Whether your business is prepared to handle customer service questions via your social networking sites or not, the day will come probably sooner than later—when people will start reaching out to you there—expecting timely responses. If you haven’t started to integrate social media and customer service you might be surprised to learn that for the most part you already have the tools you need right at your disposal. You may just need to be thinking about using them a little differently.

In order to do social media marketing well, companies need to know whether their social media efforts are working and if their users are truly engaged. Some businesses spend so much time trying to lure readers to their social media pages for the first time that once someone signs up for their blog’s RSS feed, or becomes a fan on Facebook or follower on Twitter, it’s almost as if they haven’t devised part two of their strategy. Companies need to be thinking about how to keep people coming back.