Everybody has had a bad customer experience at one time or another. It used to be that you’d tell your friends, report a company to the Better Business Bureau or maybe even write a letter to the editor at your local paper and hope it gets published. These days it’s easier than ever to make your voice heard. Whether it’s on a site like Yelp, Angie’s List or just Google comments, people’s voices carry a much longer distance now.

Enter Dave Carroll. Dave is a singer/songwriter and the lead of The Sons of Maxwell, a band I’ve never heard of until this morning. In the spring of 2008 Dave was traveling with his band and had a connecting flight in Chicago. Dave and his band were sitting on the O’Hare tarmac, waiting for the baggage to be loaded. A passenger in front of them, who probably didn’t know who Dave Carroll or The Sons of Maxwell were, looked out the window and shouted out about how there are some United Airlines baggage handlers “throwing guitars” out there! After a year of phone calls and cold shoulders and no restitution, Dave wrote a song…

I first heard about this on WGN radio in Chicago this morning during a promo for the John Williams Show. Williams later linked to the video from his Facebook status feed and I watched it. And I must say, it is one of the most creative and funny ways to get back at a company for busting your Taylor guitar.

Will United Airlines respond to this? Probably not. Will they care that there’s this video out there? Fairly unlikely. Will thousands and thousands of customers and potential customers see and be influenced in some way by it? Absolutely.

What if your company or organization was the one being targeted?

This brings us to one of the most important, and also most overlooked aspects of social media marketing: reputation management. Obviously, in this instance United Airlines clearly should have stepped in long ago and provided better customer service. Some might argue that they didn’t provide any customer service at all. But lets pretend your company has a disgruntled customer and even though your company has acted ethically and quickly, this person still feels the need to spend time creating a blog or YouTube videos about how he feels he was treated unfairly. What will you do?

The first step is catching it early. Monitor postings, blog entries, news feeds, comment forms and sites like Twitter constantly. An easy way to do this is through Google Alerts which will send you an e-mail every time a key word or phrase shows up anywhere on the Internet. That alone won’t catch everything but it’s a good start. Then get out there. Present your side of the story, be fair, honest, open and most of all extremely polite and respectful — no matter what was said or what tone was used. The golden rule is this: picture anything you write, either on a website or e-mail, posted everywhere with your picture next to it. If you can’t be proud of your stance then you should just keep quiet. Come back to it when you’re calm. It can be difficult at times, especially if you have a customer who is either just pain wrong, or worse, wrong and belligerent.

Don’t wait until something bad happens to become involved in social media. Having an active and happy online customer base will go a long way to helping you resolve issues. With any luck some of those customers may even stand up and help defend you. Remember, some people just need to be unhappy. Stay on top of the situation and minimize it’s impact before it grows out of control — or into a catchy song complete with a music video.

Almost three years ago, the stock market was raging forward, consumers were buying their second and third homes, waiters were being tipped 25-35%, and people were thinking their next raise was on the horizon.  People were fearless.

Then the market tanked.  Jobs were lost.  Goods went unsold.  And businesses clamped down.  Heck, even major media companies began to collapse like an opera singer at a Cardinals baseball game in late August.

What changed to create such a pother in the markets?  I think it was caused by consumers coming face-to-face with their fears.

Everyone heard stories about business struggling, neighbors losing their jobs and even their homes, and retirees running out of their investments, causing just about everyone to analyze their own situations to determine what they would do, “just in case”.  So just about everyone tightened their belts to wait it out, watching every report they could find and researching every bit of gossip they heard that could help them determine the future.

This isn’t right, is it?

The stock market to me isn’t a barometer of a company’s or industry’s worth.  Rather, it’s a barometer of the country’s overall fear level.  In good times, we buy into almost anything, regardless of whether it’s worth it.  And in bad times, we flee.  For proof, look at what happened to the stock market over the past three years.  Did those companies really lose half their value because they no longer provided a good product or service?  Hardly.  They lost because people sold their stock in droves, plain and simple.  And the more people sold, the more others became worried to the point that they sold their shares as well.  And the spiral downward continued.

Funny, but that’s not how anyone is taught to play the stocks.  You buy low and sell high.  Mr. Potter, in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”, made this really clear way back in the late 1940’s movie when he chastised those in Bedford Falls for “losing their heads” and selling things for pennies on the dollar out of fear, while only George Bailey and Mr. Potter himself were smart enough to stay calm and buy things knowing that the time was right.  Years later, Potter owned most of the city while everyone else tried to figure out why they had so much less.

