With that in mind, consider how the current shift in marketing and advertisement could benefit your particular business. All the buzz words – engagement, conversation, social media, webbed – boil down to one reality. Marketing is now a two-way street, giving consumers just as much time to talk as businesses. Fortune 500 companies from Coca-Cola to the Marriot are learning what small town businessmen have always known: relationships equal sales. For large and small businesses, blogs are just part of the shift.

So here’s the question: how can we help fill the gaps? Maybe you’ve got a Facebook account but need help creating applications for your business. Maybe you want to start a blog for customer questions but aren’t sure where to start. Or maybe you’re still wondering why all this is necessary. Let us know!

Furthermore, if you happen to have particular expertise in, say, podcasts or twitter, feel free to share tips and success stories.

Most of all, if you disagree with “engagement” as a marketing strategy, say so.

Let’s talk.

1. Do you need a blog? Check demographics. Find out if they blog or follow blogs. Check out your competitors – or better yet, your aspiring companies – and see how they are using engaging content and think about how you could piggyback or improve what is already out there.

2. Can you invest in a blog? Sure, the platform is free, but writers and graphic artists are not. Would having a blog mean hiring more people? Training the ones you have? Plus, there’s time. Can you afford the time spent maintaining a blog?

3. What’s the point of your blog? With a blog, you can introduce readers to your company: its culture, goals and quirks. For many companies, a blog gives a human face to an alien corporate culture. But the blog also serves to provide advice, direction, and information to your readers, setting you apart as the thought-leader in your industry, not just a company providing a product and/or a service.

4. What will PR do? Your blog should never be pure PR, but they do have a part. Experts suggest using PR as a legal consultant is case something goes awry. The last thing you want is propaganda.

5. Who will write? Consider the success of Dell. When they started blogging, 80 percent of comments were negative. Now, that number is 50. Why? Because Dell allowed all employees – let that word “all” sink in – to apologize to consumers on the blog, without the usual customer disservice. On the other hand, you do want quality control. Finding that balance may take time.

6. Can your writers blog? Anyone can blog – and we see the results. Even professional writers need a transition. Make sure your writers can keep it short and sweet, casual but professional.

7. What comments will you allow? Sure, you want a conversation, but foul language and spam can drive away readers. This rule doesn’t include all negative comments, however. Most conversations have disagreements.

8. Where can you promote the blog? Find out where your audience goes online, and follow. Facebook and Twitter are a safe bet, but explore other options as well. Use those spaces to talk up the blog – and link it. Or if you are making the leap from in-store, paper-based communication to more web-based strategies, find ways to link your “brick and morter” with your blossoming blog. Offer incentives for customers who reply or ask questions. Showcase your best blogs in the office or in the store so your employees and customers know what they are missing.

…And of course, give us a ring if you’d like a partner in addressing these questions and setting up a game plan that will suit your needs!

1. Buzz. Blogs are better than any marketer for getting out news.

2. Surveys. Find out how to build better products, give better service, or even yank a poor product from your line-up. Expect and demand honesty from your customers.

3. Share your passion. If your writers care about your company, so will your readers.

4. Bigger audience. Who doesn’t want more customers, especially in hard economic times? The internet widens your audience to folks you would never have met otherwise.

5. Deeper community. Sure, community’s a buzzword – with good reason. More and more businesses are learning to connect with customers, accept advice and criticism to better the company, and create familiarity. If you sell insurance, it might be rare to find people in your hometown who understand your passion, but the internet can connect you to people around the world who can share their experiences. Imagine it as a great conversation among like-minded people unfettered by time, distance or cell phone minutes.

While this may sound counter-intuitive, Facebook marketing is just as old-fashioned. Facebook is about long-term relationships with customers, not rapid one-time sales.

That’s why start-up companies should get on Facebook and use it. What better place to find new customers, or reinforce relationships with folks you know? It’s personal: you can be “friends” with customers, which makes you privy to their likes and dislikes and lifestyle changes, not to mention a long list of potential customers on their friends list.

However, never forget that Facebook is, above all, a community. When the Rite Aid manager sees your grandmother at the post office, does he bombard her with sale information? Not if he’s good at his job. The last thing you want is for your Facebook community to view you as the hardline advertiser. So embrace your inner small-town manager, and have a conversation.

Western media says Twitter had a large role in recent Iranian protests. The facts say that’s only part of the story.

The Election

Less than two hours after the polls closed, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he won 63 percent to Mir Hossein Mousavi’s 34 percent. Mousavi’s supporters say he won 60 percent. While Iranian elections were never fair and private, voters were enraged that Iran did not even make a pretense to count all the votes. Urban intellectuals, students, women from all backgrounds and others are contesting over ten million votes, while most rural Iranians are happy with the results.

The Powder Keg

Westerners who claim Twitter as the coup de gras fail to account for a more important variable – demographics. During and following Iran’s eight year war with Iraq, Iranian clerics urged high birth rates to supply the military. When the resulting 1980s baby boom caused a crisis for the war-torn population, clerics reversed their council. Around the same time, literacy rates in Iran escalated. Coupled with the tremendous death toll from war, political executions and an earthquake, most urban Iranians alive today are educated twenty-something’s – a common recipe for protests.

As a BBC timeline shows, Ahmadinejad’s 2005 election ushered in a conservative lock-down at the same time most Iranians were becoming politically aware. Unlike their parents, younger Iranians don’t remember the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They didn’t live under the Shah’s oppression, but they do know journalists imprisoned today. It was only a matter of time before this simmering anger erupted.

How Iranians used Twitter

Twitter let the world in on the protests. Its 140 character format was perfect for tiny updates, and Iranians can tweet with a cell phone while on the street. With grainy pictures and blunt descriptions of police brutality, Iranians supply Western media with information free from clerical propaganda. However, most on-the-ground communication is simpler: text messages, quickly scribbled notes and word of mouth. Furthermore, Twitter isn’t just a minority protest tool: Ahmadinejad used Twitter in his election campaign, and his supporters use Twitter to defend the election. The information sharing portal only gained significance once traditional journalists were no longer permitted into the flurry of activity.

The Significance

While only 8,600 Twitter users say they are from Iran — and many of these cannot navigate their government’s blocks — the site is one more step away from so called “traditional” journalism (for better or worse) and all those in “information disseminating” roles, albeit marketing, public relations, news, sales, advertising or otherwise would do well to respond.

It can’t be denied that Twitter is a powerful tool for information sharing from a few to many. While the focus should remain on people, not their tools, knowing the tools available often allows for greater focus on the people themselves.

Oh, and if you want to follow the Twitter News Coverage, check out http://iran.twazzup.com/