With all the talk of social media being the future of marketing, it’s easy to dismiss email as an irrelevant tool from a bygone era. But a study by Pew Research shows that 
62 percent of young adults (18-29) use email daily, and 60 percent of them use social media daily. Again, that’s among young adults. Perhaps more importantly, Ad Age has reported that 42 percent of users would prefer to get offers via email. Only 3 percent said they’d prefer getting them through social media.
Then there’s the fact that Seth Godin, arguably the best marketing blogger and strongest technology advocate, doesn’t use Twitter, and prefers using email.
Why is email still relevant, and what’s the best way for us, as marketers and customer service representatives, to use it?
Email is Social
Gary Vaynerchuk, provocative as always, says this about social media:
“Once and for all, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, which is this, and this is gonna hurt. There is no such thing as social media…Social media is the term that we’re using to describe the current state of the internet…When you hear somebody saying, ‘Well I don’t believe in social media,’ that’s somebody saying, ‘I don’t believe in the internet.’…If you bet against the internet in 2012, you’re gonna lose.”
We use the term ‘social media’ to describe the way that the culture of the internet is shifting. Those of us who “get it” realize it’s not about Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest. It’s about the personalization of the web, and its transformation from a sales tool into a place.
Email, used properly, has all the components of what we now call social media. It can go viral. It allows you to listen as well as speak. It’s a powerful networking tool. It’s great for market research and it’s a tremendous source of data. There is only one stark difference between email and social networking sites.
Email is Private
The fundamental difference between email and social media is the public nature of social networks. Every “like,” every retweet, every share, and every follower gives us bragging rights. We can 
point to our fan count or our Klout score and claim that we are champions of our niche.
But there’s a dark side to this. We can start to lose track of the real reason we’re doing this. We can get lost in our follower count and forget that this isn’t just about being popular, it’s about customer retention. It’s about proving that you care more than your competitors.
Email used properly – that is, not email blasting – can put us back in touch with that goal. It creates a more intimate experience and can sometimes have a stronger impact, for the same reasons a phone call can mean more now than it ever has before.
Unless you’re cold calling.
A Social Email Campaign Guideline
How do these culture shifts affect the way we approach email in the years going forward? Here are a few takeaways.
– Being Informal – As the web becomes more personal, users become more skeptical of anything too “professional.” Being informal or casual isn’t the same as being amateur. It’s about being authoritative and human at the same time. Think “business casual.”
– Transparency – Consumers don’t want to hear you say that your product is the best or the cheapest. They’ve heard it all before. They want to hear exactly how you are different from your competitors.
– Don’t Be a Template – Scalable drip email campaigns almost always rely on using templates, but that doesn’t mean you should be a template. Customize your templates as much as possible so that you are targeting a very specific type of customer, and write your emails as if you were writing a single email to just one of those customers. How would that effect your writing?
– Scale Isn’t Everything – It’s worth devoting about half of your email time and budget to highly personalized emails sent out to single individuals. This can be for reaching out to influential web personalities, thanking and rewarding your best customers, or even asking for advice and feedback.
How are you thinking about email in 2012? Do you see things differently? We’d love to hear your thoughts.