The thing is, none of this will change while people have fear.  You can reduce your prices by 50% and still not sell.  That’s because fear causes paralysis.

But this is nothing new to a good salesperson.  Fear is the number one reason people do not buy (of those who can).  What’s more, fear is the number one reason people cancel an order after making it.  This behavior is so well known that there’s a name for it — “buyer’s remorse”.

So what’s an advertiser to do?

First, deal with it and stop trying to provide solutions that don’t alleviate the market’s fears (50% off sales enforce our fears). Understand that some people do not want to buy your homes, or products or services simply because they fear it will be the wrong decision and will cause them some major discomfort.  After all, most people simply don’t want to be afraid.  So regardless of how good your product is or how much the price has been reduced, or how “safe” purchasing it is, you won’t sell a thing to a market that fears making the wrong decision.

So get rid of their fear by making a purchase from you the “right” decision.

Since times have changed dramatically, so must your advertising.  Fear is eliminated by knowledge, so you need to help people understand why they should not fear purchasing from you.  But since this cannot be accomplished in ads alone, look for your advertising to build relationships with people so you can communicate more often with them.  Get them to sign up for eblasts, tweets, etc.  And then educate them, over and over again.

For example, potential new home buyers lament that they cannot buy now because they won’t get enough out of their current home if they sell it now.  While that fear might be real in terms of their ability to get a jumbo mortgage, most people simply believe their current home is worth more and don’t want to “foolishly” sell it for less than they believe they would have received a year or more ago.  But that’s foolish, right?  The home they are looking to buy is likely much lower in price as well.  So the two kind of cancel each other out, right?  Plus, with mortgage rates still very low, a new home buyer might only see an increase of $500 or so in their mortgage now if they’re buying a bigger home.  That’s likely less of an increase than it would have been a year or two ago.  And an increase of $6,000 per year is little when weighed against the advantages of having a bigger, nicer home for the family.

But how do you get these fearful people off the couch?

Play to their fears, of course.

Homeowners now know they must pay their mortgage, and what troubles them is the fear that they won’t be able to in the future.  Some should be worried, but not all (a simply prequalification form can separate the groups).  For those who can buy, can their misguided fear of not being able to afford the home be overwhelmed by the fear of living their lives in less than desirable surroundings?  Don’t people still want to chase their dreams?  Don’t people still want to “keep up with the Jones’”?

I say yes, but remember consumers are sissies.  I believe these consumers have to know that others like them have taken the plunge too.  They have to see that the Joneses are alive and well and that their real fear is that they’re not living up to their own potential.  And they must have more fear of their current condition than they do of moving to a new home.

So scare them, in a good way.

When your advertising generates relationship building email address,  use them often.  Pepper these potential customers with testimonials from your current customers frequently.  Let your customers tell others why they should “take the plunge”.  Let your customers tell others that they should have no fear.  And let them tell others in eblasts, on blogs and in the “comments” section of news stories.

After all, we’re all sissies looking for someone to tell us everything is okay before we make a decision.  So tell us all is well, over and over again.  And then over and over again.

Next thing you know, everyone will be fearless and, with any luck, we can return back to a more manageable version of 2006.

Huge lecture halls are a waste of space. Forget lugging expensive, heavy textbooks around. Sleep in: your old 8am class is now online. We’re all very aware of how technology is rapidly changing big media and the way information is disseminated. Since information is essentially education, what we learn from media may apply to colleges and universities as well. It comes down to this bellwether: if big name (big brand) universities do not adapt then smaller ones will come up from behind to take the lead, or at least diminish their larger rival’s perceived value — exactly like blogs and social media has done for mainstream media.

It’s no secret or surprise that universities need to reinvent themselves, as big mainstream media is doing now. The true answer must involve more than just providing recorded lectures as podcasts and administering online exams — just as the answer for big media involves more than just uploading their content to a website. Of course, certain classes like labs and others that require hands-on and face-to-face interaction will always need a physical room and location. There will always be professors and teachers. In that way, our image of a university and college will never change. But the ways in which students are reached — and more importantly, the way students learn — must evolve.

If you are in education, do not fear. Universities will always make money. These changes I’m talking about are about adapting, not obsolescence. People will always need college credits and diplomas. Universities will always be a place for research, invention and intellectual growth. In other words, universities will always have customers.

