…or is it?
Recently published data seems to indicate that Facebook fan pages are quickly becoming a better vehicle with which to reach your prospects than the decades-old tradition of email marketing. At a minimum, they are becoming at least as viable as email marketing.
Is the money still "in the list"? The answer may, for the first time in a long time, be "no".
Facebook fan page reach often outperforms traditional email marketing open rates by as much as 38%. Post engagement often outperforms email marketing click-through rates, and negative feedback on Facebook posts are, on average, 1/7 of the number of email unsubscribes. Fan page engagement is also often more cost effective than maintaining an email list.
Based on the above statistics, it does, in fact, appear that social media may be poised to soon overtake traditional email marketing as the best strategy for engaging both current and potential customers / readers.