Bronto Blog

What valuable insight can 3 young adults who were not even born when Ghost Busters or E.T. were originally released provide to email marketers?

Last week, MediaPost hosted the Email Insider Summit on Captiva Island, FL. Close your eyes and imagine 150 email experts - people who spend a significant portion of their day thinking about email - sequestered on a remote Florida island for 72-hours. (Ok. Open your eyes now. Back to the real world.) Over 3 days, we dissected the email ecosystem, discussed industry insights, swapped best practices, deliberated over the new FTC CAN-SPAM regulations, debated co-registration and list rental, recapped the current state of the industry and speculated about the role email will have in the future.

One of the most intriguing panels at the Summit - Next Generation: Does Email Have a Future? - involved these 3 extremely well-spoken, intelligent students from Ball State University (BSU). For over an hour, the entire room was captivated by three people with a combined age of less than 60.

Is Facebook For Real?
The panelists began by talking about IM and texting; however, the discussion quickly turned to Facebook. August Miller, a Junior at BSU, said that he has a Facebook tab open at all times. His day starts and ends with Facebook. Amanda Pollard, a graduating BSU Senior, believes that “social networking is less professional.” She said that there is something fundamentally different about email; “it’s more professional.” Brandon Prebynski, a 2nd year graduate student at BSU, said he is more hesitant to open email than check a social networking site. According to Brandon, social networking is more fun; email is secondary. He thinks of email as “usually advertising, but not just to say hi; that is reserved for Facebook.” Brandon admits he uses Facebook whenever there is a free moment. Read the rest of this entry »