Pick one: Email or social media

Email. Period.

If the question is: What do you choose to drive demand? email or social media?

I am sure there will be people who answer here who will say "both" and they are right. (but Andrew didn't make that one of the choices!) The reality is if you want the biggest bang for your buck, it's email. If you ask any organization who does both, they will tell you that email is their highest converting channel.

Groupon, Livingsocial, etc, these are all obvious commercial examples of the continuing power of email.

I've been thinking about this question all day. My instinct was to agree with Craig, email is extremely powerful and goes directly to their inbox. I've seen it work very well in both B to C and B to B companies. It's more direct, actionable and measurable.

But then I keep coming back to building that email list. It's hard and takes time. While I don't have hard numbers yet, for my clients the email opt ins have been slowing down while the Facebook Likes and Twitter Follows increasing in numbers.

Online marketing has always been about going to the audience because it's incredibly difficult to get them to come to you. Email was a way of going to them in their inbox but with the growth of social media, the use of email is slowing and more people are spending time on social media portals, especially younger generations.

Here's some statistics from Pew Internet reports:
- While 61% of all adults use social media, 74% percent of teens and 83% of Millennials use social network sites.
- While 94% of all adults use email, only 73% of teens do.

With that knowledge, today I would want to be insanely awesome in email. But, as I think about the future, I'd want to switch that expertise to social media—that is until the next, next new thing comes along.

@chris: Great analogy..however email was the original form of social media and it will need to adapt to the current state of social. Here are a couple of other quotes that you might relate too:

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

Social will change. So will email.

Andrew

I'm in fashion-apparel and Social Media would be my pick.

It's engaging: receive 2-way, transparent and personal communication between business to customer. It's immediate: information that's constantly nurtured, changing and viewed. Customers can share their feelings and opinions more openly. You can get feedback not only by receiving click-thru data, but also through customer response instantly. It's multi-channel: Facebook. Twitter. Foursquare. Mobile Phone...and the list is endless.

With a strong social media structure and listening strategy, I can tap into the customer mind more effectively. Then build plans around this information.

Good question, Andrew, but the key here is the audience. Before deciding which method of promotion is best, social media versus email, we need to do our due diligence and research the target market: computer usage, smartphone usage, tablet usage, demographics (age, income, location, etc.), psychographics (attitudes, values, fears, etc.). Once we have a handle on this data, we can decide which is the best marketing tool to reach our audience - each can be incredibly useful.

Neither. I know that wasn't an option Andrew, but I'd much rather focus on building an awesome product, service and brand - and let my customers do the marketing for me.

Apple to me is a case in point. I don't find that they do email marketing or social media particularly well - but they don't have to. They build amazing products that people simply are drawn to.

But if the CMO came to me and said we have to cut the marketing budget and you can only have funds for email marketing or social media - I'd probably take email marketing. The primary reasons being permission and marketing automation.

With most social media the brand does not control the data - the social network does. You are at the whim of the data policies and business models of the social networks. With email, the brand controls the data - including behavioral data which it can leverage to deploy highly automated trigger and lifecycle emails. The ROI on these emails is off the chart.

And finally, you can use email to drive followers, fans, Likes and engagement in social channels.

Social media is the way to go for the insanely awesome company. Imagine that anyone using your service or product proudly "followed you", "friended you", and even included the message "powered by you" on every transaction it performed.

Email. If done correctly, it's targeted, personalized, and supremely measurable. Seth Godin recently wrote a blog post about what's dead in marketing (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/bring-me-stuff-thats-dead-ple...). Very tongue in cheek. I wrote a reply (http://www.theemarketingblog.com/ode-to-seth-godin-on-email-marketing/) because he left email off the list. Despite what Seth describes as 'drive-by technorati' proclaiming certain emarketing tools dead, it's a premature prognosis -- same rumor that declared Mark Twain dead before his time.

I agree with Carol that email, if done correctly can be a good option. It is more professional. However, if you are more visual like me and need to show examples of your work, Facebook, myspace or another social media can help you promote yourself. Of course, I have 2 Facebook and 2 email accounts--personal and professional to keep the information separate. On Facebook, you wouldn't ever want to post anything unprofessional. Have you read about the teacher in Pennsylvania? You have to be very careful!

The answer is not about my preference but about the preference of my buyers as I need to fish where they swim. Do they prefer email or social? Get the answer and then be great at that medium.

I would say both! Check out this great article by Return Path http://tinyurl.com/48htn5m

Email today,
Social tomorrow.

I say email, because if you are insanely great at email, you're incorporating social media as part of your email strategy. This is not a "both" answer, though, because I would still put more money into email -- choosing to put money into an awesome ESP, great creative, smart people, analytics programs, etc -- than into high-powered social media listening services.

Email.

I can send them straight to my target audience & get more replies than I do through FB, Twitter & my other social sites. I've posted the same information w/ the pictures on my Face Book page that I've sent out in emails & I definitely get a better response with the emails.

I like the direct communication & I feel it's more personal, more conducive to building relationships & loyalty.

I can also direct my audience to my social network sites in emails (sometimes below in the signature) & have the benefits of both in one email.

Emails are visual:
1. By incorporating a jpg right in the body, it becomes an informative & colorful eblast--pictures speak louder than words. It's eye catching & direct.
2. By using jpgs & pdfs as attachments, I can use the email as text for descriptions, pricing or detailed information--whatever needs to be said.

I see I'm in the minority but I agree with Craig Rosenberg that emails are powerful.