Recently, I was looking to get some work done on my house. Google all you want, but reputation is the only reason people buy — or don’t buy — anything. Ever.

It doesn’t really matter what a company says about itself; it’s what the customers say about the company. And when customers have good things to say, that alone will sell to other customers.

The contractor that caught my eye had a customer letter posted on their website. As a business owner, I know if a client takes the time to write a glowing letter filled with specifics, the company has to deliver. This testimonial had details on the day-to-day expectations, the quality of work, and the timeline. A bit skeptical, I asked for another testimonial. This, too, was a glowing review of recent work the company had done. These former customers were very appreciative and it showed.

From testimonials, I learned this company over-delivered, going above and beyond what was expected. They even did things that didn’t make additional money: like cleaning up each evening and taking home their own garbage. One customer wrote that they even brought their garbage cans to the curb! They just thought it was important to do to keep their customers happy and writing rave reviews.

The competition I had considered also had testimonials, but they were one or two sentences with no details, consisting of “they did a good job” and “very professional,” with a five-star rating attached. Ultimately, I went with the company with testimonials that didn’t look like generic, eBay feedback.

That’s what potential customers are looking for: in-depth, non-canned, honest testimonials. Get that and your reputation will do the rest.

JetBlue is getting very, very friendly!

JetBlue, long considered the social media maven with nearly 1.5 million followers on Twitter…but what’s this? A measly 60k on Facebook??? This can’t be! So what’s the popular airline kid to do when they have no friends?

Easy, bribe them!

JetBlue is doing just so, and dang it, everyone is wishing they did it first, but will undoubtedly follow suit. Sooner rather than later, but we, the wannabes frantically friending JetBlue will end up the winners regardless.

Here’s the deal: JetBlue Facebook wants more friends, and to get them, they’re offering a carefully engineered campaign to add more – a lot more, quickly and with as much PR as possible.

A fan focused campaign, named buffet-style All-You-Can-Jet Fan Sweepstakes thrives on the age old gimmick of FREE STUFF. What’s old is new again!

Become a facebook fan and you can win free round-trip tickets, comped airfaire and a vacation for you and — get this — three friends for 5 days and 4 nights. Or, the grand prize of unlimited free travel on JetBlue for a year. A YEAR!

Simple and easy: a marketing dream come true. Become a fan of JetBlue and submit a ballot via the JetBlue Sweeps Page tab (read more).

JetBlue gets the friends they’re looking for, and we get the chance to dream a little dream of traveling on someone else’s dime.

Hey, that’s what friends are for, right? (Up to 73k at this posting…and counting!)

To talk or not to talk? That is the question, but with nothing but dodging from Florida, the blogosphere is more than happy to answer.

While Tiger maintains his silence, or his roundabout explanation that fuels guilt and scandal yet explains nothing, has this mega-superceleb squeaky clean sure thing fallen like … like … Kobe and Phelps and Serena and Michael Vick and Britney and Chris Brown and Kanye and … and … well, you get the drift.

Celebrity endorsements mean a big cha-ching for product placement and sales. Celebrities are a brand onto themselves, as corporations are quick to scoop up the good ol’ boys and girls to be their shining star. But who calculates the missteps? What is the cost of damage control — the necessary clean ups in Aisle Life – when the star crashes to earth?  Or into the neighbor’s tree?

Tiger screwed up (or perhaps he didn’t). We don’t know how or why or when or what, but his silence is deafening. And the corporate bigwigs are squirming big time. Buick, Nike, Gatorade, Gillette, TAG Heuer, Accenture, AT&T.  Is this fixable? What’s it going to cost?  What’s plan B for when the best and brightest prove to be all too human? The brands Tiger represents are now running through the “what if” scenarios, praying for a minor character flaw and not a shock and awe to their brand image.

Sure, celebs of yesteryear were only human too. But that was before Twitter, Facebook, TMZ, MySpace, breaking news all night and all day, and with a buzz of a CNN update, dirty laundry is spilled for all to see.

Speak now, Dear Mr. Clean, or others will speak for you. The blogosphere is erupting. If Tiger doesn’t talk, others put words into his mouth and ergo, the mouths of his sponsors. And the many, many customers are just waiting and listening, wallets in hand.

Every business needs a website. Plain and simple. It’s a brave new world out there, and if you don’t have a website, you’re not living, playing, and you certainly are not working in it.

I don’t care if you’re walking dogs or designing aerospace navigation, your website is window-shopping for any prospective client, employee, or employer. You can hand out business cards and cold call all day long, but few will consider you without a website.