The days are already gone when information originates from a single source (whether that be a newspaper, magazine or TV) and is sent out to the masses. Now news comes from The People. News outlets are scooped by Twitter. Blogs can have equal footing with a national magazine. The question is: how will this affect learning on the collegiate level.  I’m not sure anyone has the answer yet.

Last fall, as the leaves turned bright colors on a crisp fall day and students walked across quads all over America, David Wiley, a Brigham Young University professor of Psychology and Instructional Technology, stood up before a room full of administrators and professors with a dire prediction: “Your institutions will be irrelevant by 2020.” That’s a tough message to swallow.

Access to first-rate information in the form of digital media, video lectures, and audio is becoming more and more available. Of course, it wasn’t always that way. When I was young and had a question my parents couldn’t answer, they directed me to our home set of Encyclopedia Britannica’s, complete with Year Book updates. The well-used burgundy books still line the shelves in my childhood home’s library. These days I never consult an encyclopedia as a first source for information, and I doubt if you do either. When I have a question the answer is always in my pocket on my iPhone or on a nearby computer, only seconds away. Accurate answers (Yes. Highly accurate answers, despite what some well-intentioned but skeptical Luddites may have you think) exist on websites and in videos and audio files and are not limited to a few elite sources.

What if in the future all information is free? That’s not such a radical or dangerous concept. Textbooks could be replaced with digital information that is able to be updated quickly and inexpensively. Professors assign links instead of chapters for reading. Professors would be published in professionally edited, copyleft, searchable and peer-reviewed online magazines funded by tuition and advertising. A “class” may be made up of students from across the world instead of just 30-60 who walk into a classroom or lecture hall. Collaboration and the sharing of knowledge will happen faster. Answers to simpler questions will be available easier, leaving time and energy for deeper examination. Wiley has even taught classes where students complete their homework in blogs that are open for anyone to read. Professors will serve in the same way they do now, as guides and stewards of scholarship. The key change will be the scope of information that professors will be able to access and lead their students to will be practically infinite.

In addition to the new pathways for information distribution there is also a more basic problem with colleges and universities. Education has become far too expensive for most families and many carry student loan debt well into their professional lives. Parents either have to save, starting at the birth of their children, to pay for college or they need to take out loans so large that may eclipse the cost of their home. Not only that, college tuition is still expected to increase at 7% a year. That’s not a formula for continued success and is doomed to collapse just like an overinflated housing market.

Change is happening, established models are transforming and history is being written at a seemingly faster rate than ever before. Universities are now faced with a unique challenge: they need to become students themselves and recreate their own business model.

I gave a speech last night on social media to the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau (CCTB — ChooseChicago.com) that went very well.  As is normal at these things, some people decided to hold on to their questions until after the speech was over so they could ask me directly and privately.  I like spending that time with people since they don’t fear telling you what they really think.

While I did field many good questions, I also listened to many people describe their pleasant experiences using the various forms of social media to promote their companies.  But despite there being many different tools in the social media arsenal, quite a few people said they focused everything on Twitter — as in, Twitter was the ONLY social media tool they used.  I was surprised by this (some admitted that Twitter was all they knew and liked), but even more surprised that even with their great results, they were still only interested in using Twitter.  From Twittered view, I’m sure the results were indeed impressive.  But I could only imagine how much more impressive their results would be if they added more tools to their bag.

Now, I understand what Twitter is and how to use it to promote your business.  But come on, it just isn’t the bees knees in social marketing.  It’s one tiny piece of the puzzle with some really powerful benefits.  So if your social marketing efforts are based around Twitter alone, you are missing out on some big things.

You see, focusing all your effort on Twitter is a lot like focusing all your media dollars on the Yellow Pages.  Sure, you could have some success.  But the point is that your marketing will not have the best reach.  Twitter is good.  It’s cool.  People know about it and those who use it are pretty loyal.  But while its growth is amazing, it’s still not a major tool to reach the masses.  To do that, you must use other social media tools — just like to reach a broader audience traditionally, you need to add print, radio, outdoor, etc. to your Yellow Pages buy.

We have a proven program that uses various tools including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Bebo, etc. to generate advocates for our clients and build relationships with them.  But to build relationships, you must first generate the advocates.  After all, how does someone find you on Twitter — only through Twitter?  Although possible, most people get connected from others, or they see from websites, blogs, forwarded eblasts and ads that you have a Twitter account and then they connect to you that way.

So rather than just focus on Twitter, you really should also utilize Facebook, blogs and posts to stories (with links back to your sites) to generate people to your sites and then get them signed up for Twitter or whatever else you’re doing.

