Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, claims that these new features are not meant to replace traditional email programs such as Gmail but rather bring together communications in one convenient place.

While some people claim that they are not interested in getting their messages through Facebook, I argue that it’s happening more and more. Personally, I’m finding that I get more and more messages from friends through Facebook Messages – messaging that I would typically get through my personal email.

So what does that mean for businesses? Think about it: If people rely on Facebook as their primary source for communications with friends and family, what does that mean for traditional email programs like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and other web-based email programs? Currently, people likely check email – via computer or hand-held devices like iPhones and Blackberries – immediately upon booting up their machines. If Facebook becomes the go-to destination for messages, these email addresses become less important to their owners. That becomes a major challenge for companies which market and communicate through these email addresses, sending marketing messages, product updates, e-newsletters.

How do you get around it? It’s easy – build up your Facebook presence.

It’s no new news from me, I know, but this new development from Facebook makes it even more important for you to get off the fence and strengthen (or create?) your Facebook presence.

The whys are almost countless. The hows are simple.

1. Create a Facebook page for your company. Don’t use your personal Facebook page to promote your business. Ever.
2. Invite your customers to LIKE your Facebook page by importing your opt-in mailing list or customer list to Facebook. Don’t just wait for your customers to find you!
3. Post information regularly about what’s going on with your business – just as you would send email messages to your mailing list. Don’t make it one big sales pitch!
4. Include pictures whenever possible to break up the text. Invite customers to share their photos, too! Don’t forget to make sure they are business-appropriate!
5. Share your e-newsletter on Facebook. Don’t worry if your open rates fall – you’re goal is to share the information with your customers and prospects, not just to have strong metrics.
6. Use your Facebook strategy as a supplement to your current e-marketing strategy. Don’t completely replace your current methods until you know how to do it right. Even then you may want to use Facebook as an additional channel because there’s never one right way market – every business has different audiences and therefore different needs.

I could go on and on but this is a good start. At this point no one is certain how Facebook’s changes may impact your business messaging but being prepared is essential. As I’ve said before, you don’t want to be caught unawares and see your business left in your competitors’ dust!

It should be a no-brainer, right? As a small business owner you know that you’d be nothing without your customers and clients, right? Right??!! I certainly hope so.

Still, I was intrigued by the lead story on CBS Sunday Morning about customer service these days (Missed it? Check out the video or read the transcript).

We’re led to believe that it’s only mega-corporations — like Comcast, highlighted in the video — that don’t really care about customers; that the mom-and-pop places hang on every word our customers say.

Sadly, I’m hearing more and more stories about frustrations with local businesses. People seem to hold small businesses to a higher standard. Small businesses are expected to be focused on their customers – and thankful for each customer that walks through the door. That gives us very little wiggle room to be, well, human.

But in this challenging economy we all must go above and beyond to keep our customers happy while giving our potential customers a reason to do business with us.

Take a look at every touch point – each time that your customers come in contact with your business – and make sure that you are:

• Communicating clearly and directly. Many times people are frustrated through confusion about what you’re saying, so say it simply and clearly so there is no potential for misinterpretation.
• Providing up-to-date, accurate information. I’ve said it before -  make sure that you are providing current information to customers in emails, on your website, through Facebook…wherever you connect with customers.
• Speaking in a respectful tone. This not only means being pleasant every time you pick up the phone or greet your customers face-to-face but also means writing thoughtful Facebook and blog posts.
• Presenting a professional appearance. Similar to the above point, it’s vital that you look the part as well as act the part. If your receptionist is chewing gum and chatting on the phone or texting her boyfriend, your waiting customers will not feel valued.
• Offering solutions to their personal and business challenges. Many businesses feel that the most important communication they can provide is information about their products and services. In this marketing landscape, often the most important thing you can provide is a solution. A CPA doesn’t just sell accounting services, it sells financial expertise and peace of mind. A theater doesn’t just sell tickets to a show, it sells entertainment and a way to relax and enjoy life. A plumber doesn’t just fix pipes, it provides running water and a comfortable home. You get the point.
• LISTENING. I’ve saved the most important for last. The bottom line is that often people just want to be heard – and to know that you are listening to their frustrations. As reported in the CBS Sunday Morning story, many people who call customer service lines don’t get anything at the end of their call. No solution. No compensation. I’d argue that they do get something that may be more important – a place to voice their frustrations so that they feel heard. That’s often the most important customer service you can offer.

The long-and-short of it: Clothing retailer Gap last week changed its logo and people went nuts – commenting on Twitter and Gap’s Facebook page about their dissatisfaction (in some instances, that’s putting it mildly) over the new logo.

