Email is still a very important channel in socializing the enterprise, because although social, search and web microsites are great ways for customers to be introduced to a branded experience, it's email marketing that is doing the work of follow up with well timed, data-driven, customized content. A quick overview of some key points from today's opening keynote at the Email Insider Summit.

Only a few minutes into a Email Insider Summit panel where panelists can't speak the name of the two biggest names in social media -- Facebook and Twitter -- and Loren McDonald, vp of industry relations of Silverpop, the moderator of the panel mention one of the companies names. Things came be that tough for digital media executives -- or the high Utah altitude. The effort is to show how marketers use new social platforms in conjunction with …

Didn't think it would work and it didn't. A social-media panel at the Email Insider Summit was given the challenge of not mentioning Facebook or Twitter in order to focus on emerging opportunities.

Relevancy vs. Frequency remains a frequent debate topic in email marketing. LivingSocial.com's Adam Lovallo, who heads user acquisition, says his company believes in a send-more-mail approach. Quite simply: if it were to send out 50% less mail, he thinks revenues would go down 50%.

Nicole Delma, who works in email and database marketing at the Huffington Post, says she and colleagues are starting to focus on the metric of "time in email" as a measure of email engagement.

At the Email Insider Summit panel entitled "25 Trends In 25 Minutes," AlchemyWorx's Dela Quist says email marketers should monitor the specific days where people "unsubscribe" the most. Quist says generally it's Monday, when people are bummed because the week has started and use unsubscribing to email list to express their anger.

Grab some good movie ideas for email marketing. Email Insider Summit is located just a stone's throw from Sundance Film Festival in Park City. And in that regard David Atlas, senior vp of marketing for StrongMail, suggests looking at the big picture. Create movie-like trailers for your emails. Work up a preview of your emails to come. "It creates a sense of expectation and engagement," says Atlas.  

Trendline Interactive's Andrew Kordek at the Email Insider Summit cites a trend he calls the "the spirit of social."

OgilvyOne's Evan Shumeyko says email provides touchpoints that can be far more valuable than social media because consumers will share information, which he tells email marketers "gives you a leg up over social." But he said email marketers can work with social experts to help them think in terms of data and information capturing.

Why will people offer data? Evan Shumeyko, the Global Director of CRM for OgilvyOne, says consumers are sharing data in "exchange for value." He uses a term "cash for information" -- 94% of young professionals will share information in exchange for monetary benefits and 52% indicated a cash reward was the most preferred "exchange benefit."