Anita at Small Business Trends speaks out against the stampede towards certain types of Consumer Generated Media. For most businesses, the flashy, big budget, high-tech efforts of Chevy or Mastercard just aren’t reasonable. So Anita reminds us of the more basic version of CGM: the Testimonial.

This form of customer feedback is quite a bit less candid, on average, than something like what Chevy unleashed with their Tahoe SUV campaign, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I have to be honest, I have never yet seen a testimonial that I didn’t regard with at least a small amount of suspicion simply because it always makes me wonder what else isn’t being said. What testimonials do show quite well, however, is that you have been doing business long enough and well enough with particular customers that they are willing to go on the record saying something nice about you.

That goes a long way towards establishing yourself as a credible business.

Testimonials have stood the test of time because they work. Prospects pay attention to testimonials. It’s word of mouth — another trendy buzz phrase these days. But there is nothing trendy about the fact that someone considering using a product or service cares what other people say about it. That’s timeless.

She has some great pointers on gathering testimonials in the article and also talks about using surveys in your advertising efforts.