Judge for yourself: traditional Gap logo (left) and the failed attempt at revising the logo (right)

Many people are now sitting in wonder, asking why people even care. Those are the people who shouldn’t have a business of their own – because with popular brands, every little thing matters to the rabid fans (thanks, Entrepreneurial Women’s Expo for that phrase). In the case of Gap, it was a change in the logo. All marketers (and children of the 80s) remember the New Coke debacle - and that was long before social media could be a driving force in the acceptance of your brand and product – which almost brought down the most recognized brand in the world.

What’s to come of Gap’s ill-fated attempt to change its logo (other than to review their relationship with Laird & Partners, who designed the logo) is yet to be seen. One thing is that Gap has learned that powerful social media campaigns make for powerful press – which can be positive and negative – but ultimately powerful fans can change even the most well designed and well intentioned business plans – which can be expensive or even fatal to your business.

For some reason, people like to be scared…for entertainment.

But fear can be debilitating – especially in business.

The key to overcoming your business fear is figuring out what you’re afraid of…failure or success.

While a fear of failure is somewhat common,  it may seem silly to have a fear of success. Isn’t that why you start a business, to succeed?

Well, sometimes everything that comes with success is overwhelming for a small business owner. Many small business owners started their own business in order to create a work/life balance or support a cause. Some small businesses were born by accident – a hobby turned into a great money-maker, perhaps.

The growth and potential of your business may have become overwhelming – blossoming far beyond what you had expected or intended. As such, a fear of being able to manage the success sets in. Maybe you think that you don’t have the skills to properly grow the business or that you’ll have to sacrifice your lifestyle to support your booming business. It could be that you’ve created a family feel to your company that you feel will go away with too much success. Are you a bit of a control freak and fear losing control as your business grows? All those are valid concerns as plan for the future.

On the flip side, are your fears of failure tied to the financial investment necessary to operate your business? There is nothing scarier than finding your bank account empty with business left to be done. Are you afraid of damaging your reputation? Disappointing your family, your employees, your investors, your clients, your friends…yourself? Not sure what type of job you’d be suited for if your business fails?

The bottom line is that any business venture requires risk at some level. Assess your risk tolerance as you plan your business. If you feel you are lacking skills – find a mentor or hire a consultant to fill in the gaps. Are you worried about having to devote all your time to your business and have to put your personal life on hold? Take on a partner or hire a manager to deal with day-t0-day business to free up your time. If your fears are reputation-related, know that most entrepreneurs have at least one failed business in their background – it doesn’t define you.

Think of what fears are driving your business decisions so you know how to best manage your business for the long term.

What is it? It is social media marketing.

I know I talk all the time about how important it is in the new age of marketing your business and connecting to your customers. But those folks who aren’t doing it – having a solid Facebook strategy, blogging, monitoring Yelp reviews – just can’t seem to see the purpose…no matter how much I discuss the power of the medium.

Whatever the reason(s) – time, technophobia, personal feelings about social networking, misinformation about demographics – let me share a story about how social media marketing can impact your business.

A good friend of mine has a brother who plays high school football in Missouri. Since she lives in Washington, D.C., she relies on streaming audio from a Missouri radio station’s website to hear his games live each Friday night.

She found out that this radio station was not going to stream her brother’s game. Eager to hear her brother’s game, she called the station to see if there was another way for her to hear the game. The radio station receptionist said that “the powers that be” made the call to stream a different game, apologized, and hung up.

Not to take this news as the final word, my friend turned to her Facebook friends for help. She posted a status update asking her friends to call the radio station to request her brother’s game, hoping that a flood of calls would change the scheduled program.

A group of people, including myself, quickly rose to support my friend’s cause. One call yielded the email address for the station’s general manager, the man making the final decision, which was quickly posted on Facebook.

While I am not sure how many people actually called or emailed this station after my friend’s plea, I can tell you that all the efforts worked…and my friend got to hear – via live streaming audio from KMMO.com – her brother and his high school team beat a then-undefeated rival by a very healthy margin!

What does this story prove? It proves that within hours someone can rally people to support or boycott your business. It doesn’t matter what reason, founded or not, drives them to do it…it can be done. Fast.

It is this power that business owners use as justification to avoid social media platforms like Facebook – the fear of people saying bad things about the company in a forum that spreads information in an instant.

I’m here to tell you that people are going to say things about you whether you’re online or not. Whether you respond to their requests or inquiries or not. It’s what you do with the information that can change how you’re perceived by your customers and prospects.

