Dog-food sites shouldn't exist in a vacuum. There's a growing need to interact with other pet owners. The Cesar food brand Web site intent is to blur the lines between a brand Web site and the social Web. A big feature included here is a section on therapy dogs. Cesar targets small-dog owners who are in need of a better connection. But it's not just meant for other owners: Cesar has built an area where it can listen and respond regularly to consumers.

On the home page of the new Westlake Hardware Web site, you won't see a picture of a hammer, a piece of sheet rock, ceiling fan, or a remodeled kitchen. Leave that to big-box operators like Home Depot or Lowe's. At this Midwest hardware chain, people and services are more important. Hundreds of how-to videos offer small project info and experts at the ready, meeting consumer needs. And if you want a hack saw, truck spark plug, or a bird feeder, you can find that as well.

Proton therapy isn't new for cancer patients - it's been around since the 1950s. But for some, its precision works better than more harmful radiation therapy. The site focuses around the search areas, as well as walking the patient through every step of the treatment process. Highly personalized patient care found at a ProCure facility comes from patient videos and other content on the site. Results have shown the conversion rate - the completions of a "Request a Consultation" form - have increased 32 percent.

Nasal allergy medicines can leave you slow and sleepy. Not only that, but many smell or taste funny. Amid many medications, Omnaris is a smell-free, taste-free, alcohol-free product. With many products similar to one another, some of these differences were important to consumers. The effort pushed consumers - driving ROI - due to the product's unique compound. If consumers still aren't convinced, funny advice from the site's "Allergy Dudes" might do the trick.

Flu shots? Yuck. Better to have, say ... a flu spray. Via the campaign, "I Pick My Nose," MedImmune's friendly looking site sells the idea to kids and moms. Custom content from kids TV programmer Nickelodeon fostered easy association, and video content included a 60-second commercial and three stories about faux neighborhoods with flu issues. Nearly 260 million online impressions and 900,000 video views were generated - as well as kids owning up to doctors about picking their noses.

TV house-design personality Tyler Florence explains in videos how to design some inspiring kitchens on this site. Can't afford one? No problem. A new 3-D design dragging-and-dropping tool lets you create hundreds of possibilities to drool over. Stuck with your smallish kitchen? You can read about the best "tricks" for those tiny cooking rooms. Lots of videos, and more importantly 140-character Twitter recipes. A fast read and even quicker to cook.

Not all carpet is the same. But how do you tell that to consumers? The goal: showing the realities of everyday living. A new site for the Bliss carpet brand allows for creating custom designs, comparing colors, as well as the unique ability to let customers place carpeting in room scenes. The result was more consumer time on site - up 81 percent from their previous Web site, a four-fold increase in consumer requests, and double the requests for locating dealers versus the old site.

Ductless air conditioning? The question was how to get consumers emotionally involved - even if they can't buy the product directly. Two Web areas were created: one for consumers, which features snappy interactive tools and video, the other for installation pros. The response? Increased total Web site contact conversion rate and sales versus the previous year. In a one-month time span, 28,774 consumers looked for a dealer and 20 percent of people who came to the site contacted a contractor.

Howifightms.com is a pharma-sponsored community Web site that allows people with multiple sclerosis to share their stories, insights, and experiences through things such as blogs, v-logs, photos and playlists. Additionally, it's an outlet for people suffering from MS to find more information about their disease. Launched recently, the site has already been well received by users, as measured by high rates of sign-up for premium content, views of video content, awarding of "kudos" to content, and participation in polls and quizzes.

LIVESTRONG.com offers content that engages and informs, providing users with practical tools that make living healthy an easy and sustainable process. The idea of the site is to teach, not preach, and enable members to discover the practices that work best for them. With over 3 million members, LIVESTRONG.com provides information, encouragement and success stories, as well as peer-to-peer support through their member forums. They are consistently dedicated to helping their members realize their potential so that they can help others do the same.