A website makes you legit. Even if you’re just starting out and working out of the trunk of your car, a website is arguably marketing’s best tool in communicating your message. Some basic information your website should provide is who you are; what you do; why you do it; and why you’re best at it! It should provide a number of ways a prospect can contact you.

If you can’t afford to have custom website built for your business, there are inexpensive alternatives to utilize. For example when you register a domain name, at register.com or other domain registration websites, you can choose a pre-coded and formatted website template for a small monthly fee. You must provide text and images, and choices may be limited, but you will now have a site to direct customers and inquiries too. Don’t expect your website to end up on the first page of Google! Most templates don’t include search engine optimization that rank your website to appear first and foremost.

When ready to take your website to the next level of sophistication by including e-commerce, search engine optimization, or redesigning and reworking content, InSight Marketing is well-positioned to make that happen for you.

There’s a guy named Scott Ginsberg and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen him, but he has his website called HelloMyNameIsScott.com and for the past 2,900+ days, he’s worn a nametag. Which means, he’s been wearing a nametag everyday for the past 8 years. Scott wears his nametag every single day no matter where he is going. If he’s doing laundry, he’s wearing the nametag that says, “Hello, my name is Scott”.

His story is very interesting and at some point he even got a tattoo where his nametag would be – presumably to take care of days at the beach. That’s Scott’s “thing”. There is no question that Scott is at the very center of his brand.

And, being at the center of your brand gives you a level of differentiation that’s hard for your market to ignore.

Scott happens to help companies make their brands more approachable to their markets – so it makes sense that his “calling card” would be a nametag. It works perfectly for him. He’s done a good job with that.

But, what about you? What if you’re the center of your brand and you don’t want that dynamic anymore? You’ve found yourself being the Scott Ginsberg, the Dr. Phil, the Madonna of your brand you’re sorry you developed your brand in that way.

You want to be able to take a break.  You want to sell the company.  You are’re interested anymore.  You have had a nervous breakdown. Whatever the case, you want out. What do you do?

Well, you think, “that’s tough”.  You think it’d be hard to do for the obvious reason – YOU are the brand.

Let’s look at Martha Stewart. Let’s say, for example, that she wants to sell her company. I believe she might make out BETTER than if the brand was NOT centered around her as THE brand’s personality. Look at it from a marketing standpoint: there wouldn’t be a Martha Stewart satellite radio station, cooking show, magazine, retail lines – without Martha Stewart being at the forefront.

She has also created a meaning behind the brand – well, her marketing people have. When you know something is made by Martha Stewart’s company, that means certain things – quality, fair price, equality – and those things aren’t really about her personally. It’s become what the brand means to consumers.

So, if YOU are the brand, there might not be so much to worry about. Just make sure the brand MEANS something aside from you so that when you exit, you don’t take the brand with you.

Whatever happened to Ronald McDonald? Where is he?  And, the Hamburgler? What happened to him? Did you notice when they left? It occurred to me recently that they are MIA (missing in action) as part of the McDonalds’ brand.

We still have the Ronald McDonald house, which provides a tremendous service to sick children and their families, but where is Ronald McDonald himself? He used to be on TV commercials and made public appearances. You would see him and the Hamburglar and the other characters of Ronald McDonald land at grand openings of a McDonalds and other events. Looks like they were quietly retired from the McDonalds’ brand.

And, who has said hello? The Burger King in his costume.

I personally like the Burger King with his plastic face and frozen smile. Burger King didn’t try to make an animated character or overdo the Burger King concept. He’s just kind of totally fake and you know it, and more importantly, he appeals to kids AND adults.

Brand mascots can really do a lot to build a brand – especially when they are oddly real or people can identify with them – think Energizer Bunny or Owens Corning’s Pink Panther.

But, seriously, what did actually happen to the Hamburglar?

McDonalds’ marketing used to be totally driven towards kids. Their whole advertising was focused on engaging children and reluctantly the parents would give in and truck on down to the local McDonalds to get them Happy Meals that included little plastic toys – like the Hamburglar.

Now, as our population is getting older and making healthier food choices, McDonalds has changed gears – its advertising is focused toward aging boomers who want to have healthier food and McDonalds has revamped its menu to include more salads and lower fat meals.

So, while we might be pained to have seen the exit of Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar, McDonalds was smart to reposition themselves and take advantage of the changing demographic trends by offering healthier fare that appeals to both boomers and their older, more health conscious children.