DUKKY

Is email about to go the way of the dodo bird? Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg thinks so.  When she spoke at Nielsen’s Consumer 360 conference earlier this week, she told the audience, “If you want to know what people like us will do tomorrow, you look at what teenagers are doing today…E-mail–I can’t imagine life without it–is probably going away.” (via FastCompany).

That’s a bold statement. For support, she turned to a Pew Study that looked at the communication habits of teenagers and found that only 11% of them used email daily. Teens are much more likely to use text messaging, instant messaging, social networking sites and even the telephone to communicate with others.

But does that mean that social networking will replace email anytime soon? My Magic 8-Ball says “Outlook not so good.” The results of a recent study by ExactTarget and CoTweet indicate that email still holds an important place in the lives of many US consumers. In fact,  over 58% of US  consumers with Internet access start their mornings off by checking email. Only 11% check Facebook first thing.

Email is also the most common way for companies and brands to connect with customers. According to ExactTarget, 93% of online consumers subscribe to emails from the companies they patronize, receiving one or more permission-based marketing emails per day. In contrast, 43% of consumers either “Like” a brand on Facebook or follow one on Twitter.

The other thing is that all of those teenagers who don’t use email on a daily basis today may well start using it more when they get a little bit older and their life circumstances change. As Good Morning Silicon Valley notes:

“The problem with that is that those teens, who for now lead mostly carefree lives with no bills to pay, and who have time for face-to-face interaction, will eventually grow up. For now, they have no professional need for e-mail. But they will, and they will find that it generally isn’t wise to reveal details about a work project via commenting on Facebook.”

However, that doesn’t mean that marketers can afford to ignore social media in favor of email. Social networking sites continue to grow in reach, frequency of use and importance, especially among younger adults. For example, another recent study by Nielsen notes that 22% of all time spent online is spent on social networking sites, and the average visitor to a social networking site spends 66% more time there than last year.

Also, social networking fans are more likely to engage with and share content from a brand they’ve connected with.  ExactTarget notes that people who visit Facebook first thing in the morning are more likely to engage with brands for purely social reasons than are people who visit email first. However, the overwhelming majority of consumers in both categories listed “promotions and deals” as their top reason for seeking interaction with brands online.

Fortunately, there’s no need to choose one or the other. For most marketers, the wisest move is to create campaigns that incorporate both email and social media to achieve the greatest possible reach and effectiveness.