New North Social Media Breakfast

One of the biggest challenges in social media marketing is giving up complete control of your message. When you create a Facebook page or Twitter account, you expose your company to the opinions of the general public. Pretty much anything goes. But the truth is, even if your company chooses not to participate in social media, you’re still at risk of being talked about in an unflattering light on the Internet. By participating and creating a social presence, you can more effectively monitor and react to any negative comments being written about you.

The worst way to respond to negative comments is to ignore them and hope no one notices. An unanswered negative comment makes you look irresponsible and leads other followers to believe that the comment is true, even if it isn’t. It’s best to analyze the comment and determine your response from there. Of course you can never be prepared for  everything people say, but here are a few tips for reacting in a professional and responsible way to negative comments online.

1. Appologize

After all, the customer is always right. Although this can be tough to do (especially if the comment is particularly surly in demeanor), by doing so you show that you are a responsible and respectful adult. If the comment in question truly brings up a valid fault of your company, it’s best to own up to it and respond with a genuine apology. Offer your suggestion to amend the situation that warranted the comment in the first place.

2. Make it Right

Sometimes, a simple “I’m sorry” is not quite enough in the wronged customer’s eyes. They want restitution for the trouble your error has caused them. Try to come up with a gift that matches the severity of the blunder and offer it up to the offended customer. I would suggest extending this proverbial olive branch in private. If word gets out that you bend over backwards for customers who complain, this will just spur a cycle of social media drama. People could start taking advantage of your generosity, and make up ficticious complaints about you, just to score freebies.

3. Set the Record Straight

You may come to find that some negative comments are just downright false. This could be the result of a misinformed fan or someone trying to spread harmful lies about your company. My advice: Assume ignorance. When you assume the commenter simply didn’t know any better, you are more likely to respond in a polite, informative manner. Plus, if this is something that other people are confused about as well, it gives you a chance to clear things up in front of your social media audience.

4. Embrace It

If you determine that the comment was intended to stir up controversy, use it as an opportunity to start a discussion. Chance are, your loyal supporters will see the conversation unfold and jump in on your side. Comments made by your supportive fans serve as informal reviews of your company as they deffend the quality of your product or service.

5. Agree to Disagree

If you’re known for taking a stance on a certain topic, you’re bound to draw comments from people who disagree with you. It’s not your place to try and convince everyone on the Internet to see things your way. Address comments that challenge your point of view with an open mind. Try to see where the challenger is coming from, but in the end, you may just have to agree to disagree on the issue.

6. Watch out for Trolls!

Some negative comments may be completely unwarrented and irrelevant to your company. These comments fall into the “spam” category. People who make negative comments on social networks just for the sake of gaining exposure or drawing negative attention to a company are called trollers. There really isn’t any good that can come of these comments. If the comment is posted on your Facebook wall, as administrator of the page you have the power to delete the post.

In my experience, negative comments are few and far between. When you encounter a negative comment, take a few moments to think about your response before you take action. Figure out a way to turn a negative comment into a positive situation for your company.

Of all the social networks you could use for marketing, LinkedIn is the most inherently business-oriented. What I mean by that is, it’s features are clearly meant for business development, it tends to attract the ideal target audience for many businesses, and its sole purpose revolves around networking for business professionals. If you haven’t found a place in your social media marketing strategy for LinkedIn yet, the time has come to bite the bullet and get on board. Here are 6 ways to leverage LinkedIn to generate leads.

1. Re-Purpose Content

LinkedIn is the perfect stage from which to project your expertise and claim your status as a thought leader in your industry. You can do this by sharing valuable content with your LinkedIn connections. If the thought of coming up with even more content makes you light-headed, take a few deep breaths and relax, because there’s no rule that says you have to come up with original content to share on all of your social networks. For example, you can share little tidbits from your latest blog post, with a link to the article for further reading. The act of content sharing is a subtle, yet effective way to reach out to prospects.

LinkedIn Apps

LinkedIn also offers a number of different applications that allow you to embelish your profile. For example, there’s a WordPress app that allows you to sync your blog with your LinkedIn profile, so that any time you publish a new post, the entire blog post gets posted to your LinkedIn profile too. There is a similar Twitter app, which automatically shares your Tweets with your LinkedIn connections. Have a killer presentation that deserves to be shared with the world? There’s also an app that allows you to upload and share your Google Presentations on LinkedIn.

