There are some who claim that social media is bringing about the demise of email. “Email,” ‘they’ say, “will soon become as obsolete as the Pony Express and the telegraph.” Can it be true?
Does this mean that all of your email marketing expertise will become obsolete?
There is one answer to both of these questions: a resounding no. Email isn’t dead .., in fact, it’s not even sick.
When we look at Generation Y (those born between the late 70’s and the 90’s) we have a demographic group that is knowledgeable about communications, media, and digital technologies. Are they abandoning email?
The Participatory Marketing Network reports than in a survey conducted by Pace University that while Generation Y spends a lot of time on social networks, they actually find email more essential.
When this study asked them what they would least like to give up for one week, “only nine percent said social networks! In fact, the media Gen Y apparently can’t live without was … (electronic) drum roll please … old-fashioned email and texting.”
However, that doesn’t mean you should continue with your email work and ignore the opportunities you might find through social media.
In an interesting article posted on the eMarketer website, the writer says, “Combining social media and e-mail marketing is a growing trend. More than four in 10 business executives said integrating the two tactics was one of their most important e-mail marketing initiatives for 2010.”
So if you need to make a choice between continuing your email campaigns and advertising through social media, we’ve got some advice. Follow this trend and do both.
Be sure to make use of the social media tools such as Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube AND fine tune your strategy so that you’re using social media to send people toward your sign up pages for your email lists.
Gen Y Would Abandon Social Networks Before Email or Texting
