Micherlle Prieb, Project Manager and Researcher at Ball St. University Center for Media Design moderated the panel of 3 University students on the panel.
Each student with introduced and asked to describe what media couldn’t they live without. Examples from the panelists include the smartphone – checking email, spend upwards of 2000 minutes a month in cell phone use, and mobile sites. General internet and computer use is an average of 7-8 hrs. a day. Most are early adopters of mobile.
The college students were all in agreement that they consider the use of email to prmarily be where they conduct “important,/corporate world interactions (ie. college, job recruiters). However, social networks, and specifically Facebook, is the primary point of communication socially and with friends. One panelist describes his morning wake-up ritual as check email and facebook. All are reluctant to integrate business and social contacts into Facebook. As one panelist says: you can’t “poke your professor,” referring to a Facebook nudging feature. Amanda’s position is that social networks are solely about communicating with friends today. Brandon is more hesitant to open email than he is to a participate on a social network (it’s more fun) and perception that email is full of advertising, solicitation, and junk. Email is secondary in their world. Here were a couple of questions posed:
How do you see your behavior change as you enter workforce?
August says that email will not be as preferred in the workplace, as today’s college students get entrenched as the next business leaders, but he’s not sure which network- likely something not yet conceived; Amanda & Brandon don’t think the shift will happen as quickly and email is still a professional platform for communicating to your boss or coworkers and the social network method of communication as not something they’ll integrate into their professional lives.
How do you feel about branding/marketing messages being delivered to email?
The key message from the students? The more targeted, less intruisive it is, the better. All were more tolerant of opted-in email, but their responsiveness and acceptance will change day-to-day. The students all have a perception that if they are unsure of the email, then they will delete it as it may have a virus. Also, the myth persists amongst the college kids that the unsub functionality is a confirmation to spammers to send more.
The panelists prefer a more targeted, blog/content related email and less focus on coupon or deals. For instance one panelist won’t delete email from Apple, it’s “slick,” interesting, and not to freuqnently delivered. Amanda loves newsletters – Mediapost, blogs and anything with an immediately relevant content or subject. No panelist could define a specific metric of “too much frequency” but all wanted to know upfront what to expect when they do opt-in.
