(By Jeffrey Hedquist) Your clients' customers are in the process of making buying decisions. We are hoping to influence those decisions to enhance our client's businesses. Customers' decisions are based on awareness: "Have I heard of this company? What's my impression of them? Should I trust them? What benefits do they provide me?"

Social media is involved in almost every customer decision these days. People wanting a product or service will almost always do a web search and/or access many of the customer review sites.

From that point, they may compile a short list - what influences that list are the answers to the above questions.

Your client may have gone to great lengths to enhance their search ranking - SEO, keywords, blogging, referrals, affiliates, podcasts, and articles. But, those efforts may be wasted if a searcher doesn't immediately recognize a company's name or have an emotional connection with that name.

If an advertiser has been using radio consistently to tell their story, there's a much better chance the customer will go to their site, because the advertiser will have more top-of-mind awareness.

If, when the customer sees the URL they think, "Oh, I've heard of them. They have the (whatever) I love. They have really good prices. They've been providing me with tips on (whatever) for months. Their commercials talk to me. I might like these guys," then the advertiser is lifted above the crowd of names appearing in an organic search.

Customers make online choices based on their positive associations. Those associations come from the stories they've heard.

The other parts of the equation are:

I'm not a social media expert but showing the broadcasters I coach to help their clients use these simple techniques has boosted their businesses. Whether you're a manager, seller, or writer, you're the client's marketer. These ways of helping them will help you more than you know.