2. Solidify Connections

Try not to get into the habit of “collecting connections.” Having hundreds of LinkedIn connections that you never correspond with is not nearly as beneficial as having a smaller group of connections that you engage with on a regular basis. After you make a new connection, take the next step to further get to know that person. Taking an interest in people is a great way to show that you care, thereby earning the person’s trust and respect. You will also learn more about that persons needs and find out if there’s a qualified lead in that particular person.

Don’t worry if you don’t get 100% reciprication in your efforts to reach out to people. Not everyone will share your enthusiasm for making solid connections, but those that do will appreciate it and respond whole-heartedly.

3. Get Involved in Discussions

Become a contributing member of the LinkedIn community by joining in the discussions happening every day. Seek out discussions by joining groups relevant to your business. Within these groups lies active, lively discussions just begging for your input. As you contribute more and more helpful comments, people will start to realize that you really know your stuff and you will gain exposure within the LinkedIn community. That exposure and expertise will eventually translate into inquiries, and finally, sales leads.

4. Use Group Stats to Find Your Target Market

Did you know that LinkedIn generates a nice little statistical run-down of the members of each group? The stats include valuable demographic data so that you can more easily find groups that are made up of people in your target market. Once you find a few groups that fit into your target, focus your energy on those particular groups for better chances of bringing in leads.

5. LinkedIn Answers

Demonstrate your expertise and gain exposure by answering questions on LinkedIn. There is an advanced search feature that allows you to seek out questions on a specific topic. Answering questions really helps you gain exposure on LinkedIn. Your answer appears under the question that was asked, on your profile, and in the news feed of all of your connections. Plus, any time the questioner picks your answer as the best answer, you gain expertise points.

6. LinkedIn Ads

If you want to go with a more direct approach to generate leads, there’s always LinkedIn ads. The advertisement plan on LinkedIn is quite user-friendly and is accomodating for any budget size. You have the power to pick the placement of your ads so you can seek out your target based on job title, geographic location, or even group (here’s where those group statistics come in handy). Your advertisement will link back to your website, so you’ll want to make sure to have a specific landing page set up for those who click on the ad.

Generating leads on LinkedIn doesn’t happen by bombarding your connections with sales pitches or by having the most connections. It happens by gaining exposure and offering helpful advice to the people who are proned to buy from your company.

Looking for a way to simplify your social media marketing process? Social media dashboards are a great way to more efficiently manage multiple social networks in one place. I’ve touched on social media dashboards in the past; however, until now, I’ve never really gone into much detail about what’s out there, how they work, and the unique features they have to offer. Here is a list of some of the veteran applications that have been around almost as long as Twitter itself, as well as a few fresh dashboards on the scene.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is an application strictly meant for monitoring your Twitter accounts. It was recently purchased by Twitter, so you know this one’s not going anywhere anytime soon. TweetDeck has a very user-friendly interface and allows users to set up multiple feeds. For example, you can set up separate columns for your home feed, @mentions, retweets, and direct message all for one Twitter account. Plus, if you manage multiple Twitter accounts, you can recreate this setup for each account. You can also schedule your Tweets if you’re going to be out of the social scene for a while and need to automate your Tweets. My favorite TweetDeck feature: The audible “chirp” when someone mentions you in a Tweet.

HootSuite

HootSuite incorporates Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter into one dashboard. Most people would agree it’s nice to be able to view all of your social activity from one application. You have the ability to monitor all of your feeds, send Tweets, and update your Facebook status, right from the dashboard. Like TweetDeck, HootSuite also has scheduling abilities if you ever want to automate your social media posts.

One minor limitation of the free version of HootSuite that I have come across is that only one person can use HootSuite per Twitter account. So for example, if your company has several people using the same Twitter handle, only one of those people can use HootSuite for that Twitter account. If you’re willing to pay for the professional version of HootSuite, this problem is easily solved.

