For any negative stories, address them immediately and take action in whatever channel the communication came through, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn, so customers will believe that the company cares about them. Don’t make a mistake like what BP did when the oil spill occured last year, when they waited so long to address all of the negative comments on Twitter. If BP would have addressed the comments immediately, the image of the company probably would have been a lot different, as we know it now.

By addressing customer concerns will make your customers long-term advocates of the company and attract new customers based on the positive experiences of the current customers.

As Digital Marketers, it’s our job to be able to understand target audiences and to not get stuck in our own marketing ruts, just because we know what has worked for us in the past as marketing channels. Don’t let changing techonologies put you “out-of-date” as a marketer or as a business.

Social media and mobile marketing have given us new channels to market to our target audiences and we should take advantage of these new technologies, since they give us more interactive and real-time communication channels, that were limited by prior technologies.  These new channels are great ways to build thought-leadership for B2B businesses and get real-time data from consumers for B2C businesses. For example,  B2B businesses and marketers, should check out LinkedIn.com for building direct communication through the Groups feature with potential clients and opening the communication with your industry. For B2C businesses and marketers, use Facebook to create excitement for your brand with consumers through contests and interactive polls.

Consider for your Facebook marketing strategy, to offer unique promotions and discounts to consumers on Facebook that is unique to only those users, to get that ‘Like’ click and to win fans. Offers could make a significant difference to your new lead strategy.

The top 10 ranked sites that are used by baby boomers show similar online surfing habits, as the younger demographic. Top 10 sites for baby boomers are Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Microsoft, AOL, YouTube, Wikipedia, Ask, and Amazon. Note how similar these are to the top 10 sites for the 18-34 year old demographic group: Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Bing, YouTube, Microsoft, AOL, Fox Interactive, Apple, Wikipedia. Uncanny how similar these groups tastes have become, especially since the previous older demographic trends have shown slower technology adoption. That may have been true of those previous generations, but not of the baby boomers.

If you are a marketer that has normally targeted the 18-34 year old demographic because you thought that was the best demographic, think again, the baby boomers should not be overlooked for targeting your ad spend. Convince your companies that baby boomers should be a considered demographic to market your products/services to. These baby boomers have more cash and are more free to spend their cash, since they don’t have the same economy restrictions that have hit the younger demographic in the U.S.

The top reason for using cell phones and mobile devices (54%) in America, is for forwarding videos or photos to friends. Although more and more people now have smart phones, tablets, and laptops, a small percentage is using these devices to access social media on-the-go, which means it’s important to consider social media on mobile devices for the future, but be realistic and focus your marketing efforts and dollars on where your target audience is today.

For the Publishing Marketer, this will allow you to tap into Facebook’s 500+ million users without having to have a Facebook branded Fan Page. By using the Facebook API, will allow publishers to enhance the user’s experience at their site with social functionality.  How?  Publisher’s will now be able to place the Facebook toolbar at the bottom of a site page, which will offer a social experience with the popular ’Like’ button, friend’s list info and chat.

Marketers that advertise their products/services or Fan Pages on Facebook  will eventually have better ad targeting, since the Open Graph will allow for Facebook to gather new user data on preferences and behaviors, thus making better for targeted ads for marketers.

Don’t let the hype confuse you from the online marketing strategy that you have already created, but definitely research Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare to see how your target audience, is being marketed to by either your competitors or companies in general.

Social media marketing is becoming an integral part of the overall online marketing strategy mix and if you’re a good online marketer, it’s your job to review these networks as possible leads for your company. Just be careful not to exhaust your resources trying to jump on the social media bandwagon, before doing your research carefully.

Good luck!

Is your target audience actively engaging on social media networks, such as Facebook and/or LinkedIn? If yes, then you have made a case to try some moderate testing on the Social Networks, but if no, don’t get caught in the hype! Traditional online marketing is still alive and kicking, as shown today in ComScore’s latest reports that Yahoo and Google still have more traffic than Facebook.

If you know where your target audience is, then that should dictate how to focus your energies for marketing channels.

Angstz.com has found a way to target its users that Facebook.com, and MySpace.com have not been able to do with their own membership base, target based on interests.

Advertisers have a choice of either traditional banner advertisements or branding the entire Advice channels at AngstZ. Angstz.com is currently in public beta and advertisers can get reduce pricing, while the site is in beta.

Go to http://angstz.com.