Social Networks are changing email marketing

Nice post by Loren McDonald at Media Post about the effects of Social Networks on email marketing…  

The new numbers show the tremendous growth and influence of social networking on advertising.  Could the days of massive BS be over for marketing folk?  With social networking, consumers are more than delighted to debunk claims, recut and make parodies of commercial spots and generally point out and ridicule marketing fluff.  These numbers were quoted from the book Groundswell, published by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research:

Recent studies show this shift:

• 42 percent of adults 18-65 now know what social media is (Synovate study, June 2008)
• 58.5 percent of college students use social media daily, up from 32.8 percent in 2006 (EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, August 2008)
• In June 2008, Facebook.com had 132 million unique visitors, a 153 percent increase over June 2007 (comScore World Metrix)

What effect will all of this have on copywriters and traditional agency creatives?