MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2013: Social media is email with fresh paint
The day one keynote presentation at the MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2013 featured Jay Baer, President, Convince & Convert and co-author of The Now Revolution. Jay’s presentation was titled, “More Alike than Different: Why Email is Madonna, and Facebook is Lady Gaga.”
A handful of data points
Jay explained email remains an extremely relevant channel. He cited ExactTarget research from 2011 that found 58% of U.S. adults check email first thing in the morning, and research from 2012 that found 77% of people surveyed reported preferring email for promotional messages.
He also said Facebook is far and away the social media platform of choice with only 27% of U.S. social media users 12 years-old and up embracing second-tier networks such as Google+ and LinkedIn, according to research from The Social Habit.
Additionally, he added 44% of corporate social media marketers look at Facebook as a way to gain new customers based on Wildfire research from 2012. One challenge is 84% of company Facebook fans are current or former customers per DDB research.
“Email and Facebook are strategically, operationally and tactically aligned. Or they should be,” Jay said.
Email and social media are more alike than different
Jay stated social media, and Facebook in particular, is just email with “fresh paint.”
Along with this statement, he presented a slide of an image he titled, “Magaga,” juxtaposing Madonna and Lady Gaga side by side to illustrate his point.
To further make the point, Jay described three areas of integration:
- Operations and measurement
- Channel and audience
- Message and content
In the case of measurement, email and Facebook share basic metrics even though the nomenclature is different.
Email metrics: Subscribes, unsubsribes, opens, clicks, forwards
Versus
Facebook metrics: Likes, hides/unlikes, reach, engaged users, shares