Seesmic

Seesmic is an alternative to HootSuite for compiling all of your social media feeds into one dashboard. Seesmic allows you to monitor Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare. Similarly to HootSuite, Seesmic allows you to update your Facebook page directly from the dashboard. However, I have read articles claiming that Facebook posts made from a third-party application such as HootSuite or Seesmic are subject to a lower EdgeRank than if you were to update your status directly from Facebook. Since nobody knows the algorithm Facebook uses to determine a post’s EdgeRank, it’s hard to tell if that is in fact true.

CoTweet

The free, or standard version of CoTweet is a Twitter dashboard with a focus on a more team-oriented approach to Twitter. For example, many companies want everyone within the organization to be able to participate in social media, but giving employees individual Twitter handles could be counterproductive in building one large following. CoTweet’s collaboration tools allow multiple users to Tweet under the same Twitter handle in an organized way. CoTweet also has scheduling capabilities and e-mail alerts for @mentions. You can add Facebook accounts to the dashboard if you’re willing to upgrade to the enterprise version of CoTweet.

MediaFunnel

MediaFunnel is another great social media dashboard with an emphasis on collaboration. If you’re looking to outsource your social media marketing plan, you may be a bit apprehensive about handing your company’s message over to someone who is essentially still a stranger. MediaFunnel has different user capabilities, which are broken up into administrator, publisher, contributor, and guest. So if you want to keep the social media ball in your court, assign the role of Admin to yourself, and set up your dashboard so that your manager can submit Tweets and Facebook posts, but they have to be authorized by you before they go live. MediaFunnel also has a monitoring feature so you can keep track of what’s being said about your company online using specific keywords.

Of course this list could go on for days, but I chose the social media dashboards that are the most reputable and offer the most useful and diverse functionalities. Everyone will have their own dashboard preference based on interface preferences and what they want to accomplish with their social media marketing plan. Feel free to try out a couple of these dashboards before you settle on one. You want to make sure that the dashboard meets all of your needs and that you feel comfortable with the one you choose.

This past weekend my team had the pleasure of working in the midst of about 200 sales people, helping them with their social media questions, putting on mini-workshops for them, walking them through tedious steps of getting started and of course, as is the case with many groups just crossing the threshold into the social media space, dealing with a fair share of skepticism on to the topic of whether or not social media can help them sell.

Let’s step back for a second and just look at the data. According to reports from HubSpot (they’re good for these sorts of data points), not only is LinkedIn one of the best channels in all of social media for generating leads that benefit sales people, in a survey of thousands of businesses, over 50% have generated sales from their blog and from LinkedIn. That alone is pretty powerful information that would get me off the fence.

Alas, that’s not enough for some, and the main challenge that we still see is the “obligation vs. opportunity” mindset that resides within certain people. Now, this doesn’t mean that everyone has this mindset. In fact, there are many people who are bullish on social media. And let’s be honest here, if you’re in sales or marketing, you’re always working toward the future, selling to the future customer, seeking the next project or working on the next idea – we’re paid to think ahead and to be more optimistic…it’s how we keep ourselves going in the face of closed doors, unreturned calls and unsuccessful marketing attempts. Nevertheless, we heard plenty of “oh my, how am I going to fit this in with everything else I have to do?” Well, let’s address that.

Obligation or Opportunity?

In his book, Today We Are Rich, Tim Sanders talks about turning your “Have-Tos into Get-Tos”, meaning that we should simply be thankful and have the gratitude for what we “get-to” do especially in the face of so many people out of work and all. However, I’m not sure that everyone would be sold on the concept of “yeah! I get-to go and search for prospects in LinkedIn today.”

The prevailing attitude toward social media then is that it’s this onerous obligation stacked on top of dozens of existing obligations that we don’t already have time for. For those people, perhaps they see everything in their life as an obligation, and that’s unfortunate, as there are so many opportunities hidden by the thin cloak of obligation. For the record, I see the world of social media one of unprecendented opportunity. Such as:

• An Opportunity to build a wonderful community of customers in a place that they’re already spending time. (Facebook)
• An Opportunity to stay up to speed on the real-time conversation in my industry, making me better informed and more useful to my customers. (Twitter)
• An Opportunity to be notified of upcoming projects, ideas and changes in the market before any of my competitors. (Google Alerts)
• An Opportunity to network with like-minded professionals in my area and position myself as a helpful resource. (LinkedIn Groups)
• An Opportunity to connect with old friends, key influencers and others for whom I can make a difference (LinkedIn)
• An Opportunity to take in some stunning visuals and to add my own touch of style in social media (Pinterest)
• An Opportunity to share my knowledge, insight and research with anyone who’s seeking the information I have from recent presentations, talks, webinars and so on. (SlideShare)
• An Opportunity to share my unique point of view and start a conversation with people that holds mutual interest. (Blog)

I think you get the point. Opportunities are everywhere in social media, and we can start to see them when we look at this new world through the lens of opportunity rather then through the bars and shackles of obligation.

