It seems like more and more businesses are starting to use online tools to market and communicate their messages. Social media is new and shiny and companies are eager to find more ways to broadcast commercials using Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks. However, it frustrates me to see that so many businesses are still applying marketing 1.0 tactics to web 2.0 tools.

Traditional marketing utilizes techniques that broadcast a message to the masses. Make a commercial, buy some airtime, and shout at your viewers for 30 seconds in hopes that the message sticks. Buy a billboard, paint it with your logo, and capture as many eyeballs as possible. Now that social media has opened up new channels of communication, business owners and marketers are eagerly applying the same tactics to new mediums and then wondering why it’s not working.

Facebook? Sure… let’s put a company logo in place of the profile photo, insert the company name, and splatter commercials all over the news feed. No one really knows who works there. Twitter? Great… let’s just use a single Twitter account for the company and shove all communication through it without letting anyone get to know the employees.

What businesses are consistently failing to understand is that people are craving contact with actual people. Social media is a space for humans to communicate, not faceless logos. Rather than hiding behind your logo and keeping your employees a secret, empower everyone to exist online as a person. The CEO should be blogging and signing his name to his postings. The marketing director should actively talk to people on Twitter as a real person. Employees should be encouraged to connect with clients and associates on Facebook as themselves.

Setting up a company Twitter account with your logo on it is a good thing. However, the messages distributed through this account should be redistributed through personal accounts because this is where real conversations happen. A Facebook fan page for the company is the right anchor point for publishing information. However, it’s the personal profiles that should share the content with their networks. This is where conversation happens.

This is an age of personal contact and human stories. Successful companies need to embrace the shift in customer expectations and blend corporate branding with personal branding. If asked what their most valuable assets are, most companies would quickly respond with “our people!” If that’s true, let them show their faces to the world and to your customers. If you are creating a positive environment and hiring the right people, your employees should be proud to represent your organization.

Remember, people want to do business with people they like and trust. Let your people show their faces. Stop shouting from behind your logo and instead have a real conversation with your customers.