Gen Y Would Abandon Social Networks before Email or Texting

Participatory Marketing Network research shows email is still a popular social
app

NEW YORK, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The Participatory Marketing Network (PMN),
which helps marketers transition from push and permission marketing to
participatory marketing, together with its research partner Pace University's
Lubin School of Business' IDM Lab, today announced results from its third Gen
Y behavior study. The survey looked at time spent and preference for visiting
social networks, reading/writing email, texting, talking on the phone,
watching TV, reading magazines and surfing the web (non social media sites).
While Gen Y do indeed spend considerable time on social networks, when asked
what they would least like to give up for one week, only nine percent said
social networks while 26 percent said email and 26 percent said texting.

"These results may be surprising to some, but not if you consider the role
email continues to play in the day-to-day lives of Gen Y," said Michael Della
Penna, PMN co-founder and Executive Chairman. "As long as email remains the
collection point for social networking updates, including alerts around new
followers, discussion updates and friend requests, it will remain a powerful
force in marketing and our lives."

Other notable findings from PMN's Gen Y research include:
-- Email (26 percent) and text messaging (26 percent) are the activities
least likely to be "given up for a week," followed by TV (15 percent),
talking on phone (11 percent), visiting social networks (nine
percent),
reading magazines (seven percent) and visiting non social network
sites
(six percent).
-- Average time spent on social networks per month is 33 hours, compared
to
31 hours for email. A difference of two hours per month is
unexpectedly
small given the disparate media coverage given to Facebook and other
social networks.
-- Texting remains an important communications tool for Gen Y with the
average number of text messages per month exceeding 740.
-- Gen Y spend more time emailing, texting and social networking online
than talking on the phone, watching TV or reading magazines.

-- Interest in mobile marketing remains low among Gen Y, with only one in
five now receiving targeted promotional messages and only four percent
planning to do so in the future.

The study, conducted in October 2009, included 203 panel members (consumers
between the ages of 18-24).

The Participatory Marketing Network partners with Pace University's Lubin
School of Business' Interactive & Direct Marketing Lab to provide its members
with exclusive access to a Generation Y panel for ongoing research
initiatives. Members can design and execute proprietary quantitative and
qualitative research in conjunction with the PMN to better understand and
market to this powerful consumer segment. The broad definition of Generation
Y includes more than 70 million Americans born between 1977 and 2002. For more
information about the Participatory Marketing Network, to inquire about
membership, or for more information about the Generation Y and Social Networks
study, please go to http://www.thepmn.org.

The Interactive & Direct Marketing (IDM) Lab at the Lubin School of Business
(http://www.pace.edu/idmlab) at Pace University is a student-run direct and
interactive marketing agency that works with its roster of clients on
traditional interactive integrated marketing situations and new media
solutions. It is a formal practicum, headed by its founder Professor of
Marketing Harvey Markovitz (hmarkovitz@pace.edu), who has been a direct
marketing professional since 1968 holding an MS in Interactive Marketing (NYU)
and by Professor of Marketing Vishal Lala, Ph.D. (vlala@pace.edu), who is an
expert in data base marketing, consumer response modeling and consumer
behavior.

SOURCE The Participatory Marketing Network

Michael Della Penna of The Participatory Marketing Network, +1-516-209-3822;
or Scott Bauman for The Participatory Marketing Network, +1-978-471-9572,
sbauman@greenoughcom.com