First understand this: customers complain about your brand because they want to love it. They wish your products pleased them, your service satisfied them, your offerings fulfilled their every desire. They act annoyed, angry, and irritated, but underneath that is a secret desire for you to succeed. To be amazing. To be the best brand that you can be.

In any customer service interaction, online or offline, your job is to channel frustration into adoration. The line between hate and love is so fine with a dissatisfied customer that a timely and effective response can often entirely shift sentiment. Social media gives you an opportunity to do this publicly, where everyone can see that your brand cares.

This is a fact: 33% of consumers who are contacted about an online complaint publish a positive review.

This is another fact: An additional 34% delete their original negative review.

And this is my favorite fact: 18% turn into loyal customers and buy more.

In an age where your brand will be talked about online whether you like it or not, social media gives you a place to control the conversation and transform negative sentiment into positive action. Here are four ways to achieve that:

1.) Be Timely. When a customer is disappointed he or she wants resolution fast. Create a process that allows you to address complaints on Facebook and Twitter the moment they arise. This is especially important for crisis management, but you should also brainstorm ways to funnel complaints on social media to customer service. Don’t avoid a late breaking crisis. Be quick and timely. The longer you take to address a complaint, the longer you leave it open to additional complaints.

2.) Be Empathetic. We’re human. We love, hate, vent, and laugh. When your product disappoints, it strikes a chord in us. Acknowledge that emotion. Don’t say, “I’m sorry that you feel that way.” Say, “I’m sorry – that must be so frustrating.” Do you see the difference? The first is blaming the customer, the second is sympathizing with the customer. Show your customers that their disappointment is your disappointment, because it is. You want your brand to please them.

3.) Be Apologetic. Don’t beat around the bush, say “I’m sorry.” Show your customer that your brand takes responsibility for dissatisfying him/her.

4.) Be Human. It’s easy for a customer to rail against a giant, faceless brand, but it’s hard to yell at an actual person. When crafting responses to negative feedback online, sign your name. Just your first name. Don’t go crazy with last names. But this single act of humanizing your brand will ease the customer’s angst and potentially minimize their venting.

5.) Be Actionable. Whenever a customer has a complaint, you need to do something. Tell your customer about this. A customer may, for example, need to email your support team to actually get a resolution. That’s fine, but make sure that you tell him/her the steps that you took to make the situation better. Say, “I’ve contacted our support team – they should be expecting your email.” However small the action is, take it and tell the customer that you’re working for him/her.

Surely you have heard of Pinterest by now. If you haven’t, here are five reasons you better look it up quick.

1. It’s really easy

There seems to be some debate over whether or not people like to make lists. Sure, there are those who live and die by their to-do list, and those who have never made one. But it’s a little more complicated than that. Way back in 2010, when talking about privacy concerns and the concept of sharing Facebook posts with only a subset of friends, Mark Zuckerburg said, “Guess what? Nobody wants to make lists.” What he really meant, though, is no one wants to make lists of their friends. It is flat-out hard to do. Consider that nice lady in the cube next to you. You don’t really care if she sees photos of you and your girlfriend, but she is not quite on that sure-let-me-show-you-pictures-of-last-Friday-night level. So what is she? Close friend? Acquaintance? See, lists of people are no fun.

But Pinterest gets it right. People like to make lists—or categorize and keep track—of things. As Dennis Crowley of foursquare said about the service’s new-ish lists feature, “People make lists of places all the time. I’m going to Chicago, what should I do? Let me jot down five ideas.” It is easy to look at a picture and identify it as a “recipe,” “place to travel,” or “idea for the kids’ room.” And it’s fun.

User can re-pin existing pins, or pin images from websites using a bookmarklet.

2. It’s the definition of super-curation

If you’re like many consumers, your expectations for controlling the media you consume are ever increasing. Last September, Facebook helped advance this shift by giving you the ability to choose whether or not you “subscribe” to updates from your friends and even whether or not you see all or just some of a particular person’s updates.

That’s excellent, but how do you tell Facebook you do want to see every photo your old college roomie uploads of the fabulous food he is cooking up, but you have zero desire to see any other content from him. You don’t. So you see every “important” update or you unsubscribe from all of them. Neither suits you, and Facebook is suddenly less able to meet your “needs.”

Pinterest doesn’t put you in that predicament. If you and your sister have all the same dream travel destinations, but she has atrocious taste in art, fine—follow her travel board and not her art board.

Co-founder Ben Silbermann’s “Delicious Food and Delicious Drinks” board shows the items he has pinned, as well as others’ engagement with the pins.

