Students Don’t Use E-Mail

I live with some typical millennials. They text all day long and spend time with social media. What they don’t do is spend a lot of time on e-mail.

My college age daughter does check it. She knows her college will send her messages that way, and her mother. My high school age daughter needs more of a nudge: “Have you checked your e-mail at all this month?!?”

A recent study released by eROI shows just how typical this is. The study looked at how high school and college students and recent college graduates communicate digitally. According to a review published by the Center for Media Research:

• Students, on average, read marketing emails on a “rarely to never” basis, with 61% falling into this category, says the report. Only 16% are reading marketing emails on a frequent basis, while 66% of students rarely or never take action on marketing emails.
• Most college students do not feel that companies’ advertising is effectively speaking to them:
  • 60% of students take action upon receiving an email only if they are interested in the product
  • 47% take action if they are attracted to a special offer
  • 11% of students take action because of the design of an email
• About 36% of students use email alerts to keep up to date on what’s happening on their social networks
• About one-quarter of students originally got an email address for social networking purposes
• One-quarter got an email address for the ability to buy online
• 81% got an email address for communicating with family
• 52% for communicating with friends

Students are actively on social networks, and the study finds that they are spending their time as follows:

• 83% of college students use Facebook,
• 65% use MySpace and
• 21% use LinkedIn

The study identifies the channels are students using most. The preferred means of communication for college students are:

• Text messaging (37%)
• Email (26%)
• Social networking IM (15%)
• Instant messaging (11%)
• Social networking email (11%) 
• And 12% of students check email on a mobile device

To get the full report (it is free, but you will have to supply some information), click http://www.eroi.com/student-email-marketing-social-networking-survey-results/?source=homepage