It’s hard not to notice the popularity of Facebook, Twitter and other social media gathering spots. In each and every one of those places, brands are being discussed, passionately. Love or hate, real people are talking about recent experiences with brands large and small.

It could be how much they love a product they purchased, how great (or not so great) a recent meal was at a restaurant they went to with their friends. If they had a bad customer service experience, or how much they loved their waiter/waitress.

Regardless, they have become YOUR brand ambassadors to all of their friends and colleagues.

Messaging plays a very important role, it’s the the glue that holds your brand together.  This is where you state your benefits, claims, promises, and your mission. Sure your visual brand convinces them (hopefully!) that you are a quality brand that they want to partner with, but your messaging tells them if you are providing the services they need. This is where they find out if you are a good fit.

When you think about one of your favorite brands, you almost instantly get a mental picture (and that gut feeling we talked about here) of that brand.  With the big hitters it’s easy; Target, Starbucks, WalMart have spent countless dollars on making sure that when you see a communication vehicle with their name on it – you know instantly who is trying to get your attention.

Some interesting research came out recently that validates the importance of a completely integrated marketing and advertising effort. Crown Peak conducted a study of holiday advertisers and discovered that 66% percent of online ads simply redirect users to the website home page, or a generic search result page rather than a landing page specifically tied to the ad content, message or call to action.