I’ve just sent some mock exam feedback to students by email. Guess which service is used by over 90% of them?
Hotmail. (Of these, the overwhelming majority use hotmail.com and only 5% the new hotmail.co.uk address). The next most popular email provider (9%) is the university’s own service. Yahoo, Google and all others don’t get a single user among this small sample. Hotmail is clearly still a runaway viral marketing success among young people.
My niece, who has started at another university, tells me she’s grown out of MySpace, loves Facebook, doesn’t like Bebo, and hasn’t heard of Blogger.
Even the smallest, most informal surveys can throw up interesting results and challenge our assumptions. I must get out more…
PR Studies 
Don’t know if you’ve heard of hi5.com, an online network. Tonnes of young people are on it.
Collective Conversation: 2007 Round-Up
Before I head off for a couple of weeks break, I thought it would be worth delving into the data behind…
The link between windows live messenger, hotmail and the msn passport is more than enough to explain the majority of hotmail addresses. It’s not a mere matter of viral marketing. The key factor is reaching the user first, through the IM Client.