Saving time or being able to instantly access your prospects. Connecting efficiently and using multiple fun applications. There is no limit to the motives why people use social media. You get actually overwhelmed by the constant every-day need of keeping up with the news and having to ensure a permanent presence on Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin. Could not imagine a time where not even email was invented.

But it happened not so long ago. In the early '70's, “the father of email” created the first form of communicating between two computers. How did the first email really appear but, most of all, why is email so important still, in spite of every other type of online messaging also available ?

A honest discovery

No patent for discovering email was given to Ray Tomlinson, a principal engineer at BBN Technologies, who, in 1971, has sent the first network email ever. He used a program that enabled one user to send a message to another user. Amusingly, the first email was sent between two computers sitting next to each other, but the message has been lost in time. Tomlinson recalls that it was one of “those forgettable messages”, meant to let his collegues know that the network was working. “I don’t recall any actual replies” says Tomlinson for ReadWriteWeb. “I did get some comments from people in the hall”, he remembers.

The email on a single computer had existed since the early 1960s, but it was, back then, the equivalent of a digital post-it note left to another user.

Why will email survive

Because it serves one specific purpose - addressing a specific audience, believes Tomlinson who tells his email story on his website. It is not fast, it takes more time to compose, but it ensures that the messages are received by certain people and are stored in a safe place.

Email has already been included in the modern way of communicating through social media. What happens if a Facebook post, chat or Sms messages are not viewed right away?They all get stored and are read after a while, just like emails.

Use it for

• keeping in touch with your prospects

• delivering quality, personalized content to their email boxes

• get feedback

• delivering incorruptible content

While in Jentla Content Administration, check the Publishing section for setting up your email recipients. Emails through JMH are sent fast and easy, just like any other type of online articles.