Facebook ‘Project Titan’ and Email Marketing Published November 15, 2014 According to just about all of the major media sources Facebook intends to launch it’s own fully featured email client later as part of the Web 2.0 Summit later today, Monday 15th of November. Facebook calls it ‘Project Titan.’ The biggest implication on Email Marketing surrounds the rumour that it will be 100% permission based. i.e. you will only be able to send emails to people who have already given you their permission to do so. Some rumours state that existing brands will not have the opportunity to send emails to users who they are not already connected with, in the same way as users can change their settings so people who are not friends with them cannot send a message to them. To put this in context, this could mean that ‘liking’ a brand’s Facebook page, or being friends with someone would grant them ‘permission’ to send you email. No connection – no email… The email account name will most likely be your own vanity url @fb.com, so if you haven’t got one already you’ll need to hurry up in case someone gets the name you want! What are the possible connotations for Email Marketing? Some people are saying that it will ruin Email Marketing and throw the book out on metrics and deliverability if people on the list move over to Facebook. That remains to be seen and may not make a dent. I see a brands’ Facebook fan list as a way to segregate fans away from the rest of the list. Brands should know early on that people they can Email via Facebook are people that have gone out of their way to engage with them and are real fans. They will have the control over permission, so there will be a larger consequence to getting it wrong, and marketers will have to keep the content good to keep the fans in. There are still many questions to be answered, hopefully some of them will be answered today.