Which do you think is more effective: email marketing or social media marketing?

Both Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing are effective.
For B2C Social Media is very effective while Email Marketing can be effective in both B2B and B2C.
If you are using Email marketing for the people who are not subscribed then of course it will be not effective.
Using both at the same time is important for business.
As through Social Media you can generate traffic to your website and through website people will subscribe to your newsletters.
Which later you can use in your email marketing campaigns.

Email marketing will be useful with your current customers and followers to send your new offers or news.
Other marketing ways is to target new customers and followers to open new market line to you.

Both are very effective.
Email marketing allows you to target your database of clients who you know are already interested in your products/services.
Whereas, social media marketing is wider and allows you to reach potential clients in a less 'formal' way.

social media marketing is much more effective, as it is more targeted to people's interests reaching the right people unlike email which is mass targeted and usually considered as spam especially if the social media marketing is done correctly and in an interesting way to people , where potential customer doesn't feel like they are being the an audience , rather than being actively engaged

Email marketing is now considered as a old digital marketing practice.
This isn't proving to be very effective these days because of smart email filters.
Spammers have ruined this practice and people now doesn't want unwanted emails in their mailbox.
That's why the conversion ratio from this activity is very low.
Socail Media marketing is successful only if you have planned it properly.
I have mentioned this many times on different forums that creating a Facebook page/Twitter account or LinkedIn page will not take your any where.
You need to have a good market and audeince research before writing and sending your content through your social media channels.
The best practice is to create your own content rather than copying it from internet.
Social Media marketing is the best tool of current time.
The best part of it is, everything you do on your social accounts is publicly accessible that helps you get viral easily and people not just view the content but provide their good and bad feedback about it.

As was mentioned above, it all depends on who you are targeting.
Personally, I use E-mail marketing to target my database to inform them of any promotions or offers available for existing clients, and to update them on any news about the products and services offered.
Social media is used more to target and attract new clients.

I think the simplest answer to that is that they are both part of the Marketing Mix.
Which means that to get the most effective result for your promotion you need to mix different kinds of marketing methods to achieve the most optimum result.
Much like food.
If you fried everything (including your salad) you will not get the same satisfaction from your food as you would if you employed different techniques to have a wide colourful spectrum of tastes and smells.
Except if you really really liked fried food.
That's a whole different story and you should go see a doctor about your cholesterol (just to be safe).

Email marketing is more effective and more measurable if you have the right database to market to.

Email marketing as someone mentioned in the earlier answers is that the old medium of personalized communication .
However depending on industry type it can be very successful medium of advertising .
Now it depends as to how the database for email marketing has been collected .
In case it is a database of email of your loyal customers or even prospective customers from whom confirmation has been taken that they have no objection to being communicated through this medium then this medium will result in large scale response .
However if the database has been bought or if someone has mentioned his/her email id in some communication and marketer starts communicating then it becomes ineffective and spamming medium.
Also the response depends on how the company has prepared it landing page for receiving the customer , incase its very confusing then then bounce rate will be very high and would lead to poor response .
Social media marketing is the buzz word that has been doing rounds for last2-3years .Here too its effective ness depends how the message has been tailored and how it is then treated.
Also this medium has an advantage over email marketing that this is engaging medium and can create noise exponentially in both ways i.e.
good or bad so marketer needs to be very careful about it .But now with the extent of personalization that this medium has created marketer cost and roi has increased say for example now one cab target their fan base through cluster marketing on Facebook , create trending for it new launches within the followers and influencers through twitter and create market place the user in their comfort zone .
So selection of medium would depend on the business , segment that you targeting and level of engagement that you have with your existing and prospective customers

Social Media Marketing is more trusted than Email marketing.
Social Media Marketing aims to build long life relation with customers.

Email Marketing is very effective , also social media ....
But we can't judge which one is more effective , its depend on many factor,But social media marketing is very fast spreading.
but this also has its own disadvantages and advantages.
I will give you real life example ...
Marketing campaign on both Email marketing and in social media .
if we set 1000 visits as bench mark.
With social media: i got those 1000 visits within 2 hours.
-Bounce Rate ( more than 60% ) -Low Conversion Rate With Email Marketing: i got those 1000 visits around 36 hours.
-Bounce Rate ( around 38% ) -High Conversion Rate So from this stats , you can see how social media is very fast.
also you can see how email marketing with proper data is effective.
you can sum up a lot of information from this basic comparison , and of course you can share it with us.
Note: this rates could be changes based on the campaign , its just for help , its depend on you and how you understand the market.