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Expertise Required for Enhanced Online Visibility

Many companies expect an easy answer as to how to create an enhanced online visibility.  While some fish oil salesman masquerading as online marketing experts claim to be able to achieve this elevated status in ‘three simple steps’ or some other similar nonsense that is just not the case.  Creating an enhanced online visibility takes hard work, perseverance and a dedication to the task.

If one was to line up companies and brands that have achieved an enhanced online visibility certain attributes all had in similar would become evident.  One of those similarities is that each company with an enhanced online visibility is perceived to be an expert in their field or industry.  They might have taken different paths to be seen by their customers and audience (as well as competition even) as experts, but the end result is the same.

Knowing that, it would behoove any company set upon claiming an enhanced online visibility as their own to put forth the dedication and initiative to being identified as an expert.  With most of the world’s business conducted online expert status is gained through blog posts, website content, and forum posts.  The more a company becomes visible in their industry’s online community with helpful, useful and thought-provoking information the quicker their expertise will become invaluable.

Social media has truly been a gift to creating an enhanced online visibility.  Now, with the simple click of a ‘like’ or ‘tweet’ button a company’s expert advice or insights can be shared with an entirely new audience.  By adding such buttons on every blog post companies can be fast on their way to being seen as experts in their field.

Keeping on top of industry news and sharing it as quick as possible will also send the message that the company is maintaining a diligent keep on industry developments.  Having this kind of reputation will only escalate one’s rise to expert status and firm establishment of enhanced online visibility.  Of course to do this companies must devote an appropriate amount of time to surfing the web for relevant news and keeping up with industry blogs and online publications.

All in all, becoming an expert is not an easy chore no matter what online marketing gurus soliciting for business may promise.  To create an enhanced online visibility that will weather the storm companies must commit to the kind of dedication becoming an expert requires.

Using Guest Bloggers to Increase Enhanced Online Visibility

Anyone who blogs on a regular basis understands how maintaining one’s focus on building an enhanced online visibility can become overwhelming and demanding.  For those whose sole responsibility it is to maintain the company blog scheduling regular breaks from writing is vital to keeping the intensity strong and meeting the challenging goal of creating a vibrant enhanced online visibility.  The best way to schedule regular breaks for oneself is to invite guest bloggers to write. 

Enhanced Online Visibility – Guest Bloggers Add Diversity

There is no better way to break up the monotony of a blog then to invite someone else to write.  A post or two from a new voice in a different situation will refresh the blog and catch readers’ interest.  Enhanced online visibility only works if someone (and lots of them) is reading what is written.  Even if the guest writer is has a similar view on the industry as the primary writer for the guest blog the diversity seen within the posts will still be huge.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Guest Bloggers Challenge Ideas

The best type of guest writer one can get to build an enhanced online visibility is a writer who will challenge the primary writer’s opinions.  This, of course, can’t be a mean and spiteful confrontation, but rather a well-written rebuttal of beliefs.  If done well many new post topics will be created, a series of back-and-forth ‘debate style’ posts can be developed and, best of all, a conversation among commenters will begin.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Guest Bloggers Have an Entourage

Perhaps the best reason to invite a guest blogger to write for the company blog is to increase numbers.  When choosing a guest writer it is important to find one who already has a successful online brand presence with plenty of followers to prove it.  Where they write their crowd will follow.  Even a simple link on the guest’s website or blog leading their followers to the guest post can open many doors for one’s company.  This is one of the best ways to increase enhanced online visibility.

Rather than become a devastating blow to the company website and blog, one should look at a case of writer’s block as an opportunity to help build enhanced online presence. Not only will the primary writer of the blog get a much needed break to recharge their batteries, readers will get a fresh, new perspective and new readers will be drawn to the blog. 

