Today’s B2B websites must do more than just sell products and services in order to be truly effective. Customers are looking for solutions to problems from companies they can trust. They want to see the people behind the business, and hear stories to which they can relate. While a solid product is crucial to turning leads into customers, the final decision is often driven by emotion. Great storytelling sparks emotion.

What stories to tell …

• Your company. A rich company background can tell a lot about how the business has grown and where it is going. Company history lets customers know how long you’ve been around. A behind-the-scenes look at how your company works and stories about founders and employees makes your company more accessible, personal and relatable.
• Your customer. Be sure to tell your story, but don’t talk too much about yourself. Let your customer be the hero – tell stories about customer successes, and how they were able to solve real-life problems with your help.
• Your responsibility. Inspirational stories about corporate responsibility show how your company is making a difference, whether you are responding to global crisis, contributing to your local community or taking environmental action. The story of a spray dryer manufacturer donating equipment to a local tech college, for example, shows its involvement in the community’s education and economic development.
• Your brand. Your company’s brand is what makes customers remember who you are and what your message is. Build brand awareness with a powerful, memorable story that helps people connect with your company’s culture.

… and how to tell them.

• Website. Your B2B website offers the perfect opportunity to tell a story. Provide company history on your About page. Tell customers’ stories through testimonials and case studies. The site’s design and images also play a huge role in contributing to the company’s theme and message.
• Blog. A company blog allows you to expand your story even further, providing an ongoing conversation with customers that encourages comments, feedback and connections. Regular blog posts keep customers updated on how your story is unfolding every day.
• Videos. With videos, you can add characters, music and a deeper narrative to your story. For example, a sheet metal fabrication shop might create a video that shows its employees and high-tech machinery at work – telling the story of how certain pieces are made and the time, expertise and resources required to make them.
• Twitter. The trending nature of Twitter hashtags allows companies to encourage customers to add their own stories to the mix. Nike’s “Make It Count” campaign has Nike wearers sharing significant experiences through Twitter with the hashtag #makeitcount, helping to further build Nike’s brand and spread its story.
• Facebook. The new Facebook Timeline is designed for companies to tell their story from beginning to present. Companies can add historic milestones and highlight points on their timelines, presenting a story through images, conversations, events and more.

What’s your company’s story? How are you telling it?

I interrupt my regularly scheduled programming, to bring you this message in hopes that I can assist in cleaning up our Facebook feeds from unnecessary and often over done posts.  Yes, we all choose our Facebook friends and thus are responsible for what we see, but I can’t help but point out a few things that…let’s be honest, deep down we all want to see less of right?

Without further ado…

1. Injury/Infliction Photos – Why in the world do people think that it’s a good idea to post their often disgusting photos of their injuries or inflictions on Facebook?  Not to mention with their new larger photo previews on the timeline, the last thing I want to see is a closeup of your mangled foot disease.  Seriously people, what’s the end game here?  What do you possibly have to gain other then a friendly visit from the CDC to put you on lockdown?
2. CrossFit Posts – Ok, I get it, you’re in shape.  I find it incredibly fascinating that you can lift a truck tire over your head three times.  But do we really need to be bombarded with countless posts about whatever inanimate object you were able to lift or toss across the room?  My million dollar idea: instead of putting all that energy to waste throwing garbage around in a warehouse, why not put it towards helping finish up these Seattle road projects.  They seem to really need the help.  Win win if you ask me.
3. Date Night Updates – If I pulled out my phone during a date with my wife to post on Facebook our date would be over.  Seriously, enjoy the company.  If there was ever a time to press pause on the Facebook updates, I would think date night is a good start.  I know that steak was incredibly delicious, but the world can wait to hear about it tomorrow.
4. “Any”ville Game Updates – Hey, gaming is fun, I get it.  I don’t judge.  But do you really need every action you take to be announced to the world?  I know it took you 3 days to grow those cucumbers, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say nobody was holding their breath.  Turn off the notifications and enjoy the game.  Your friends will appreciate it.
5. Babies & Pets – Look, I have kids, and every once in awhile, I brag about them.  But the key phrase here is “EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE”, not every day.  Nobody needs to see hundreds of pics of your newborn eating some green paste, or how that silly cat of yours fell in the toilet.  Moderation folks, that’s all.  Take it easy on our news feeds will ya?

What say you Facebookers?  What other frequent updates drive you mad?

Have you ever seen someone tease a dog?  It doesn’t take long to turn a perfectly friendly pooch into a nasty, mean mongrel.

That’s exactly what happy-days-are-here-again real estate forecasts do to me. When I hear that home values are finally going to go up, I get all excited.  I look up the value of my home online and figure out how far I have to go to get above water (I’m deeper underwater than the Titanic).   Even though it will take years to restore any positive equity in my home, I’m feel excited.  At last, things will be going in the right direction.  I do a little happy dance and I take my wife Felicity out to dinner at IHOP to celebrate.

Then I wait.  And wait.  And wait some more, checking my home’s value every day, only to find out that it was a false alarm.  Sales hadn’t turned out like the experts thought they would.  Or a new bunch of foreclosures screwed things up.  Or maybe they hadn’t calculated something quite right and got a little too optimistic.  The first time this happened I was disappointed.  The second time, I was annoyed.  By the sixth time, I had turned into an attack dog, foaming at the mouth.

So you can imagine how I reacted when not one but two bona fide real estate experts announced the other day that THE RECOVERY HAS BEGUN.  Oh boy.  But in two weeks, my home value actually bumped up a little.   In six weeks, it was up even more and by the end of two months, I was recouping lost ground for the first time in six years!

My real estate agent, Bea Meriwether, sent me a special edition of her newsletter.  The local market was going crazy.  All the big real estate investors were scrambling to snap up the remaining bargains before they disappeared.  Home buyers who have been sitting on the fence for months were calling them in panic to find how much time they had to put a contract on something.  “I almost feel sorry for them,” she said. This time I took Felicity to Red Lobster for Legendary Lobster Night and we had both had Key Lime pie for dessert.

What happened next is almost too sad to tell.  The next morning, my home value stopped rising.  For a week it didn’t budge.  I figured the data was slow since there was so much action.  When it finally moved, it was going the wrong way.  I wanted to cry when it didn’t stop where it had started to rise weeks earlier but kept falling.  The so-called experts, the same guys who were all happiness and glee, now wrung their hands over the “double dip” in home prices.  Those guys can even make ice cream sound awful.

So Bea explained it all to me.  Seems that when priced rose, lots of people who have been waiting for years to sell their houses listed them for sale.  She called it “pent-up supply”.  When there were too many houses for sale, sellers started cutting prices and the miniboom was over.  I felt stunned and betrayed.

“Homer, have faith,” said Bea.  “Someday soon all the demographic forces and the market forces will come together like a perfect storm.  The next generation will wake up one morning and want to buy homes.   We’ll look back at these times as a temporary blip in an upward slope. ”

Part of me truly wanted to believe her.  However, another part of me felt like howling at the moon and looking for some living room furniture to shred.