Perhaps I’m a bit late to the party, but it takes me a while to digest things at 42. In fact, that’s the whole point of this post. MediaPost’s Email Insider Summit in Captiva Island, Florida last month began with a panel of college students from Ball State (from our own Muncie, Indiana). The panel discussed how students use electronic/messaging media, what channels they use (email, Facebook, SMS, Twitter, etc.) and why they prefer certain communication channels for certain tasks. Admittedly, I went into the session without any defined expectations – but I was blown away. In fact, the student panel pretty much stole the show.

First, most of us were literally on the edge of our seats wondering what they would say about email. Would they say it’s outdated, overrated, never to be used again? Is it time for those of us in the industry to update our resumes and start looking for new careers? In all my years in email marketing, I’ve never seen so many professionals from the industry on edge…just wondering what will happen next year when all the teens embrace social networks.

Second -- and perhaps I just need to get out more -- the audience was entranced by these college kids like they were a novelty. I presented our Subscribers Rule concept over lunch on day 1 of the conference and said, “When I was 22 years old, I didn’t know or talk to anyone who was 42. And now that I’m 42, I don’t know or talk to anyone who is 22….”  I’m probably not the only email marketer who feels this way. All of us aging Gen X-ers or Babyboomers were eying the panel as if they were from another planet. However, I think we all recognized these college panelists were very much the center of what is happening to the digital, one-to-one communications landscape.

What struck me most was how each of them used media differently than I do. For a while, in fact, it seemed like a conference on social media, sponsored by Facebook. One panelist didn’t consider herself technical and said that her most important device was her cell phone. Beyond that, Facebook was important, but so was email. Another panelist, with a more technical focus, felt that if it was a casual communication, he’d just twitter or text (SMS) it, but if it was “important” -- like a communication regarding a job interview with those of us from the other world of working adults -- then email made sense.

Anyway, it all fit our hunch that consumer/subscriber preferences are more important than ever.. Everyone has their own preferences—for brand, content, frequency and medium. In the new world, SUBSCRIBERS RULE!.

For more information on subscriber preferences, download our new SUBSCRIBER RULES! Whitepaper: 2008 Channel Preference Survey