Use Facebook and other social networking sites as inexpensive market research – by asking people what they think about your business and responding to issues, concerns, or raves about your business from those who post about you. Every comment is an opportunity to improve your business and your connection to your audience. Use it to get better in everything you do – and you will see the fruits of your social media marketing labors before you know it.

A fun footnote to the story of my friend and the football game…In the days since my friend launched her grass roots campaign, I’ve noticed many of her Facebook friends adding KMMO to their liked pages on Facebook. These are people who may never visit the station’s website, listen to their streaming programming, or tune their radios to KMMO. By responding to the needs of your customers, listeners, members, and clients (and anyone who they talk to about business stuff), you can stave off potential PR nightmares and win lifelong fans in the process.

I now know her as a business buster.

While completing important research, I stumbled upon the following tweet on People’s website:

Toni Braxton (@tonibraxton): Just left the Lego store (Denim’s favorite store) and the MANAGER there was sooo nasty to me. Just wanted to slap him with manners!

Let me answer some vital questions for you. 1) Denim is the name of Ms. Braxton’s 9-year-old son and 2) yes, there are LEGO stores all over the world.

What is more important, however, is what this seemingly innocuous tweet could do to LEGO or any other store, brand, or business.

First, I first saw this post on a celebrity Twitter feed on People.com. If you think that it’s not common to have a feed of Tweets on a website, think again. More and more companies, associations, and blogs are adding this feature to their sites. Additionally, many people have their Twitter accounts linked to Facebook, LinkedIn and other social sites. This amplifies a spur-of-the-moment message, giving it more exposure.

Next, this tweet shows the power – and potential danger – of social networking. Toni Braxton was probably just a little frustrated after her trip to LEGO and wanted to vent. Instead of calling a friend or dealing with the customer service issue while at the store, she took to Twitter with her opinions. Your customers are likely to do the same – but with potentially more dangerous consequences since your customers’ followers may live in your area and choose not to do business with you again – simply because of this negative referral posted online.

Finally, Toni Braxton has confirmed that customer service can make or break your business. Small business owners can be, well, control freaks especially for this reason. But small business owners have to trust their employees to do the right thing – and that is best done by proper recruitment, compensation, and training. Investing in a good team can pay you back many times over!

Now I don’t follow Toni Braxton’s tweets. I’m not a Toni Braxton fan who stays current on what’s going on with her life and career. I found this by chance and it caught my attention. Imagine if this was someone I knew, followed, admired…I would probably never shop at a LEGO store again. Make sure you protect yourself from the Toni Braxtons of the world!

It’s then that I kind of give up and just glance over those unread articles – not really taking in what they are saying or how I can apply the knowledge in the future.

For the record, I had the same issue when I subscribed to multiple newspapers and business magazines (even the one I worked for!) – the feeling of being so overwhelmed that you are paralyzed as to how to tackle what is now a seemingly huge task.

Sadly, for most business people this paralysis isn’t isolated to just catching up on reading or paperwork. Too often, it intrudes into marketing and advertising tasks as well. Why? Many business people don’t know where to start when it comes to marketing so they do nothing; they are paralyzed by the idea of choosing the right path – how to craft a message, create an online store, choose the right advertising channels, establish a social networking presence, write a blog…the list goes on.

Just seeing the short list of marketing activities small business owners need to consider in the Internet Age explains where the paralysis comes from – completing each of these activities have multiple tasks to complete and considerations to be made.

So how do you overcome the paralysis?

Know your business goals. Knowing where you want to take your business is the first step to understanding what kind of marketing you need to investigate. For some markets, for example, social networking may not be the best channel (you won’t hear me say that often but I’m trying to prove a point!) – so don’t follow that path and invest the time and energy if you won’t see the return on that investment.

Understand how your customers live. You may know your customers – greet them by name as they walk in the door, count them as friends (in real life and/or Facebook), know about their kids – but do you know your customers. What organizations do they belong to? What charities are they involved with? What publications do they read? Do they DVR TV programs or watch them live? Are they Sirius/XM listeners or do they have a favorite local radio station? What activities do they participate in? Are they married, single, divorced? Kids? How old are those kids? How do they feel about social networking? Do you see them on Facebook? Do they follow blogs (do they even know what a blog is?)? What kind of cell phone do they carry – is it a SmartPhone with full email and internet capabilities? The answers to all those questions will help you make decisions about where to advertise, where to focus promotional efforts, whether to start a blog, where to funnel your sponsorship dollars. So ask. It’s your own version of marketing research.