Once they’re signed up, send them eblasts that link to your blogs.  That’s where the real selling occurs — NOT Twitter.  Twitter’s role is to help customers connect with you INSTANTLY so that you could give them answers to questions, solutions to problems, ideas on something that just came up, etc.  It’s like a great customer service tool and yes, it does add to future sales because you’ve just kept a customer happy.

But to generate any significant future sales from new customers, Twitter is only part of the solution — blogs and eblasts are the main ones, along with all the other social sites you can handle.

So have fun with Twitter and learn how it can help you.  Just don’t do it at the expense of other social media tools or you could find yourself De-Twitterpated in no time.

Moms interact online — big time.  They not only read blogs, they write them and post to them.  In fact, prominent social media groups estimate between 23 million and 26 million moms read and post to blogs.  While this might sound like a large number, remember that according to the U.S. Census Bureau there are 83 million moms in the United States. This means that only about 33% of all U.S. moms participate in blogging. If we as marketers are communicating to and with mothers solely through blogs, then we’re leaving two-thirds of our target market in the dark. This is not a recipe for success.  Instead, marketers must utilize a variety of media to create a meaningful dialog with moms.  The best are videos, at home parties, and radio or podcasts.

According to BSM Media research, 90% of mothers watched an online video in the past week. Some, like Yahoo, say this number is even higher. Moms who visited major video channels aimed at moms viewed 11 to 15 videos per session and they currently have over 500 mom Vloggers (Video Bloggers). Video is fun and easy, and a mom can watch one while tending to other tasks. In fact, that’s one reason why the audio portion of any video aimed at moms must be self-sufficient.

Moms love to get together with like-minded moms and share. In-home parties are a great way to get your company into the conversations. Moms invite their peers to share wine and stories at themed events that include product samples and fun activities. Some researchers say that 80% of the moms who attend an at home party will tell three to five other moms about the product or company for whom the party was about. An additonal 10% will tell five to ten other mothers. That’s not social marketing — it’s word of mouth, which is even more powerful.

Then there’s radio, which does one of the best jobs delivering information to moms since their schedules are so inconsistent and their driving times so dramatic.  Moms spend up to 75 minutes a day in their cars.  Of course, when not listening to their passengers, they’re listening to the radio. Podcasting takes radio even one step further because podcasting allows moms to enjoy listen to information and learn as they go for a walk or shop for anything. Creating podcasts allows a company to connect with moms on iTunes or other podcast directories. This really isn’t hard.  In fact, you can subscribe via iTunes to this blog and have it downloaded to your iPod whenever you want.  I didn’t have to record this as I read it live.  Instead, we use software that sounds really good for a computer.  Click on it and see for yourself.  And go to Odiogo.com to download software to automatically create your own podcasts.

To summarize, today’s moms are bombarded with information almost as much as they bombard others.  They’re talkers/socializers/learners.  And they’re great brand advocates.  As a marketer, it’s important to establish a meaningful dialog with moms through various channels and not just blogs and eblasts.  Think about where moms go — and put your message there.

Craig’s List has been in the news recently, and not for the wholesome side of their site. Rather, it’s simplicity in connecting buyers with sellers has led it to be one of the major sources nationwide for peddling prostitution. Other more wholesome sites have also done well to connect serious realtionship-minded people with others who match their tastes simply because they offer safe and easy ways (“safe” meaning you don’t have to leave your home) to narrow down the dating prospects without having to sit through one bad date after another. Most of these virtual daters spend a great amount of time communicating online with serious prospects before taking the big step and meeting in person. It just makes sense.

So what do online romances have to do with advertising or selling? Well, a lot.

Thanks to the power of the internet, people today are not responding to direct messages (meaning, they’re not ordering a product or setting up a sales call) unless the product is inexpensive and deemed worth the risk, like a Shamwow or those blankets with arm holes. In those cases, people understand they’re taking a risk and simply hope it will work out.

But with bigger purchases, like anything from electronics to homes, people are researching — online — and they’re collecting info in order to limit the number of stores they visit or the number of salespeople they see. Like the online dating sites, they want to know that you have what they want before they step forward and declare to you that they are a sales prospect.

So what’s a good marketer to do? Romance them.

It’s not hard. Like an online suitor, you need to demonstrate online that you not only have what they want, but that you’re an organization that is worth their time and attention. And the only way to do this is to build an online relationship where you are not only selling your products and services, but also providing helpful information in areas related to your business (think Macy’s in Miracle on 34th Street).

