To solicit generosity from younger generations, the Salvation Army is moving its fundraising efforts into the digital world (but still takin’ it to the streets, don’t worry)!

In addition to a Facebook widget, e-mail and text message donation capabilities, the Salvation Army has also started a Twitter feed to supplement its Red Kettle Campaign.

-Maria

Publicists are always looking for the best answer to the eternal question, “What’s the best time of day to send an e-mail?” According to new research from the Center for Media Design, people pay the most attention to their e-mails in the morning. Some other findings:

• Email engagement peaks in the morning. Many users, myself included, start their day by rifling through their email inboxes. Mornings allow email users to spend uninterrupted time in their inbox.

• In-out-in-out in the afternoon. As the day progresses, users tend to have more fractured interactions with email. Email is checked intermittently throughout the day between meetings and errands. Thus, in the afternoon, there are more email episodes (any time users check into their email inbox), but those episodes are shorter in duration. Between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., users are likely to have five individual episodes of 3-5 minutes apiece, compared to the 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. period when users are more likely to have a single episode that is substantially longer.

• Overall time in the inbox is fairly consistent throughout the workday. Between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., email makes up between 30% and 35% of the average user’s media exposure. This drops off during the late afternoon and early evening, only to peak again in the late evening (between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.) as users go back to their inboxes to wrap up the day.

-Alyssa

This article shows a few great examples of companies who are utilizing e-mail marketing in unique ways, including Urban Outfitters, Arden B, Fossil, Sephora and more.

-Maria

People are more likely to open an e-mail if the subject line is less than 60 characters.

—Alyssa

Fun facts about how Baby Boomers use the Internet:

• Only 15% of 55- to-64-year-olds use social networking sites, compared to 75% of 15- to-24-year-olds (although many of my friends’ parents have recently popped up on Facebook)

• Online boomers were more likely to send or receive e-mail on a given day: 54% versus 49% of younger Americans who are wired (that’s because we’re too busy texting or IMing)

• About 66% of online Boomers have looked up health information online, compared with 54% for younger users

• Boomers were more likely to visit online support groups for specific medical conditions and personal situations: 55% versus 36%

• Half of online Boomers have used the Internet for financial information, compared with 28% for the younger group (my dad checks his stocks every day on Schwab, then jots the information down by hand in a notebook)

—Alyssa

Most people check theirs constantly, according to eMarketer.

-Maria