3. It’s aspirational

Unlike other popular social networks, Pinterest allows you to create the you you want to be. In fact, that is the very point of Pinterest. Social network “etiquette” calls for using a representational photo for your profile picture. Your activities and interests are captured by little thumbnails, and your status updates and uploads create a very real virtualization of your life. You are bound by who you are in that moment and who you have been.

Pinterest is forward looking. It says, I may live in this shabby apartment due to circumstances, but this is the kind of house I would like to have. It is about things you will do. It is about getting better.

4. There’s no urgency and no pressure

For the average social media user, being active on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is plenty to keep you parked at the computer for hours on end and justify that unlimited data plan. The thought of another “must-do” social media network might be terrifying. The pressure to respond to messages on Facebook, to maintain an active Twitter stream and update your blog regularly is intense. But there is not that pressure on Pinterest (at least not yet). No one will care if you don’t pin anything for a few days (though most users are quick to admit they are on the site daily) because following a person on Pinterest is secondary to sifting through the steady stream of visual satisfaction.

5. And last, it’s like a game

The fact that you can pin on your own terms makes it a little like those asynchronous games—Farmville, Words with Friends—whose popularity has caught us all by surprise. There is no required commitment, and a low level of commitment will not hinder one’s ability to enjoy the site. But, the more you pin and follow people or boards, the better your experience will become.

As one Pinterest “super user” said, “To me, Pinterest is a game I can customize and always win.” Bingo.

Pinterest, which is still technically in beta and is invite-only, allows users to create “boards.” Not unlike the real bulletin boards you may have in your home or workspace, users “pin” images to the boards from around the web and from photos they upload. Users can follow other users or choose to only follow particular boards from a user. Though some sources say Pinterest launched as early as 2008, it didn’t start to gain mainstream popularity till last fall; since that time, traffic to the site has grown 400% to almost 12 million monthly unique visitors.

Want to see what all the fuss is about? Request an invite on the site or ask one of your friends that is already pinning (they have unlimited invites to dole out). Just want to take a peek? Here you go.

I’m a die hard Google fan. There, I said it. I love their search engine, their products and their brand’s personality. I love that they value curiosity and intelligence. I also love that most of their products are free. And most of all, I love Google for the first “core principle” in their company philosophy:

“Focus on the user and all else will follow. Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line. Our homepage interface is clear and simple, and pages load instantly. Placement in search results is never sold to anyone, and advertising is not only clearly marked as such, it offers relevant content and is not distracting. And when we build new tools and applications, we believe they should work so well you don’t have to consider how they might have been designed differently.”

So, you can imagine my dismay when I learned of Google’s most recent initiative, “Search, plus your world.” At first blush this sounds like the beginnings of social media and search integration—the Holy Grail of Internet media. But instead, Google has actually hardcoded content from their social media product, Google+, into their search results.

Google’s decision to prioritize Google+, not surprisingly, resulted in complaints from Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, this has also resulted in the FTC expanding its antitrust investigation to include Google+. Of course, Google is simply trying to increase Google+’s market share; however, whether the move reflects the sixth item in Google’s company philosophy—“You can make money without doing evil”—is questionable.

Facebook, Twitter and MySpace certainly think it’s questionable. The three social media networks have partnered to create a bookmarklet (found at www.focusontheuser.org) that uses Google’s own algorithm to replace hardcoded Google+ results with social media results from around the Web (watch the video on their site for a full explanation).

Although some will argue that Google has the right to update their products as they choose, it’s important to understand that Google’s dominance in search (65.9 percent in December 2011) gives them the power to affect significant change with even the smallest step. Consider that Google’s stock is currently trading at over $600 a share, Facebook is poised to have the largest internet IPO in history, and each company is trying to win the digital ad game, and it’s easy to see why the introduction of “Search, plus your world” is getting people’s attention.

I’m still a die hard fan, but I hope that they come to an agreement with the rest of the social media industry that is mutually beneficial to all users. As I mentioned above, my favorite thing about Google is the first principle in their company philosophy, “Focus on the user and all else will follow.”

We asked a couple of folks at Peter Mayer to talk about the Super Bowl ads—the wins, the losses and this new deal of advertising the advertising. We got a well-researched summary of the goings on from Interactive Media Director Jeremy Braud, and from Executive Creative Director Josh Mayer, we got heartfelt longing for the way things used to be. They were also featured on WDSU last night. Check out both below.

From Jeremy

A 30-second commercial in Super Bowl XVI cost advertisers up to $4 million; this year, marketers created multimedia campaigns aimed at engaging fans and extending the effects of their efforts.