Find the right voice. Too many times small businesses don’t know how to talk to customers when putting together websites, advertisements, brochures, and other marketing communications. I usually see extremes – either being overly formal or far too casual in their approach. An accounting firm or conservative financial institution doesn’t want to use slang in their communications but tattoo parlor doesn’t want to come off as a buttoned-up and boring business either. It’s about talking like your customers talk – talking like you’d talk to them if they walked into your place of business.

Don’t be afraid to get help. Small business owners are short on time, that’s for sure, but that doesn’t mean you have an excuse to do nothing. If there simply are not enough hours in the day to get the work done, serve your customers, and put together an effective and consistent marketing program, find ways to make the time. Surprisingly, the answer isn’t always hiring a marketing consultant. If you feel like you can do the marketing part – if you only had the time – delegate other administrative tasks to someone who isn’t as expensive. Whatever you do, don’t continue to do nothing.

Want to know the ultimate irony? Those paralyzed business owners are probably better off than the ones who choose to put no thought into their marketing or choose without a plan because sometimes doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing.

Ultimately, though, your business will suffer if Do Nothing is at the top of your marketing to-do list, so get cracking…

You may have seen Greyhound’s recent advertising blitz touting their new fleet of coaches – complete with more leg room, free WiFi, and electric outlets to make travel by bus more enjoyable for all involved.

With all this hype, I decided to give Greyhound a try – for the first time in a long, long time.

I should have known by the online ticketing process that Greyhound’s service hasn’t caught up to its marketing message.

Their online ticketing tool was dated and clumsy. I was unable to print my tickets from their instant confirmation page – and had to wait about 20 minutes before the tickets were recognized in my account. Quite frankly, I wasn’t even sure if my transaction even went through. But everything finally worked itself out and I dismissed the process as more of a nuisance than a sign of what was to come.

When I arrived at the bus station I was forgiving of my surroundings because it is, in fact, a bus station in a major metropolitan area. The real disappointment came when the bus pulled to the gate. It was a dirty, dingy, and certainly not updated Greyhound coach. The promises Greyhound made me fell far short from the expectations they had set through their marketing – which included a clean, sleek and shiny new bus at the very least.

It’s what I call the marketing vacuum. And believe me, customers don’t want to be sucked into that vacuum because you will never hear from them again. I promise you.

The marketing vacuum happens when your marketing people don’t communicate with the rest of your organization. That’s how trouble happens. Sometime even the most well-intentioned marketing professionals get so caught up in creating the message, designing the brochure, fine-tuning the language, and building the website framework that they forget to make sure that the product or service is in line with they are creating to support, promote, and sell it.

What the marketing department really is creating is a chasm between expectation and reality; a vacuum that sucks up your prospective customers and deposits them in a land where your company doesn’t exist.

How do you avoid the marketing vacuum?

Communicate! Make sure that your marketing team is in regular communication with your product development, operations, and/or executive team (and vice versa) so that everyone is on the same page regarding product offerings, changes in time lines, service expectations and the like are understood internally before sharing them with the general public.

Don’t over-promise. Marketing and advertising walks a fine line between what is and what is aspired to be. Certainly, not every company is THE BEST ______ (bus company, accounting firm, pizza place, insert your company type here) IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. But very few companies use “Hey, we’re not so bad” as their marketing message (although this has worked in the past – tread carefully if considering this approach) so they market at the level they aspire to be or to the clients they aspire to land. Generate excitement and challenge your business but don’t claim to be something you’re never going to be.

But if you do throw down the gauntlet, deliver on your promises. Greyhound changed their marketing message and started upgrading their fleet and on-board service to compete with a growing list of discount bus carriers like MegaBus – which offer seats as low as $1 each way, have a brand new fleet of buses, and offer a comfortable travel environment complete with the technology bells and whistles we’ve all grown to expect. Sadly, Greyhound seems to have put their dog before the rabbit, so to speak, by not having their service in line with their promises. In the process, they may have done more damage than good in their quest to compete and grow.

As for my future on Greyhound….well, suffice it to say my next trip will be in the comfort of my lovely Honda, which never disappoints.

A good example: I recently went to dinner at a national chain restaurant that has a constant churn of diners. It’s not uncommon to have to wait 1 hour or more for a table on weekends – and often 30+ minutes on weekdays. Bottom line: I know servers stay busy at this place so sometimes customer service falls to the wayside but my experience pushed this to the limit.

As my friend and I were seated a server came to our table, mumbled her name and took our drink order. I kid you not when I tell you she did not make eye contact with us. Not once. She didn’t smile. She barely acknowledged us. Then, as she walked  from our table, her back turned towards us, she said Thank You.

