When I tell hip social media experts that I specialize in direct mail copywriting, they laugh and tell me it is an obsolete medium that no one uses anymore.

If that’s true, why ?does an article in Deliver (2/11, p. 5) tell us that global direct mail advertising will reach $25 billion a year by 2015?

According to a study conducted by Robert Half Technology, more than half of U.S. companies block employees’ access to social networking sites. Nineteen percent let employees ?use Facebook, Twitter, and similar sites for business purposes only, while 16 percent permit limited personal ?use. The 4 most common reasons why companies block social media access are:

1. Productivity will suffer.

2. Employees will say things that get the company in trouble.

3. Access to social networks will introduces viruses to the company network.

4, Access to social media will consume mission-critical bandwidth.

Source: Communication World, 10/10, p. 28.

According to Publisher’s Weekly, this January more e-books were sold in the U.S. than either hardcover or paperback books!

E-book sales jumped 115.8% to $69.6 million, while sales of mass market paperbacks fell 30.9% to $39 million. Hardcover books ?only sold $49.1 million for the month.

I predict that e-book sales will soon exceed both paperback and ?hardcover sales combined.

The Kindle has caught on, though I haven’t caught the fever yet; I’d still rather read a physical book.

How about you?