I posted earlier this week about our cabin vacation to Gatlinburg, TN and the lessons of how your brand and the customer experience is one in the same. A comment left on that entry was an example of the very concept I was trying to convey.

After reading about our horrible experience, my sister, Bethany, commented with links to a fantastic cabin her and her husband had rented:

Sorry you place wasn’t all you hoped for Next time, try Mountain Laurel Chalets. http://www.mtnlaurelchalets.com/chalet_index.html
We have used them more than once and have never been less than pleased. Here is the cabin we stayed at last Christmas.
http://secure.instantsoftwareonline.com/StayUSA/Property.aspx?coid=0210&propid=SCHONBLICK

Bethany

She had a great experience and it turned her into an evangelist. This is what every company should strive for - having the customer evangelize on your behalf. This penetrates through the influence layer since the marketing is coming from someone within their circle of influence, not outside it. Thanks for making my point, Bethany.

Anthology Creative just revamped Warner Bros. Records Nashville’s MySpace page with a layout design based on their newly-relaunched wbrnashville.com.

If you have a MySpace profile - whether you are a band, a music label, or a business - branding it with a custom layout can create better brand awareness - and let’s face it… the default MySpace design is not much to look at.

So, now that I have started a blog (for real this time, I promise), why is it worth it? Why should I blog?

My reasons come down to these three things:

1. Content Is a Promotion Strategy

Time to promote - There is no denying that in this new blog/podcast/online video age, content can serve as promotion for just about anything - and for much less than one would spend on newspaper ads, billboards, chess tournament sponsorships, etc. There is absolutely no reason for a company to not be constantly producing content, even if it is micro-content such as tweets.

2. I Need to Give Back

Time to get all sentimental - I would honestly not be where I am today if it were not for the tools, articles, tutorials, etc. that I have found on the internet (thank you, Google). And frankly, until now, I have pretty much been a take-take-take type of information consumer. It is time for me to start producing content for other people that are just as curious as I have been and are looking for new information, interesting approaches to problems, and the like.

3. Blogging Pushes Me Further

Time to be effective - In order to blog effectively, I will need to research. I will need to keep up with what is going on in new media and the internet world. Blogging about these topics will more-or-less force me to become an expert in these topics and to stay relevant. But, don’t get me wrong - you do not need to do these things in order to start a blog - I just feel that I need to stay on top of these things in order to blog effectively.

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