I looked at my friend and said, I don’t believe her. Then I played a game I like to call “Über Nice” where I am over-the-top nice to people who are being rude. I’ll tell you, usually this game does the trick and these customer service people turn nicer by the end of our interaction. But at dinner that night I had met my match. Our serve didn’t crack through the entire meal – she remained aloof, indifferent, and far from hospitable. But, as if she were programmed to say it, our server muttered Thank You every time she walked away from our table.

Is this how you treat your customers? By saying one thing – like Thanks for your business - but behaving in a way that makes these words (no matter how much you may mean it) empty and unbelievable.

Showing your customers you appreciate their business may mean more than a mechanical Thank You as they walk out the door or the phrase We Appreciate Your Business at the bottom of an invoice. Those words have become empty not because our society devalues them but because very few people actually say these words with any meaning or emotion.

So go beyond those empty words to prove to your customers how valuable they are to you (because we can all agree that your current customers are crazy important to our bottom lines, right?) by…

…providing an unexpected thank you gift – whether it’s 10% off an invoice, a bouquet of flowers or gift basket – at some random time of year. Any business can provide a holiday gift or birthday gift but an appreciation gift for no reason will have even more impact.

…shouting out to your customers on social networking sites…and bonus points for calling out to customers by name. People love hearing their name and getting their 15 minutes (or 15 seconds) of fame. Giving it to them over Facebook or Twitter is free yet valuable.

…writing thank you notes. Yes, I said writing. With a pen. On paper. In an envelope. That you mail. It’s always nice to get mail that isn’t a bill, right? You don’t need to gush, you just have to be honest and sincere.

…conducting your day-to-day business in a way that shows that you know that your customers are the center of your business. It’s almost shameful how many businesses (or maybe the better target is individual employees) treat customers as if they are a nuisance rather than a blessing. If your customers don’t feel like you appreciate the hard-earned money they pay you, they will look for a business who understands the value a customer brings.

…and, ultimately, meaning what you say when you say it. When you are dealing with your customers, look them in the eye and say thank you with feeling and sincerity. Your honesty will shine through and your customer will not only leave feeling good about themselves but also good about your business.

This perfect business world no longer exists.

We all rely on online and email communications – both for personal and business use. The one challenge with written communications is that each reader inserts his or her own intonation and intent in the message.

Beyond just what you write, think of how you respond to online communications – Facebook posts, email messages, Tweets, blog comments.

Even if you’re not responding, you’re saying something to your followers. All your online and email messaging is part of the conversation you’re having with prospects and customers.

Just as you would (hopefully) mind your manners when talking to someone in person, you should be following the same rules of etiquette when communicating online.

Watch your language. When creating posts for your business, stay away from phrases or words that may be misconstrued by the reader. Be simple, straightforward, and professional.

Answer when someone asks a question. You wouldn’t ignore someone asking you a question when you are speaking face to face, right? When someone posts on your Facebook wall or sends a question via email…answer them! Don’t only answer – but do it promptly. Many companies set expectations when encouraging customers to contact them – like responding within one business day. In this get-it-now world, I would argue that waiting a day is too long but as long as you state the expectation, you may avoid some customer frustration and disappointment. Tip: For email or blog comments, why not consider setting up an auto-response message that will thank the sender for their comment and explains that you’ll get back to them shortly? If nothing else, it buys you some time.

Say please and thank you. If someone brags about you online – thank them for their comments. This is true for a blog post, a Facebook comment, a Tweet, or a positive Yelp review. People like to be acknowledged so a little please-ing and thank you-ing goes a long, long way.

Treat people as you would like to be treated. Online communications and social networking abound with mores and unwritten rules of conduct. For example, it’s polite to return a ‘follow’ on Twitter – follow someone who is following you. Similarly, if a business adds you as a favorite page on Facebook, return the favor. Be civil and social – like you would at a cocktail party – to everyone around you because you never know how that person may impact your business in the future (but don’t be fake – no one wants to be friends with a two-faced person).

Don’t be mean to your friends. A friend recently recounted that she had stopped getting updates from a business she frequented in real life and liked on Facebook. Assuming that the business had stopped updating their Facebook page – hence the reason for no recent updates – she went to that page only to be confronted with the Like button, a sign that she wasn’t currently a fan of this business on Facebook. “I was unfriended by someone I do business with all the time,” she told me. And she wasn’t happy about it. From a business perspective there is rarely a good reason to unfriend someone – unless that person is writing offensive things on your wall or the walls of your fans. If that’s the case, block the person, don’t simply unfriend them. If you just don’t like what the person is saying about you, read yesterday’s blog post about handling negative comments.

Navigating the etiquette of the online world may seem a little tricky but take cues from the real world when you are in doubt!