Due to the growth of social networking and micro-blogging sites the survival of e-mail marketing has been questioned for quite a few times in the past year.The recent researches by eMarketer and StrongMail once again prove that there is nothing to be afraid for e-mail marketers.

The reports also provide some interesting insights about Millennials and how they adapt to the changing media environment and their relationship with social media and e-mail marketing.

Marketers sometimes wrongly assume that the new generation is just all about new technologies, tools and channels when targeting digital natives. As you can see from the table below, Generation Y is not that different from others, but due to the natural multitasking skill they just embrace more means of communications than the generations before.

Source: eMarketer

It actually reminds me about this great talk by the youngest TED speaker Adora Svitak who suggests that every new generation always has to do more in order to keep the progress in pace.

Another table from this report related to Millennials is a bit ambiguous. There are too possible assumptions:

• Just 35 % of Millennials use e-mail to share info about the brands.
• Just 15 % of Generation X use social networking to share info about the brands.

Source: eMarketer

I would stick with the second one (37 % vs. 15 % ) which actually confirms the earlier proposition about Millennials and rises a new issue –  possibly the bigger problem is not the “Generation Y” rejecting the old media channels, but the “Generation X”  not willing to adapt to the new ones.

Therefore, marketers have to think how to make new platforms more accessible for both generations and provide a greater experience by merging them together.

According to the StrongMail’s blog post, with the recent announcements from top social brands who are already doing it (Google Buzz) or are set to do it (Facebook e-mail service) creating an integrated social media and e-mail marketing strategy gains even greater importance.

eMarketer came up with brilliant tips how to maximize the connection between social media and e-mail:

1. Multiply the sharing opportunities.
2. Provide a broader platform for advocates.
3. Shift the control to your consumers.
4. Use e-mail metrics to enhance social ROI.

So keeping in mind the Millennials, I would add one more bullet point to this list:

• Provide the right form of the content.

Before finishing the post I just accidently stumbled upon this video by iJustine, where hundreds of teenagers go crazy at a Justin Bieber concert, screaming and filming themselves all along. It can be noticed, that not only the distribution channel but the nature of the content is vital for Millennials and in the future it’s clearly all about video.

When going through numerous articles on social media strategies it dawned on me that there was a glaring omission: tactics on how to promote your social media profiles OUTSIDE of logging in to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

While it may sound odd, cross marketing is an essential part of a successful social media marketing strategy (as well as a successful marketing strategy). It is completely understandable that when you launch a social media campaign, you really want to spend a bulk of your time logged into the site trying to achieve penetration and engagement.  For example, when marketing your business’s Facebook Page, you are logging in on a daily basis to update your page, share it and use different onsite tools to engage with your target consumers.

But what about the people that you speak to everyday on the phone or at events?  How about those who you give your business card to?  How about the people on the receiving end of the 100+ emails that you have to respond to daily?

This is where you need to focus on what I call Off-Site Social Media Promotion.  The best part?  It isn’t that tough (which is always a good thing, right?).

Here are my top ten tactics that you can instantly use to promote your professional social media presences…off-site:

1.  Add to Your Email Signature: When it comes to promoting your social media presences off-site, email is your first stop.  In your email signature, add a link to one or all of your social hubs.  Just be careful not to overdo it!  If you are a member of 100 different networks, don’t add them all.  My rule is to try to keep it to around 3 or less.
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