Let’s face it, social media is not just for college students and businesses anymore. Any organization can find a use for social media, whether it’s to market a product or service, raise awareness, or simply to connect with people on a deeper level. The uses for social media amongst public safety departments may not be obvious on the surface, but a closer look reveals some pretty cool ways in which the various groups that make up the public sector can use social media to interact with citizens, share valuable information and keep people safe.

1. Heightened Public Safety

Members of the police department or fire department could reach out to local citizens with a daily safety tip on Facebook or Twitter. Think about it, a Tweet could serve as a simple reminder that saves a person’s life! Or the Fire Department could teach an entire lesson in fire safety on its YouTube channel! Keeping the public educated and informed is one of the best way to improve safety, and social media is the most efficient way to reach the masses.

2. Solicit Fundraising Participation

Want to get more people to attend the police department’s monthly pancake breakfast? Social media is a great way to promote events, fill seats, and sell tickets for fundraisers. Save money on marketing materials by creating a Facebook event for free. That way more of the money you make with the fundraiser goes toward the cause rather than cost.

3. Roadway Updates

Keep the roads safe with Twitter traffic reports, driving conditions, and accident updates. Don’t make drivers wait to hear about driving hazards on the news, or worse yet, in person. Tweet real-time road conditions or indicate roads to avoid on a map on your Facebook page and update it as needed. Keeping people away from the scene of an accident or off of a dangerous, snow-covered road makes your job as fire fighter or police officer easier and helps keep people safe.

4. Recognize Staff Achievements

Turn members of the squad into hometown heroes by featuring different emergency personnel on your blog each month. It’s a great way to boost morale and team work within the police department, fire department, or any other public sector group that deserves recognition for hard work and high achievements. It also lets citizens know they have a great team of people protecting their city.

5. Promote Programs

There’s always something going on within the community, whether it’s CPR class or the babysitter certification course. Keep citizens informed and involved easily with social media. You could incorporate a calendar of events within your Facebook page and remind fans the day of the event so people don’t miss out. E-newsletters are another great way to keep people informed of the programs and events happening in the community. Use MailChimp to send out a monthly newsletter to people of the community for a more direct form of contact.

Staying in contact with an entire town or city is easy and efficient with the use of social media. It’s a great way to proactively keep citizens safe and informed, so your departments can dedicate more time to serving the needs of the community.

Gone are the days of scrapping together long lists of links to interesting recipes, blog posts you’ve been meaning to read, or designs you’re into. Ever since a little invention known as Pinterest came about, that’s all history, because now whenever you’re surfing the web and see something you want to remember, you can simply pin it to your boards and come back to it later when you’re ready. It’s super easy and there’s even a creative aesthetic aspect to the new social network.

With 10 million users to date, it’s pretty clear this social network is gaining ground fast. So what does this mean for marketers? How can we capitalize on this wildly popular social network? Here are 7 ideas for businesses who want to add Pinterest to the social media marketing mix.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest brings a totally new concept to the social network scene. It’s not so much about collecting friends or fans, speaking your mind, or connecting with professionals. It’s about collecting good ideas on the web, organizing them in a unique way, and creating an image. Users can create different boards for different categories, such as recipes, decorating ideas, fashion tips, or bits of inspiration. When users find something on a website they want to remember, they can simply “pin” the image to one of their boards. There is a social element to the network, as you can connect with and follow other users, just as you would on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. That way, you can look at your friends’ boards, and if you see something on someone else’s board you like, “repin” it to your own board.

There is also a pretty neat design element to Pinterest. Its layout is very simple, with clean lines and simple colors. The aesthetic aspect to Pinterest makes it easy to spend hours cruising other peoples’ boards, looking at pretty pictures and gathering ideas. That said, it’s worth noting that Pinterest is not just for the female demographic. Pinterest is catching on with guys just as quickly, and while they may not have boards for “cool hairstyles” or “my fairytale wedding,” guys are definitely finding their own things to pin on Pinterest.

