1. Assess the management, organization, and technology issues for using social media to engage with customers.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising, brand building, market research, and customer service?
3. Give some examples of management decisions that were facilitated by using social media to interact with customers.
4. Should all companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service and advertising? Why or why not? What kinds of companies are best suited to use these platforms?

To most people, Facebook and Twitter are ways to keep in touch with friends and to let them know what they are doing. For companies of all shapes and sizes, however, Facebook and Twitter have become powerful tools for engaging customers. Location-based businesses like gourmet food trucks can tweet their current location to loyal followers and fans. Appointment- based businesses can easily tweet or post cancellations and unexpected openings. Larger companies run sweepstakes and promotions. And companies of all sizes have an opportunity to shape the perception of their brands and to solidify relationships with their customers. Companies are rolling out ads that capitalize on the social media features of Facebook to achieve greater visibility. For example, many Facebook ads feature the ability to ‘Like’ a brand, send a virtual gift, answer a poll question, or instantly stream information to your news feed. Twitter has developed many new offerings to interested advertisers, like ‘Promoted Tweets’ and ‘Promoted Trends’. These features give advertisers the ability to have their tweets displayed more prominently when Twitter users search for certain keywords.