Video Killed The Radio Star, But Social Didn’t Kill E-Mail

That's right, kids. In spite of what you might have heard, e-mail is very much alive and very much kicking. In fact, it's thriving in ways that you might not have considered. It's true.

Much fanfare is given to social media portals and their powerful sharing abilities, but email remains the quiet king when it comes to getting your customers' attention.

NO WAY, you might be saying. WAY, we say!

Did you know ...

Email is where 58% of Americans start their day? Search engines, like Google, are a distant second at 20%, and Facebook is waaaaaaay back in third position at a measly 11%. ADVANTAGE: EMAIL.

There are THREE TIMES as many email accounts as there are Facebook and Twitter accounts combined (not to mention that you've gotta have an email account to even register for either of those things. I mean, c'mon). ADVANTAGE: EMAIL.

When it comes to time spent on the mobile Internet? 38.5% of Americans' time is spent with email. Social media sites garner only 11% of that attention. ADVANTAGE: EMAIL.

But wait! There's more!

A while back, Happy Grasshopper friend, Jeff Turner, wrote a rather illuminating post called "Your Facebook Friends Are Not Really Listening" which called into question a lot of the inflated statistics that people tout about the power of social media. Our own Celeste Grupman decided to do a test to see where the strength REALLY lives.

On her Facebook profile, where she had (at the time) 311 "friends", she posted, "If you would like me to send you $100, please post here, even if you are just listening. Thank you." The post got 10 comments. TEN. That's about a 3% response rate. Not all that impressive, right?

The next day, she sent an email with the subject "Who is listening on Facebook?" In the message, she described her Facebook post and asked the email recipients (279 of her 311 Facebook friends) to let her know if they'd seen it. (BIG MOMENT ALERT: this is where it gets really good.)

81 of the messages were opened and 53 people responded. 29% of recipients opened it and 19% responded. Can you say, "ADVANTAGE: EMAIL"?

No, email isn't dead. Social media didn't kill it. It's alive and well and ready to wield its power for you and your business.

To view the original article, visit the Happy Grasshopper blog.