Over the last five years the role of social media has presented many exciting opportunities to businesses. According to a new survey, engaging with a brand on social media sites makes consumers 79% more likely to recommend that brand. With research like this, it is not surprising that businesses are embracing social media and finding new ways to connect with their customers.

Social media can be a fantastic medium to harvest valuable customer feedback and spread marketing and PR messages - and there are a variety of channels to do this. Social networking is about building connections. At the heart of social media marketing and PR is listening and providing valuable content, regardless of which social or business network you are linked in to.

Whether you use social networking for business or pleasure, or a mixture of both, the Microsoft Outlook Social Connector is an invaluable tool. Working from within Outlook, the Social Connector provides contextual information when working with your e-mail messages. This information may be enhanced with connections to social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Acting like a mediator, the Outlook Social Connector requests information on your behalf from each configured social network. The information is then available within Outlook. When communicating with these social networks, you are reassured that Microsoft takes precautions to help protect your privacy and the privacy of the friends and colleagues you interact with. E-mail addresses are hashed before they are sent from Outlook. The social networks can only match the e-mail addresses known to the social network. A non-hashed e-mail address is only sent to a social network when you explicitly add a person to the social network with the "add" button.

The information available in Outlook is based on the person's privacy settings. For example, if the person has made information available to you or publicly to everyone on the social network, then that information may also be seen in Outlook. To control the privacy settings for your information check the privacy policy for a specific social network.

Even if you are using social networking for fun, always plan what you want to tell people, how you can measure reactions and who should be involved. Be clear about your objectives; with so many opportunities it is easy to get distracted.

Next, identify which social media channels your target audience are visiting. It's easy to get caught up in the mood of the crowd, but don't be too impulsive, and try to listen to conversations to learn the style before jumping in (remember that the world is listening, so be courteous and transparent).

You can engage with your audiences by adding value and providing your own insights. Remember to respond to reviews to demonstrate that you are listening and care about customer service. Links are the currency of social media, so try to link to other sources. Always think before you hit enter on your keyboard - are you happy for your content to be spread far and wide?

By coincidence I recently received an email via a social networking site inviting me to "Communicate with Excellence" and to join "an exhilarating and progressive day's training on cutting edge communication". Reading on, I am told that I will be able to: "Understand & utilise Body Language to your advantage"; "Speak with confidence, influence with positive tone and verbal language"; "Advanced rapport, active listening and responding skills"; and even "Construct precise emails, ensure the message is perceived as intended". It all sounded very impressive, until I reread the last promise and then noticed that my email had been addressed to " Dear -". That didn't impress. A targeted, well written sales pitch emailed directly to my desktop, but without a professional automated address system is a definite Ctrl + Del message.

If you are using social networking for marketing purposes, it's vital that you continually measure your results to check you are on target. What you measure will depend on what you are trying to achieve. You may be gauging the number of backlinks to your blog, visitors coming to your site from social networks, or even an increase in search terms.

And it's also wise to think about some useful don'ts. Don't post false reviews of your business or your competitors'; don't engage in arguments with unhappy customers online - it's a bit like washing your dirty linen in public; and never SPAM people for hits or followers - especially if you are addressing them as " Dear - (blank)".