First, you need to ASK for viewers of your sites to opt-in to your communication. Do this everywhere you can, without looking desperate. Getting someone’s email address for future communication is like getting a phone number. It’s worthless unless you use it — so use it, and give them a clear picture of how much you know about your industry and how easily you can help them.

With frequent eblasts that link to blogs and special offers, you will be giving people more than they expect from you, and that’s good. You will be seen as an expert that loves your industry, and that passion cannot be underestimated. Think of it: who wouldn’t prefer to buy their home theater system from a company that passes along cost-saving tips, model ratings and reviews, customer testimonials, and even special offers and events? Sure, cost matters. But consumers also know that a responsive company often matters even more. And that’s the image you’ll present when you communicate often.

And don’t be afraid of unsubscribes or even complaints, although complaints must be looked at closely to see if there is a pattern. Instead, focus on those who regularly open and read your eblasts. Those are your most likely short term customers. It’s a little like focusing on the people who laugh at your jokes, rather than the ones who are always checking their watches.

Also, send online surveys via Survey Monkey or a few other sites that do this for you. While surveys can provide good information about your market, they also present a strong statement about your firm’s interest in satisfying customers and prospects. So for little cost and little time, you’re building a better brand in the minds of your customers. Don’t ask more than 5-7 questions though. Research shows that lengthy surveys can actually harm your brand, rather than help it. So keep it short, and simple.

So now as you move forward in this strange economic time, remember to romance your customers. Gone are the days when you can say how much something was and people would buy it. Now you have to get them to allow you to “talk” with them — and then you have to talk your way into a sale.

Best of luck as you move forward.

According to a new survey from Mediamark Research & Intelligence published by “The Center For Media Research” today, 11.5% of the U.S. adult population are the key influencers of other people when it comes to word-of-mouth communications regarding personal finance.
This segment of approximately 25.4 million adults, dubbed “Big Circle Influentials,” are at par with the national average age for adults, and have only 4% higher household income than the national average of $65,500, but they score well above the national average for key financial and wealth indicators.

According to the MRI study, Big Circle Influentials are:

33% more likely to own a home valued at $500,000 or more
157% more likely to have made 10 or more investment transactions in the last 12 months
109% more likely to own securities with a value of $150,000 or more
44% more likely to have sought financial planning and/or money management advice

Anne Marie Kelly, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning at MRI, says “It’s vital for financial advertisers to be able to identify Big Circle Influentials because these thought leaders advise family, friends, neighbors and colleagues, as well as people they don’t necessarily know, through viral and social networks… targeting on demographics alone would not allow marketers to reach this key segment.”

So how do you reach these influencers? Blogs.

Influencers understand that they’re known and respected for their knowledge — so they are always looking for new and unique information that will buttress their standing. While they use the internet for research, they do not consider a company’s website to be the most accurate source of information on the products or services that company provides. Instead, they seek the opinion of others who have used the product or service. That, they know, is the “real” information.

So your blog should be a dialog between you and your customers. It should be accurate, and although some comments might not please you, your response to those negative comments is what’s critical.

You see, Influencers know that some people are impossible to please, and they expect a certain amount of negative press about a product in which they have interest. But along with a negative comment or two, they expect to see good comments. And that’s where the dialog comes in.

Encourage happy customers to post their experience to your blog — even reward them if necessary (don’t go overboard! It shouldn’t look like your buying their endorsement). And answer all negative comments in a way that will please somebody who is researching your company.

In the end, these Influencers will tell more than two people — they’ll tell dozens. And then those people will spread that information since it comes from their “reliable” source.

I’ve recently had numerous discussions with marketers about the role of their company’s website in the marketing mix. Many marketers think that websites are all they need online, and that the future of advertising is in finding ways to get people to the site — usually with SEO or banner ads. In fact, these people are looking for ways to make it less expensive to update and manage their sites so they can free more money to attract viewers.

Our experience is that this view is sooooo 2008. That’s because unless you’re an online retailer, your website is viewed by consumers as a biased reference tool.

Home builders have on their websites an “about us” page, floorplans, area maps, virtual tours, and even customer testimonials — all valuable information for someone who is interested in the homes. But what about those who might be interested, but haven’t yet decided to visit your sales center? Your website will NOT convince them to come in any more than a brochure that includes the same information. And that’s because a builder’s website is seen simply as information.