To do this, advertisers built buzz by releasing teasers, or extended versions, of their commercials online before the big show. This year’s most successful teasers were for Volkswagen, Honda and Acura which each generated over 10 million online views. Each leveraged past icons—Star Wars, Ferris Bueller and Jerry Seinfeld—to position their brands. They were rewarded with a massive amount of traditional and social media exposure, successfully building hype for their Super Bowl ads.

Audiences are more engaged with the Super Bowl commercials than ever; IAB estimated that 41% of PC owners would be using their computers during the big game, along with 56% of smartphone owners and 45% of tablet owners. This represents a great opportunity for marketers to engage consumers and leverage brand connections.

Even before the game, Volkswagen encouraged fans to create invites for their own Super Bowl parties and promoted them via rich media ads on YouTube. That ad placement added several hundreds of thousands of dollars to the price tag, but ensured a premium placement when fans went online to view other Super Bowl spots.

Chevy developed the first app tied to a major sporting event. The app created for iPhone and Android customers allowed consumers to compete for one of 20 Chevrolets and 6,000 other prizes. Chevy kept distracted consumers interested in their brand by posing questions related to their ads and products in order for consumers to win the prizes.

But all did not go smoothly for social media from Toyota and Chrysler. Toyota got into trouble early last week for spamming Twitter users who used the #Patriots or #Giants hashtag. Instead of personalizing their messages they sent the same message to all fans, each and every time they used the hashtag. Consumers reacted negatively, leading Toyota to cancel their social campaign.

Chrysler received rave reviews for their Halftime in America spot. They incorporated their video into rich media ads and in premium placements online. Their interactive map was designed to show fans how they were helping keep America, and Chrysler, on track. Millions of social media connections were made, but the NFL had YouTube remove the video for copyright infringement. Hours later it was back online, but not before sapping the campaign’s momentum.

To measure the social buzz around Super Bowl campaigns, Peter Mayer utilizes Sysomos; we can track the volume of social chatter, sentiment related to ads and trending data. This year’s most positive mentions went to Doritos and Bud Light spots, which used animals and babies to sell their products. Go Daddy and Lexus received the worst reviews from fans for their lackluster offerings.

This year’s Super Bowl didn’t produce many standout commercials, but the industry is breaking new ground with its use of interactive and social media. While results and case studies pour in from this year’s campaign, we can rest assured that these brands are already planning on outdoing themselves next year with better creative and more interactive offerings. We will continue to monitor their results and report back on the findings.

And from Josh

I don’t like it. Not one bit. All this pre-release, pre-hype, watch-it-before-the-game scheming. Oh, I understand it from everyone’s point of view. There’s a lot of money at stake, and if you can garner more eyeballs before the Super Bowl, then what could be wrong with that? A lot.

Call me a purist or a scrooge or a naysayer, but what I like about Super Bowl commercials is that they have to fight it out during the Super Bowl. It’s a win-or-go-home game, just like the actual Super Bowl. And to win, to become talked about the next day, week and year, these ads have to be special. They have to stop you from going to pee, delay your trip to the fridge. They need to make you want to “shhh” the room; they should be so surprising and startling that you want to clap. Or laugh. Or say, “Aww.” Or be so outstanding in the allotted commercial break that they actually could be considered better than the game itself.

But now all of these old rules have been made moot by the preview party. The YouTube early release. The best of Super Bowl Commercials Show. I say “Hooey.”

Again, for the agencies and advertisers, and maybe even the public, the new way has its advantages. We get to see it more, more, more! More for the consumer, more for the agencies and more for the clients who are footing the bill.
But have we done the typical American thing? Have we taken something that was good—maybe even great—and made it worse by trying to make it better? Have we taken the great once-a-year moment and overdone it?

Hey, I love my birthday, but it only comes once a year, so maybe I’ll just have a pre-birthday a week before and then I get a weeklong birthday culminating on my actual birthday! And then for the week that follows, I’ll celebrate “The Best of Josh’s Birthday, 2012!” Makes no sense, right?

So thanks, America. Thanks to us, the agencies, the clients and, of course, the media, for taking the great ritual and spectacle of the Super Bowl commercial and ruining it, like Die Hard 4.

Nonetheless, here are my top five and bottom five spots that I actually saw and experienced during the Super Bowl:

Top 5:
Audi – “So Long, Vampires”
Fiat – “Sexy Italian”
Kia – “Mr. Sandman”
Sketchers – “Mr. Quigley”
Cars.com – “Confident you”

Bottom 5:
Bud Light – “Platinum”
Lexus – “Box”
Go Daddy – “Body Art”
Honda – “Ferris Bueller”
Doritos – “Stretch Baby”