It's noisy out there

There are so many channels available today through which to communicate (or not) that getting heard (and gaining engagement) is becoming more difficult.

Within the enterprise I imagine that email remains the most popular method of communicating (with perhaps IM thrown in too) with the telephone becoming a tool mainly for the more detailed and complex engagements - internally as well as externally, and despite the growth in social media tools, I am not sure that there has been any real shift in how people communicate. The phone call is more often than not seen as an unwelcome interruption to work, and as a first engagement point perhaps less effective than it once used to be.

The lack of offerings in the enterprise social space probably leaves the floor clear for Yammer and perhaps Huddle to take the lead, but I wonder how hard the required shift in thinking and subsequent behavioural changes are being driven within the enterprise, and who is taking responsibility to lead this crusade and how adoption is being managed?

My observations to date about "social" is (the same both within and outside the enterprise) that a high degree of enthusiasm and utilisation is seen at the outset, with a hint of skepticism (for some) about the "new" approach, followed by an inconsistent and failing engagement beyond this.

Could this simply be because "social" is such a generational issue, that we won't see significant changes until the workplace demographic changes?

what's your experience?