1. Portfolio Piece

Are you a designer, artist, or stylist of some sort? Pinterest offers you a great way to showcase your work and even organize it by project type. For example, a photographer could have a board for weddings, a different one for senior portraits, and another board for engagement pictures. It gives people a feel for your style and makes it easy for people to share your work with their followers.

2. Featured Products

A lot of retail stores have already jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon by creating boards for different product lines. For example, a clothing store could make different boards for women’s cloths, men’s apparel, and children’s clothing. Within each board they could put together different “looks” to give consumers ideas for putting outfits together. Although there is no e-commerce component to Pinterest, each pin should have a link back to the original website. Not only does this drive traffic to these retailers’ websites, but it makes it easy for consumers to find and buy merchandise online.

3. Give Your Brand a Persona

This is especially relevant for businesses that don’t have something “physical” to display on Pinterest. If your business provides a service rather than a product, you’ve got to get creative with your boards. Create boards that speak to the values your brand strives to embrace or the type of lifestyle your consumers lead.

Take a massage parlor for example. They probably can’t pin the different types of massage packages they provide, and if they did, that might not be so well received on Pinterest. However, when you think about the type of clientele a massage parlor attracts, it’s people who put a premium on relaxation, tranquility, and even health. Said massage parlor could create a board featuring images that inspire relaxation, yoga poses, pictures of relaxing places, and health food.

4. Re-pin Your Followers

Pinterest is not meant to be purely self-promotional. Just like with Facebook and Twitter, people will only put up with so much self-promotion before they stop following your brand. Take time to check out your followers’ boards and if you see something that speaks to your brand’s image, re-pin it. It shows that you’re not just all about you, and it makes things more interesting for your followers. Wouldn’t you be flattered if Pottery Barn liked your style enough to re-pin something from your boards?!

5. Follow the People Who Pin You

Pinterest allows you to see who has pinned you, or re-pinned one of your pins. Chances are, the people who are frequently pinning you are going to be your best customers. Follow these users, study their boards and do some good old-fashioned market research…well, not too old-fashioned I guess. Either way, by studying your followers’ boards, you’re granted an inside look at the things your best customers like the most. Take that information and try to apply it to your business strategy.

6. Pin Resources

Not only is this one helpful for you to have easy access to a running list of some of your favorite resources, but it’s also extremely useful for followers who might be interested in learning more about your industry. Think thought leadership with visuals. Pin your favorite books, blog articles, and infographics that are related to your industry.

7. Reach out to Your Facebook Fans

Currently, you can’t register for Pinterest through your Facebook fan page, so you can’t find Pinterest followers using your Facebook fans. However, there’s no reason you can’t manually invite Facebook Fans and twitter followers to look at your boards. Anytime you create a new board, let people know about it on Facebook and Twitter.

There are already so many uses for Pinterest when it comes to marketing your business, and it’s still only in beta testing! The marketing potential with Pinterest is great with endless possibilities. What are some creative ways you have seen brands using Pinterest for marketing?

We’re often asked questions like:

What is the size of the profile picture in Facebook?

How wide and deep can you make a Facebook tab?

Well, the folks over at Dream Grow have put together a great post on all of the Facebook page dimensions along with a handy download  of PDF Facebook dimensions cheat sheet.

Check out their post on the subject and download the cheat sheet.  Very cool, and very useful

If you didn’t know about Google Hangouts before, I’m sure you do now after President Obama utilized the social tool to address the nation the other night. Just in case you missed the buzz surrounding the event, Google Hangouts can be described as a virtual meeting place that takes place through Google’s social network, Google Plus. Other celebrity figures have held Google hangouts as well, but I think marketers and other business professionals can find great uses for Google Hangouts too. Here’s the skinny on Google Hangouts.

Who

Google Hangouts are a great way to interact with your clients, social media followers, and colleagues. The only caveat is that participants must have a Google Plus account. Hangouts limits the number of people who can participate in the Hangout to 10; however, if you choose to make the Hangout ‘public’ you can invite as many viewers as you want.

