Last month, I attended a Breakfast Seminar hosted by one of our clients, ExactTarget. Jeff Rohrs, VP Marketing, held a fascinating presentation around customer engagement and what we call 'The Social Break-Up', looking at why consumers "break-up" with brands. And by that they mean why they unsubscribe to email marketing, unlike a brand on Facebook or decide to unfollow a company on Twitter.

Using the latest insight from ExactTarget's 'Subscribers, Fans & Followers' research series, this presentation looked at:

- What mistakes are brands making in one-to-one digital relationships across email, Facebook & Twitter

- Why engagement isn't just a metric in social media, but a mandate

- The internal battle being waged by users for Facebook's soul (non-commercial vs. commercial)

- The impact rapid smartphone adoption is having on email, Facebook & Twitter

- Why brands must invest in building audiences now more than ever

What stood out from this research was the fact that email is far from dead. There have been a lot of articles lately stating that we are coming to the end of the email era, but that is far from the truth. What we have found is that all social networks need email to survive and email is still the largest growing digital communication method. 96% of daily email users subscribe to at least one brand's email messages - that's a huge amount.

What is interesting is that when consumers wake up in the morning, the highest percentage of people begin the day checking their email. Knowing what a person does first thing in the morning can give you invaluable insight into how you should be marketing to that individual. The research results show that 58% of online consumers begin the day with email, compared to just 11% who check facebook. That's quite a difference. When digging a little deeper, we found that people who check email as a first priority tend to be customers who interact with brands for the sake of receiving discounts, freebies or promotions. People who chose Facebook as a first port of call for online interaction tend to be those who become fans of brands for entertainment purposes or to show their support to all their friends.

Almost 40% of consumers "like" a brand on Facebook to show brand affiliation to their friends. This doesn't mean that Facebook is the best place to necessarily endorse promotions or products, and continuous marketing messages to those people can cause a person to "unlike" your brand. The act of "liking" a brand should be viewed as an opportunity to engage with your customers and create conversation, capitalising on its viral potential.

Twitter has become an increasingly powerful channel in the digital space, but interestingly enough only 5% of people follow at least one brand. Even though Twitter's user base is much smaller than other social networks, this is still a strikingly small amount. However, these users are probably if not the most influential consumers online. Twitter has captured content creators and these users provide 2 - 6 times more content creation than all other consumers on the internet. For example, followers of brands are three times more likely than the average person to blog at least once a month. The bottom line is that what these people say on Twitter, doesn't stay on Twitter, and what they say about your brand could have a profound impact on your company.

Marketers need to be fully aware of how their customers engage online, across email, Facebook and Twitter and use that knowledge to successfully communicate with them.

The reasons for why brands and fans "break-up" all comes down to three things: brands talk too much, continuously repeat that same information and there are other brands out there who do it better.

So in reality, it doesn't really matter what social media channels you choose to talk to your customers, it's all about how you engage with them. The frequency and content of your marketing efforts need to suit each of your subscribers, fans and followers.

Jen