With the start of the new school year, the national e-service Inbox.lv has launched a campaign to attract Latvian schoolchildren as users of e-mail and other Inbox.lv services. Students who have not yet registered with Inbox.lv are encouraged to do so by 30 September, as 100 MP3 music players will be raffled off among all active school-age Inbox.lv users.
In September, schoolchildren are invited to make more active use of the wide range of Inbox.lv features, including not only e-mail, but also showing their latest photos to classmates in “Inbox Foto” galleries, sending large files to friends via “Inbox Files”, relaxing after classes with “Inbox Games” or sharpening their minds with “Inbox Smart”, as well as enjoying funny jokes, photos and video clips on “Inbox Fun”.
“We need to get schoolchildren used to e-mail in good time. For adults this means of communication is largely taken for granted, but children often use social networks instead of e-mail, so our concern for schoolchildren is not only self-interested, but also about the sustainability of e-mail,” believes Elizabete Piuse, Marketing Manager at Inbox.lv, recalling that, for example, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had previously predicted that over time social networks would completely take over the functions of e-mail.
“We are rightly proud that the majority of Latvian residents open their private e-mail at Inbox.lv, but, thinking about the future, we must also think about how to attract schoolchildren, because in ten years or so today’s schoolchildren will be the most active audience of Inbox.lv,” says Elizabete Piuse.
Many current Inbox.lv users also have a work e-mail as well as another e-mail account elsewhere, but unlike a mobile phone number or even a home address, an e-mail username is changed much less often. That is why it is very important to be the first, because once an e-mail address has been shared and the first e-mails have started to arrive, the user no longer wants to change either their e-mail address or their e-mail service provider.
When creating an e-mail username, Inbox.lv recommends using a combination of first name and surname and avoiding pet names and nicknames. The e-mail may be used not only for private correspondence, but also, for example, years later to contact a potential employer, or it may be needed for other kinds of official correspondence.
