While planning my next vacation I started to wonder why my research starts and ends at www.tripadvisor.com.  I am in love with this website because real people who have been to the destinations, stayed at the hotels, and dined on the local fare write about their personal experiences with no agenda other than to inform other travelers.  I personally don’t care about gold lists and stars, I care about what real people have to say. 

The same idea applies to business according to The Edelman Trust Barometer for 2008.  People want to hear from people like you and me.  They don’t necessarily always want to hear from the CEO or the webmasters and marketers who create a company site.  By empowering everyone from the secretary to the sales team to blog you are giving your employees an outlet to share industry knowledge thoughts and expertise all while boosting your search engine rankings if done correctly and on the right platform.  Compendium software is an affordable, blog management software that leverages blog content created by individuals to help with online customer acquisition and lead generation.  Just as I look for feedback from travelers like me, potential customers in any industry are looking for insight from "other people like them".  High levels of trust equals high levels of conversion.