Web and Blog Maintenance Crucial for Online Brand Presence

Many small business owners put so much effort into creating their online brand presence that once an acceptable level is achieved they begin to slack off, failing to maintain that precious online brand presence they worked so hard to build.  In order to keep that from happening to your business you must work tirelessly to maintain your online reputation. The best way to do that is to perform regular maintenance on all web content and blog entries.  An out of date or irrelevant post is all it takes to begin to crack the façade of a strong and dominant online brand presence.

Online Brand Presence Maintenance – Search Engine Monitoring

If you own a small business you should be checking your business’s name on all major search engines on a regular basis.  All it takes is one bad comment or review to seriously endanger your online brand presence.  By not only checking search engines, but also having a plan in place should the worst occur, you are protecting yourself against damages that could cost thousands to repair.  You might consider hiring a professional reputation management company to assist you in keeping tabs on your online brand presence.

Online Brand Presence Maintenance – Blog Comments

It’s easy to forget to read every single comment posted on your blog.  We understand.  Unfortunately, this is one of the ways your online brand presence can seriously be hurt.  Either spammers post nonsense comments promoting their product or someone blasts you in a hate-filled comment and suddenly your online brand presence is suffering life-threatening wounds.  Constant monitoring of your blog is essential not only for maintaining online brand presence but for creating an environment of open and positive community which hopefully will detract spammers and other negative comment.

Online Brand Presence Maintenance – Web Content

Web content is easy to forget about in the world of a busy small business owner.  You work hard to produce quality content and then are expected to update it regularly.  It’s easy to see how the updates might become fewer and fewer as the months pass by.  Unfortunately, keeping web content fresh is one of the best ways to maintain online brand presence.  If you find yourself to busy with the day to day tasks involved with running a business you might consider hiring a company specializing in web content and search engine optimization.

Determine Target Audience for an Enhanced Online Visibility

All too often a small business has a great product or service but can’t understand why their enhanced online visibility is nowhere to be found.  Quite often the problem isn’t their service or products but rather their inability to reach their target audience.  When working on a company online marketing plan with the goal of building and maintaining an enhanced online visibility target audiences must be thoroughly researched and decided upon before attempting online marketing strategies.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Begin at the Beginning

When developing one’s target audience for online marketing with the intent being to increase enhanced online visibility a small business should start by making a physical list of all the attributes of their target customer(s).  Are they male or female? What income level? What education level?  All these question matter when determining where time and resources should be spent in regards to online strategies.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Think like the Customer

Once the target audience has been thought through and a  list of attributes for each target customer has been assigned the small business owner must determine where their target audience will be online.  If one determines their largest pool of target customers is sixty to eighty years old and of limited means what are the odds of their being active on Twitter and Facebook?

Although the target customer, originally determined, may be that demographic and Facebook may not be a good meeting ground one must take a second look at their target audience.  Would the target customers’ children be on Facebook and Twitter? Might online marketing aimed at them rather than their parents for whom the product or service is designed be more practical?

Enhanced Online Visibility – Trust in the Numbers

After enacting various online marketing strategies such as social media, blogs and forum posting on industry blogs every small business owner needs to make the time on a regular basis to check the numbers to see if their hard work in the online community is paying off.  There are several programs and websites dedicated to analytics that will clearly show where traffic is coming from and the demographic composition of one’s traffic.  Even a simple Google search of the business name will give one an idea of how their business’s enhanced online visibility is doing.

It is easy when creating and structuring an online marketing plan to forget the very foundation of any business – the customers.  Online marketing allows a business exciting new ways to market their business, interact with current and future customers and keep an eye on the competition.  All of that is for naught, though, if a business’s enhanced online visibility is lacking due to mistargeting of audience.

Keeping Track of Comments to Build Online Brand Presence

One of the proven ways to build one’s online brand presence is to be active in industry forums, social media and other’s blogs.  This activity usually takes the form of making thoughtful and compelling comments – not blatant advertising of one’s product or service.  Best practice recommends that to really build online brand presence one must always include a link back to the company blog or website when posting said comments. 