What

As I mentioned above, Google Hangouts is a feature offered on the social network, Google Plus, that allows users to hold virtual meetings online. Hangouts are perfect for teaching, collaborating or brainstorming, and getting feedback from some of your trusted clients.

When

Google Hangouts can be held anytime. I would recommend scheduling the Hangout well in advance so that invitees have time to fit it in to their busy schedules.

Where

Well this is pretty obvious: Google Plus, of course! Physically, you can host a Hangout anywhere you have access to a solid Wi-fi connection…your house, the office, hotel room. I would strongly suggest finding a quiet place to avoid picking up unwanted background noise from say, a coffee shop. Also, I can’t stress enough the importance of a good internet connection. With a choppy internet connection you can’t expect the Hangout to run very smoothly.

Why

Google Hangouts are an efficient way to interact with multiple clients at a time. It shows that you are accessible and that you care about what they have to say.

How

When you are logged into Google Plus, you’ll notice there’s a “Start a Hangout” button on the right side of your profile.

Click the button and you’ll be required to install the Google Voice and Video application, which should only take a few minutes.

Once you’ve installed the app, you can select the people you want to join the Hangout, and if you want anyone to be able to view, choose the option to make the Hangout public. When you’re ready to start the Hangout, simply press the “Hangout” button below the video screen and start hanging out.

Hangout Extras

You’ll notice a link below the Hangout button called “Hangouts with Extras.” Extras offers a suite of extra functionality that Google is currently testing out. The features that I find to be the most useful are screensharing and shared notes. If you think any of these features would help facilitate your Hangout, go ahead and press the “Try Hangouts with extras” button.

How to Prepare

Just as you would prepare for a meeting, conference, or webinar, you’re going to want to get organized before the Google Hangout. Try to sketch out a rough outline of what you want to talk about and what you want to get out of the Hangout ahead of time so that you go in with a clear game plan.

Since this is a very new form of online interaction, it might be a good idea to attend someone else’s Google Hangout or just hold one with some friends to get a better feel for the technology. That way you’ll be an old pro when you use Hangouts for important business matters, and your Hangout will go off without a hitch. Have you had a chance to experience Google Hangouts yet? If so, what did you think?

Social media marketing has spread like wildfire over the last couple years, with a huge portion of the participation taking place on Facebook, the Grand Daddy of all social networks. One reason for that is Facebook’s business-friendly platform, Pages. One of the marketing tools offered by Facebook Pages is Facebook Ads. If you’ve been on the fence about Facebook Ads due to skepticism, uncertainty, or a small marketing budget, read on to clear up any misconceptions you have regarding Facebook Ads. Here is a step-by-step guide for learning and implementing Facebook Ads.

1. Set Goals

You can’t expect success without first clearly defining your goals. If you already have a social media marketing campaign chances are you’ve already laid out goals for the overall campaign. Your goals for Facebook Ads may or may not be the same as your social media goals, but there’s a good chance your goals for your Facebook Ads are more specific. For example, perhaps you want to run a series of ads to promote a specific event for your company or a product launch. On the other hand, you could stick with more general goals, like attracting more targeted fans or driving traffic to your website.

2. Define Your Target Market

Facebook Ads allows you to target your ad campaign toward specific groups of people based on demographics, likes, interests, marital status, and even level of education. Think about your primary customer base and their defining characteristics when choosing your ad target. Be careful not to be too exclusive with your parameters to avoid cutting out potential leads. However, you also don’t want to cast your net too wide. You don’t want to waste your ad dollars on people who have no interest in your company or what you’re trying to promote.

3. Set a Budget

For those of you who’s main argument against using Facebook Ads is a tiny budget, you’re going to want to read this part carefully. You can pay as much or as little as you want to run an ad campaign. Facebook allows you to put a cap on the amount of money you spend, either on a daily basis, or for the duration of the entire campaign.

There are two different payment options; there’s the “Cost per Click” (CPC), which charges a set amount for each click your ad receives, and the “Cost per Impression” (CPM), wich charges a set amount for every 1000 views of your ad. For example, if you choose to go with the CPC method with a budget of $25 per day, you pay a certain dollar amount every time someone clicks on your ad until your daily budget of $25 is reached. Cost per impression works in a similar way, but is based on the number of users who see your ad, but don’t necessarily have to click on it.

