If you haven’t gotten a whiff of the problem with many old websites… then it’s time to look up and sniff. For years companies have spent thousands of dollars - well, hundreds of millions of dollars building websites that share how good their products and services are. That was then. Welcome 2009. Websites are not just websites anymore. Today, if you aren’t equipped to listen to your customers, listen to the social web and measure what they care about and how they are influencing your company and brand online, then you have decided to miss a great opportunity to serve your customers at a higher level. Stop telling them how great you are and actually find out what they think, want, demand. That is far more important to your bottom line.

People don’t want to be marketed to or to be wowed by your website. That’s interruptive. Sure, that’s fun and everyone loves cool flash and fun interfaces, but your website needs to be more than that. It needs to be an experience - rather the right experience. They want to find what they are looking for in a transparent environment where they can provide feedback, review what other’s have experienced, learn from your inside team. Opening lines of communication with your interactive program requires drawing visitors in to participate in your company, your brand and your products. Think about how you made your last buying decision as a customer. The first thing you did is get advice from someone - enter word of mouth. Anyone can create dramatic graphics, impactful brand messaging and flashy presentations, but what about the good stuff? Reality. If you can be real with customers and find out what they want at high speeds and react based on real sentiment, then any current website will start to look like a brochure. You don’t want that and neither do your customers. Get real, by changing your approach to your interactive program. If you want to bring it up a notch, check back soon for more updates here at Brandworth.tv. Want to talk… find me at Tracey Edwards Company.

Time to lean. Time to chat. Blog, Facebook, Twitter. Business owners are faced with a common dilemma—they need to reinforce social networking habits, rather than the obvious. How many times in the past has your employer asked you to stop the chit-chat and get back to work. Today, you might find your boss handing you guidelines for chatting on social networks, while distributing major bonus points for garnering the right kind of exposure for the company. Do you want to be the hero at your office?

Follow Convergence on twitter to find out what ideas you can share with your employer to shake it up and drive new business to the company. Want to learn more, visit the discussion on our Facebook page and join the conversation, grow the conversation. What do you think? Do you have some other ideas? Does your company promote socializing? We do, but we want to know what you think?

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