Email Marketers Claim "Email is the New Social Media": Fact or Fiction? - Ed Keller

As the trade press continues to focus on the year that was in 2011 and forecasts for the year to come in 2012 social media remains a hot topic of conversation Two reports have come out recently making the case that email remains a big and effective part of the social storyIn his keynote address to MediaPost39s Email Insider Summit Tynt CEO Derek Ball noted that despite the growth of Facebook sharing via email has gone up over 20 in the past 18 months quotWe call email the original social network because it really is socialquot he says About a week later came a report in Marketing Profs that twothirds of business leaders 68 say they plan to integrate social media with their email marketing efforts in 2012 suggesting the value of a hybrid solutionThese two reports caused me to wonder where exactly email fits relative to other online media when it comes to word of mouth and how has that changed over time Our analysis compares not only social media versus email but also IM and texting given the growing importance of mobile in the social mix The basis for the analysis is my firm39s TalkTrack study which provides a continuous monitor of people39s online as well as offline conversations about products services and brands A number of interesting findings emergedFirst brandrelated conversations via social media have been on the rise as one would expect given all the press about social media and that sharp rise in social media usage However on an absolute basis people are still more likely to talk about brands via email than via social media And as it turns out the proportion is even bigger and still growing for brandrelated conversations via IM and textingThus 45 percent of technologyenabled brand conversations happen via IMtext up a few points from the year prior A third 32 occurs via email representing a 5point drop since last year Just under a quarter 23 takes place via social media up 3 points from a year agoThere are important agerelated differences here The profile of those who use email to quottalkquot about brands generally mirrors the population as a whole while youth teens and 20somethings are disproportionately represented among those who talk about brands via social media and via textingIMThis all serves as a valuable reminder that social marketing comes in many shapes and sizes and that the marketer39s social playbook needs to take advantage of any channel that helps to spark and support consumer conversation Here we highlight the role of social networking sites relative to other ways people can communicate online elsewhere we have broadened the discussion to include offline conversations as well and the role that quottraditionalquot media can play in driving conversationTaken as a whole it39s important to remember that all media are social as we39ve said before It follows as well that all digital channels are socialEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot The publication of Keller39s book The Influentials has been called the quotseminal moment in the development of word of mouthquot Ed can be contacted at ekellerkellerfaycom You can follow Ed Keller on Twitter kellerfay Read all Edamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at WOM MattersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Email Marketers Claim "Email is the New Social Media": Fact or Fiction? - Ed Keller

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Email Marketers Claim "Email is the New Social Media": Fact or Fiction? - Ed Keller

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