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Chinwag Live: When Customer Service Goes Social just got really exciting with the announcement of some leading brands joining the panel.

The event, taking place on Wednesday 5th October, will look into the profound impact social media is having on how corporates interact with their existing and prospective customers.

We are very pleased to announce that we'll be joined by Gavin Sathianathan, Strategic Partner Manager at Facebook, Julia Monro, Community Manager at Marks and Spencer, Boris Jacquin, Digital Marketing Manager at Nando's Australia and Guy Stephens, Technology Consultant at Capgemini (UK).

The debate about the best way for brands to engage, use and market with Facebook is raging as the social networks 700m strong userbase firmly places it on every marketer's radar. In this controversial guest blog by Mark Rogers of Market Sentinel, he investigates the numbers, the reality and gives brands 3 simple rules.

All this summer we have been looking at the effectiveness of Facebook for a variety of big brand customers. Here is what we have discovered, and for Facebook it doesn’t make pretty reading.

Chinwag Live returns to London on Wed 5 Oct, 2011 with an evening session that explores what happens When Customer Service Goes Social, sponsored by Conversocial.

The impact of social media is having an increasing impact on the way organisations market themselves and interact with their customers. Conversations previously confined to phone or letter are now taking place publicly on Facebook, twitter and other social media channels.

Taking place right in the middle of National Customer Service Week our expert panel will look into the profound impact social media is having on how corporates interact with their existing and prospective customers. 

The past weekend showed that many consumers these days have the expectation that if brands are on Facebook they’re offering customer service 24/7.

It has been widely publicised that the riots we experienced throughout the UK were instigated via social networks. But what is the true role of social networks here, and should we be preventing these services from exacerbating such situations?

There’s no way you could have missed the latest news stories, groups of youths within the communities of England have been causing unrest in many major cities, causing criminal damage, burning down buildings seemingly indiscriminately and looting from all manner of businesses.

This is a very handy resource for anyone tasked with getting stuck in to a Facebook marketing campaign. Priit Kallas at DreamGrow Social Media has put together a downloadable PDF with dimensions and sizes:

Using Google Trends and the popularity of search terms as a guide to media consumption certainly isn't bulletproof, but reading Matthew Slight's post about the shift in media consumption inspired a spot of digging. And boy, is Facebook having an impact on search terms - just look at the graph above.

I can't work out whether it must be slightly galling for Google search execs to watch one of their main rivals rocket in popularity, or are they rubbing their hands with glee at all the data gathered about user's interaction with Facebook?

Whilst Facebook and Twitter are both ramping up their sales functions in the UK, sheer numbers play a factor, but influence will play a critical factor in grabbing those marketing dollars.

Seven hundred million is a very big number. And with Facebook's big number comes big opportunities for branding, marketing, commerce, games, analytics and insight.

Following on from the success of Social Media Week London, Chinwag is launching "Chinwag Insight: Facebook Marketing", a brand new full day conference exploring how to harness the 700m strong userbase to create a positive impact on their business. 

The event scheduled for early Autumn will take place in central London for senior marketers from agencies, brands and media owners and is the first event (we can find) focusing solely on Facebook as a marketing platform.

So Google and Facebook really seem to be going head to head.  Google does not send people to Facebook and vice versa.

I am sure we remember that back in May, Facebook was discovered to be guilty of hiring a PR firm principally to tar Google’s reputation in regards to their privacy policies.  However, Facebook themselves really aren't any better!  They have been caught red-handed using personal data in inappropriate ways.  All you need to do is read their Terms to find out how blasé they are with some of our most personal information. 

Here are some of the more interesting ones I found –

Always a fan of a tasty infographic and this morsel from Online MBA doesn't dissappoint, featuring a breakdown of the top-line numbers behind the daily deal giants: Groupon, LivingSocial and new entrants Facebook and Google. Amazon's announcement that it's entering the fray is too new to be included.

The figures put Groupon's eyewatering valuation in perspective: revenue of $100m, valuation of $6bn and plenty of red ink. Is there a touch of snake oil amongst the current offerings? Kevin Kelleher blogging at CNN Money seems to think so:

Facebook this. Facebook that. Facebook blah blah blah. In digital circles that's all anyone seems to talk about these days. Over 500 million people can't be wrong? Or can they? The picture isn't quite as black and white, or should that be blue and white?

PR giant Edelman recently published two social media maps looking at social networks and social media consumption across Europe and Asia along with an analysis of the most popular social networks and online usage.

At first glance Facebook is dominant, with the majority of online time spent on social networks or consuming video, with Zuck's giant dominating the European scene. From the research:

On May 11th 2011 - Facebook, yet again, updated their 'Promotions Guidelines'. So what does this mean for us? Well, essentially it is now harder than ever to run a successful promotional campaign on Facebook.

The problem is, most of us don't have the time or inclination to sit and read the Facebook 'Promotions Guidelines', let alone decode all the legal 'jargon'. But don't worry, I've [selflessly] taken the time to review each point and provide a simple explanation of what it means.

Italic text is lifted directed from the Facebook Promotions Guidelines (last revised: May 11, 2011) and the text in italics is my 'decoding'... Enjoy!

The world of work, or rather the search for work, is under-going a revolution at the hands of social media. A recent study, Kelly Global Workforce Index, shows one in 5 of US respondents are using social media for their job hunt (see below for infographic).

The recruitment landscape is still dominated by online jobs boards, with word of mouth mouth, recruitment agencies and direct approaches proving the most widely used methods.

Whilst only 1% of the survey respondents found their jobs through social media (the survey ran Oct '10 to Jan '11), this looks set to change, with 24% of respondents searching for jobs using social media.