No, make that “The Question of the Era.” And it is: How do I use social media to attract and retain customers?

Mashable offers this decent, three-step how-to essay that answers the question excellently. Read it first.

Here’s our paraphrase/reaction:

1. Hook new customers on your social media presence by providing them incentives to friend/fan you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, etc. This supplements (or even supplants) the act of building an e-mail mailing list by, essentially, enticing people to invite you into their social media spaces. People are going to ignore, delete and/or unsubscribe from your e-mail lists because, among other reasons, receiving e-mails from businesses is boring. Interacting with people from those businesses online? Now that’s just fun.

2. Concentrate on building a community by creating worthwhile content for people to enjoy while interacting with your brand. Once you’ve got the friend/fan numbers built, don’t just beat them over the head with sales updates, event info and (worst of all) empty pleas for support. If you are business owner, you are also an expert. Share your expert knowledge about your chosen field. Offers Mashable: “Restaurants could share recipes or tips for properly reheating leftovers, for example, while plumbers could offer instructions for simple home fixes.” It doesn’t cost you anything to share; on the contrary, you’ll gain trust and credibility with your customer base, and that will increase business. And if they like something you post, they’ll share it with their friends. It’s that easy. You just gotta get creative.

3. Play favorites by offering your social media followers exclusive deals. It may sound like you’re being unfair to your less tech-savvy customers, but the fact is that social media is home to the most outspoken evangelists (and critics) of your brand, even if you don’t know it. Give these people something good to crow about, and they’ll tell dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of people in their network. Word-of-mouth in the physical word of dinner parties and phone calls to friends is and always will be a trickle. Word-of-mouth on Facebook is a firehose blast.