Social networking and e-mail usage appear to be on equal footing, says a report from customer relationship marketing agency Merkle. “View from the Social Inbox,” a survey of 3,300 U.S. adults, shows that active social media users are more likely to be avid e-mail users, with 42% of them checking their e-mail account four or more times a day, compared to just 27% of their non-social networking counterparts. Other findings include:
• 71% of active social media users spend 20 minutes or more weekly with checking personal e-mails—contradicting speculation that social networking would quickly replace traditional e-mail use;
• Demographics such as age, gender, ethnicity and education influence which social sites consumers use. For example, regular users of Facebook skew higher in education and MySpace users skew lower. Both sites are more likely to be frequented by females; and,
• Nearly 20% of Facebook, MySpace and/or Twitter users have posted or shared something from permission e-mail to their social account(s) via a “share” option, indicating the importance of an integrated e-mail marketing strategy.
Source: Merkle