What do the two different methods mean in terms of marketing strategy? It really depends on your goal for the campaign. If your campaign is action-focussed, say you’re trying to get people to RSVP to an event or get people to visit your e-commerce website, the CPC method is probably best for you. However, if your campaign is meant to simply raise awareness or get your name out there, CPM might be your best bet.

4. Call to Action

Facebook gives you 135 characters to write your ad copy. Make sure that within that 135 characters you have a clearly defined call to action that is in line with your goals for the ad. You can also include a picture with your ad, so choose one that stands out, but also one that people can easily associate with your brand.

5. Review Performance

Once you launch your ad, the work doesn’t stop there. Just like with your Facebook fan page, you have access to data and metrics that allow you to track your ad’s performance. Facebook’s Ads Manager allows you to see statistics about who’s viewing or clicking on your ads. Study this information daily and make adjustments to your ads accordingly.

Facebook does a great job of explaining Ads, so even if you run into questions as you’re setting up your Ad, chances are there is a [?] symbol nearby. Simply click on that symbol for further instruction. Have you already tried Facebook Ads? If so, what was your experience?

It’s a new day in the world of customer service.

The days of an 800 number and email address being the sole communication tools for customer service departments are over. Today, social media has entered the scene, and as the early returns indicate, it’s a win-win situation for both customers and businesses.

If you think social media hasn’t provided a breath of fresh air in the world of customer service, check out what’s happening in the hospitality and telecommunications. Here are some pertinent examples of how businesses are dazzling customers and turning complaints into a golden marketing opportunity:

• A sales representative staying at the Orlando Marriott World Center had a room that overlooked some air conditioning units. He tweeted, “I have the crappiest room in the hotel.” A front-desk employee saw the tweet, and immediately upgraded the client to a room with a view of the pool.

• AT&T is ramping up its “social media customer care” division to respond to the over 10,000 mentions per day about AT&T and its products and services and “shape the online conversation”.

• A guest who moderates and edits a website about Blackberry news tweeted that he wanted “a cold beer.” A hotel employee picked up the tweet, and replied “Can I buy you a beer? Stop by the front desk.” When the guest visited the front desk, a bucket with 10 beers for the client and his friends was waiting.

• A hotel guest staying in the Bahamas was becoming frustrated by a lack of towels and the absence of a rollaway bed in his room. With no response forthcoming from the front desk, he posted a note about it on the company’s Facebook page. Within the hour, his towels and rollaway bed were delivered.

These examples clearly indicate that not only do businesses react to social media, but many customer have quickly placed a premium on their response.

But why? Isn’t it enough to simply pass the complaint to your staff and put them in the queue with other customer service issues? The answer is an emphatic “NO”, and for a reason that may surprise you.

Social media customer service is a marketing opportunity

When you consider that any complaint voiced in social media isn’t just a one-on-one conversation between you and your customer but rather a part of the entire online conversation about a brand, the stakes for organizations are much higher.

In the case of the influential Blackberry guest listed above, his extensive list of Twitter followers could see exactly how the hotel handled the comment. It was a tangible example of the hotel’s customer service staff in action.

Using social media for your customer service can effectively help you on a number of fronts. Here are the three reasons why you should make it part of your program:

1. Address customers where they’re at. Social media is within easy reach for most people and they expect you to respond. According to blogger MG Siegler who applauded Comcast’s efforts to reach customers in social media, "A lot of people complain about Comcast, but when they get someone person-to-person reaching out, a lot of people feel better, even if it doesn’t actually serve long-term problems."

1. Generate positive exposure with a vast audience. Simply showing that you’re quick to respond to issues and resolve customer concerns in social media can be worth more than any corresponding effort spend on advertising or marketing.

1. Use it for invaluable market research. The comments you receive can also give you a real-time indication of where you’re falling short. If you respond to those tweets and posts, you gain valuable insight to what’s really irritating and motivating customers.

Skeptics may shy away from the no-holds barred world of social media, but for the business truly focused on customer satisfaction, this is a golden opportunity.

You can prove yourself, market yourself, and better yourself all at once. It’s why social media has quickly become the norm among companies intent on providing innovative customer service solutions.