Social media can be a boon and a bane to companies and consumers alike. It’s undoubtedly true that brands and consumers can have a constructive dialogue on Twitter and Facebook. Case in point: A WSJ subscriber misses an issue and tweets his displeasure to head honcho Rupert Murdoch himself. Not only did he get a reply, but some quality customer service as well!

Unfortunately, trolls abound in the online world and can drown out those offering constructive criticism. How can you tell the haters from those that are worth responding to? And how can you manage your time when it comes to responding to criticism? In the latest Mediabistro feature, social media experts weigh in on how to handle negative feedback in a way that’s best for you and your audience.

One big piece of advice: don’t just delete.

“How you handle a negative comment says much more about you than the comment itself,” said Shama Kabani, CEO of The Marketing Zen Group. “Removing a comment can lead to others accusing you of censorship and, at worst, can lead to a PR disaster.”

For more, read 7 Tips for Responding to Negative Social Media Feedback. [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

Twitter is one of the best technology tools for modern photographers to up their game, build a community and generally be more awesome.

But where to start?

Below, we’ve compiled 7 handy Twitter tips for photographers.

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Every time your username is tagged on Twitter with the @ symbol (and assuming you haven’t blocked the user), it works its way to your mentions folder (which is located under the Connect tab on Twitter.com).

Mentions used to be known as ‘replies’ – way back when, this referred to tweets that started with a @username. What’s often confusing for new users is that Twitter handles tweets that start with @username differently than it does those that place the @username somewhere else. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one.

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If you’re on Facebook, you probably get annoyed when your stream gets spammed with all the “likes” of your friends, so how do you feel about being alerted to everyone’s “favorites” on Twitter?

It’s a growing trend on the micro-blogging platform and one that has the potential to get out of control – fast.

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Hashtags are the quickest and easiest way to search for and find out what Twitter users are currently talking about.

They’re also key to productive Twitter engagement – hashtags put your tweets in front of the people who are interested in them.

Check out this post for a short history of the hashtag.

But most importantly: how do you use them? And how do you use them well?

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I remember my first day on Twitter like it was yesterday.

Except it wasn’t. It was 1,766 days ago. Or, to put it another way, four years and ten months.

Yep. I joined Twitter on March 8th, 2008. And I don’t really remember that first day at all.

What about you? When was your first day?

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Twitter was born as a mobile network.

Back in July 2006, Jack Dorsey introduced the idea of creating an SMS (short message service, texting for example) that would allow users to communicate with a small group of people.

Thus, the “tweet” was born.

So it makes sense that Twitter is super mobile-friendly. There is a wealth of apps out there that can greatly enhance your Twitter experience beyond Twitter.com and the official Twitter app.

Check out 10 of our favorite Twitter-tastic apps, below.

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It’s a brand new year, with a 12-month clean slate: the perfect opportunity to assess your social media presence and evaluate what needs a little sprucing up.

Need a place to start? We’ve got a few suggestions for ways to kick your Twitter efforts into high gear in 2013.

No matter your goal – gain followers, tweet more regularly, get more retweets, get your various Twitter accounts organized – we have a tip to help you out.

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Do you follow @twitter on Twitter? The @twitter account has fifteen million followers, but there are supposed to be more than 500 million registered Twitter users - so it seems most Twitter accounts don’t!

But even if you don’t follow Twitter, it might interest you to know which of Twitter’s tweets and blog posts grabbed the most attention. Consider it your Twitter cliff notes, so you can “talk Twitter” like a pro.

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So far, our list of Twitter New Year’s Resolutions includes curating your Twitter lists and cleaning up your social media app permissions.

Another one to add to the list: perfecting your Twitter bio.

As we’ve written before, your Twitter bio is a key component of your identity on the platform, and a prime location for branding and visibility on Twitter.

And since your bio is limited to 160 characters, why not make them count?

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