Twitter, I get an email letting me know. I usually take a quick look at their profile and maybe an update or two to find out if I know the person and may want to follow them.

If someone wants to friend me on Facebook or leaves a comment on my "wall," I get an email from Facebook. I make a note to myself to respond later.

If someone signs up for a group on GovLoop, I get a note. Or, if someone makes a connection on LinkedIn, I get yet another email. If you comment on this blog entry... you guessed it, I'll get an email letting me know.

I think you get the idea.

There's no question that email is the hub of social media. Email is the No. 1 use of the Internet according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, used daily by more than 60 percent of Americans.

Many Americans use social media applications, but they can't spend all day logged into those communities. So services like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter understand that they need to use email to keep their audiences engaged in conversations. In many ways, my email inbox is the ultimate "mashup" of my entire online life across many social media applications.

I've recently interviewed Web Managers at several major federal agencies and cities to learn more about where they see the connection between email and social media in the public sector. There are some exciting ideas and some easy ways to make the email updates governments are sending to the public a key enabler and "hub" of the social media initiatives that different agencies are pursuing.

We'll be posting our specific ideas on this soon, but where do you see the opportunities?