Hospitals have the same problem. Their websites are mostly used by consumers to find a doctor, locate a facility, check hours, learn about services, etc. But the site doesn’t persuade anybody that you’re better or worth the viewers’ time. It simply informs.

While this type of reference information is important to have online, you should not think that it is a marketing tool any more than a corporate brochure is a marketing tool. It’s a reference tool.

So what’s the 2009 approach? We are reworking our sites to be the best reference tools possible, and then we drive traffic (and sales) to it via blogs, eblasts, Twitter feeds, etc. that act as sales tools.

We use blogs for builders to talk about customer satisfaction, construction techniques, design tips, technology updates and special offers on spec homes.

For hospitals, we use blogs to promote events in the area, classes, new physicians and their qualifications, job offerings, new technology, and even CON petitions and updates.

All of our blogs are trying to do the same thing — start a relationship with the viewer by getting them to sign up for our eblast updates.

While the blogs and eblasts can link to information within the main site, we often link them to other blogs that we manage for the client and to appointment schedulers or online class enrollment forms.

One advantage of blogs over main websites is that the constant flow of new information makes these blogs desirable to search engines. Combine this “freshness” with some techy tagging and bookmarketing, and you have a search engine’s dream site.

So as you think about your website in 2009, please don’t put too much pressure on it. Viewers know it’s biased (have you seen any website with testimonials that were bad?), but they also know that all they are looking for on it is basic information. For online sales power, try blogs and eblasts that link to microsites that can do more selling because they are not part of your main site.

Our results in 2008 have been spectacular for those clients who have allowed us to make these changes. In fact, we can easily compare the results we generated for these clients with those clients who have not allowed us to take this approach and all we can say is “trust us in 2009″.

According to new research from Enid Burns at The ClickZ Network, blogs can have more impact on purchase decisions than social networks. Blogs create a conversation and trusted resource that influences purchase decision.

The study, “Harnessing the Power of Blogs,” sponsored research by BuzzLogic and conducted by JupiterResearch, a Forrester Research company, looks at the evolving influence from the reader’s perspective. “What we wanted to do was look at the reader’s side of the coin, look at reader patterns and how people are reading blogs…and drill down into the content impacting other media platforms,” said Valerie Combs, VP of corporate communications at BuzzLogic.

Readership of blogs is on the rise. JupiterResearch noted a 300 percent growth in monthly blog readership in the past four years. Readers look to links and multiple blog sources to extend the conversation: 49 percent of blog readers, defined as someone who reads at least one blog a month, and 71 percent of frequent readers all read more than one blog per session. Multiple blog sources offer more opportunities for consumers to see blog ads. A quarter of readers say they trust ads on a blog, compared to 19 percent who trust ads on social networking sites.

Advertisements on blogs are an opportunity for marketers to reach consumers. The findings said 40 percent of people reading blogs have taken action as a result of viewing an ad on a blog; and 50 percent of frequent blog readers say they have taken action. Of those actions: 17 percent have read product reviews online; 16 percent have sought out more information on a product or service; and 16 percent have visited a manufacturer or retailer Web site.

“More and more publishers are become extremely savvy understanding the game and becoming better at monetizing, which is great for the advertiser as well,” said Combs.

The survey also finds consumers are influenced by blogs at the moment of purchase decision. The channel plays a greater role than social networks, likely because bloggers establish themselves as an authority on a topic, particularly in niche areas, and create a relationship with the consumer.

“One of the things that’s so great about them is the personal, specific information,” said Combs. “Thorough, useful, honest creation, create a level of trust with the reader.”

We at Demi & Cooper just love blogs for our clients (heck, you’re reading our own blog now!). In healthcare, websites simply cannot be written for discussion purposes — they are reference tools designed to get the viewer the information he or she seeks quickly and easily, such as where are you located, how do I find a doctor, what services do you offer, etc. In homebuilding, websites show what the builder offers, where it’s at, and what it cost, plus a whole bunch of other biased info.

But blogs can go deeper into each subject, explaining medical procedures (even using video), new facilities and procedures, etc. in health care. In home building, testimonials go in blogs, as do local events, new hires, new techniques in building, etc.

But the most valuable thing you can do with a blog is tag it (digg, delicious, etc.) and link it so that the topic of the blog will come up in searches. We even Twitter our clients’ blogs and feed it to Facebook, getting the social community behind our work.

So just blog it. It won’t hurt and the results will be very impressive.