AllFacebook posted an interesting article recently. Facebook has been congratulating itself for its Facebook Offers program, but Business Insider has been taking issue with how many offers are merely “claimed” versus how many claimed offers are claimed in the context of acting on the offer and redeeming it at the physical location or online store.

I will say that the number of redeemed offers is an important statistic to track. Knowing the revenue generated by a Facebook Offer allows businesses to better define their cost-benefit analysis. Facebook Offers cost money to run, and the tab can be significant depending on how many people you promote the offer to. More importantly, you want to use social media to generate revenue, right?

My first problem with this article is that the announcement of people not following through on claimed offers is anything revelatory. People print out coupons or take entry forms for contests but don’t follow through on them all the time, and the concept of Facebook Offers isn’t any different. People redeem promotional codes for online stores all the time and there’s always going to be a percentage of people who don’t follow through on them.

The only difference is that people see how many users have actually claimed a copy of the offer in real time. If Facebook users misinterpret the number of offer claims as actual sales, that isn’t Facebook’s problem. These offers may not have been redeemed, but a claimed offer doesn’t mean redemption on its own. A claim is just a simple measure of eligibility amongst other Facebook users.

When a Facebook user sees an offer for 50% off a large pizza, for example, they need to claim a copy of the offer in order to make themselves eligible to receive it. By claiming the offer, they’ve declared their eligibility to redeem it. On its own, a claim can potentially great for exposure when I.M. Gangsta’s profile displays to his 700 friends that he claimed a page’s offer, which is a great trade-off for a single mouse click.

I will concede that Business Insider has a valid point when it comes to clicks generating erroneous Offer claims, but Facebook isn’t actively confusing offer claims with sales. For claims to actually be misleading, Facebook would have to know in advance that people would interpret a claim as a sale and use the language anyway. It’s certainly possible that they intended it, but it’s a hypothetical stretch at best.

When the issue becomes how to maximize redemption rates for your Facebook Offers, simply make your offer memorable and enticing enough that people follow through on it. Based on personal experience Facebook Offers has been a fantastic way to drive online or offline traffic by providing specific incentives that also take advantage of Facebook’s word-of-mouth capabilities. Offers are already a great way to promote your page, but the onus is on you – the business owner – to make people take that extra step.

There’s a simple antidote to Internet trolls. It costs nothing to manufacture and can be found in vast quantities if you know where to look.

Before this goes further let’s establish the difference between criticism and trolling. Criticism of a business is done out of imperfections such as poor service and genuine unhappiness with a product. More importantly, unhappy customers tend to be more civil. Trolls simply vent their hate wherever they have an audience, and social networks are one of their favorite nesting grounds. Ninety nine percent of the time business owners have done nothing to earn the enmity of trolls.

Dealing with trolls can be a tricky subject when it comes to a business’ social profiles. Every instinct screams to make them want to disappear.  As an administrator you have the ability to do it but people don’t consider the ramifications. Deleting their comments or outright blocking them tends to add fuel to the fire and should be done as an extreme last resort if they absolutely won’t leave you alone.

On the other hand, telling trolls to piss off, get jobs, or go through puberty elsewhere may feel good in the short term but this these exchanges are going to be visible everyone with an Internet connection. You’re letting trolls drag you down to their level and it only looks juvenile to sling mud back at them. It’s not a personality trait you want affiliated with your online voice when it’s time for consumers to buy.

There’s a much easier, more effective way to deal with trolls: Being polite and courteous, just as you would be when dealing with criticism.

I spent some time consulting for a restaurant in South Norwalk that’s serving up some delicious pizza. Their Facebook page was off to a great start complete with near-unanimous positive reviews of the food, ambiance  and service. All was well, until this insidious commenter reared his head:

This was an unproductive, unhelpful comment from someone who had probably never been to the restaurant, but the response is more important. We turned the comment around by claiming the commenter’s expertise on the subject, and it would have been an opportunity for potential business had the commenter taken them up on the offer. On a more subtle level, this was a polite way of saying “Put up or shut up” and a way for this troll to get down to brass tacks.

It’s been months with no word from this fellow. Either he didn’t bother checking for responses or he saw the response and decided to not press the issue. When you show trolls that you aren’t taking their trollbait, they get bored and wander off almost immediately. Only the most dedicated, vendetta-driven trolls will actively pursue an argument. When it becomes clear that they’re just out to pick a bone with you and won’t back off, use the delete tool as your little red button.

Just make sure you don’t feed the trolls.

Author’s note: This really only applies assuming the comments aren’t obscene, profane, bigoted, pornographic, or gives out personal information. If they are, don’t have any qualms about deletion.

I had the pleasant surprise of discovering the new Gmail today while trying to keep up with the torrent of E-mail that accumulated during Hurricane Sandy. It hasn’t been completely launched, but all users can test the new feature and switch back to the old style if they don’t like it (you listening, Facebook?). Personally, I’m really liking what I’ve been seeing so far.

In the past, I’ve usually had to keep two browser tabs open for Gmail: One for composing a message or continuing a correspondence, and one for going through mail or responding it to it as it comes in. One of the most significant changes about the new Compose layout is that you can compose an E-mail in a separate tab within Gmail, similarly to how Google chat is displayed.

The actual interface is more compact and feels much cleaner than the old Gmail. Cc and Bcc options are on the right. Most of the other options are on the bottom: Formatting options, attaching files, inserting photos, inserting links, and the option to switch back to the old compose for now. As of this writing options to insert emoticons and invitations are grayed out and listed as coming soon.

While the transition to new layouts and templates hasn’t always been an easy one, I haven’t bothered to switch back to the old compose. Having the ability to browse my incoming messages as I compose something is a big step up, although users have the option to bring the compose window into a separate tab if they want to. This feels like the best of both worlds by providing new features without taking away from an older experience.

Accessing the new Gmail compose system is as simple as  the “Try out the new compose experience” message when you log into Gmail. If you’ve ever saved an E-mail draft because of a new message you wanted to look at, this is definitely a feature to check out.