Understandably, after a few dozen comments it becomes difficult to keep track of all the blogs, forums and social media pages upon which one commented in an effort to monitor the ongoing conversations so that online brand presence can continue to be built.  Since this is a universal problem several new programs are available online to do that job exactly.  Below are a few programs that will make monitoring one’s online brand presence incredibly easy so that time and energy can be spent on more important components of creating and maintaining a business’s online brand presence.

Backtype – This is great for monitoring blog comments across the web.  Once one comments on a blog and includes a link to their blog or website Backtype will update any new activity on the blog saving time and energy.  This service can also be used to monitor trends and discussion in one’s industry which comes in useful for the company blog.

Google Alerts – One can now tame the search engine giant by setting up Google Alerts which notify one when a pre-entered phrase or business name is mentioned any where on the internet whether that be in a blog, forum or article.  This is great for monitoring a business’s online brand presence.

Twitter Search – For those small business’s investing their online marketing time on Twitter keeping up with all the Tweets can be exhausting.  Enter Twitter Search.  One can search for all the instances a company’s name is mentioned in a tweet and then choose to respond or not respond.  One of the keys to maintaining online brand presence is constant communication.  Tools like Twitter Search help keep one on top of social media.

Friend Feed – Similar to Twitter Search this tool helps businesses keep an eye on all social media activity that mentions the business name.  An ongoing log is presented that pulls from all the major social media sites. The temptation with a tool such as this is to spend as much time monitoring Friend Feed as one would the individual sites which doesn’t really save time or increase online brand presence.

Enhanced Online Visibility Requires Perseverance

Hopefully, by this point in the year small business owners are finally able to catch their breaths and analyze if their enhanced online visibility is working out for them.  We’ve gone over several strategies that a business of any size can employ to beef up their enhanced online visibility in the past, but if the numbers are still not where they should be there are a few more tips and strategies one can try.

The first thing that every small business should be doing regularly, regardless of whether one’s enhanced online visibility appears to be thriving, is check out the competition.  This is not something with which one should be obsessed but it never hurts to take a peek every month or so to see what the immediate competition is doing to improve their enhanced online visibility. 

By immediate competition I mean those businesses that are in one’s immediate vicinity and has been known to take a customer or two.  This may be geographically if one is operating a brick and mortar store or it may be an internet store.  No matter who one’s immediate competition may be it is always a good idea to see what they are doing on their social media pages, blog and website.  Of course, one would never steal ideas or strategies from a competitor but if they appear to be thriving one can always see where they put their energy. Is it Facebook, the company blog, or better web content?   

After studying the competition a small business can take a fresh look at their strategies aimed at building an enhanced online visibility.  Rather than duplicate what the competitor down the street is doing successfully one can try and find a unique strategy with the same goal.  If the competitor has a killer Twitter account a small business might want to focus on the Facebook page.  If blogging seems to be where the customers are then finding creative new tactics should be one’s focus.

This review and reevaluation of one’s strategies for gaining an enhanced online visibility should be done on a regular basis whether one’s business is suffering or soaring.  For those stagnate this process should be done more often.  Enhanced online visibility requires hard work and diligence to be maintained.  Even small businesses employing great strategies and staying on top of trends will have to commit to a large amount of work to keep their enhanced online presence thriving.

Consistency Counts in Creating Online Brand Presence

It is understandable how managing several social media sites, a company blog, website content and forum reading and posting in an effort to create and maintain an online brand presence quickly becomes overwhelming for a small business owner.  In an effort to do it all some small business owners may assign tasks to other employees.  There is nothing wrong with multiple people within a business handling the various online marketing strategies as long as there is a consistency of voice.  If the voice of one’s brand wavers online brand presence is actually hindered rather than helped.

To avoid hurting one’s delicate and new online brand presence there are a few consistency tips any small business owner can adopt to help avoid costly mistakes.

Online Brand Presence – Consistence User Name

This seems too easy but it can be a problem for small businesses.  When joining forums and other online communities a small business must always have the same user name no matter who is doing the writing.  If multiple user names are created customers and fans of the business may become confused, or worse, not realize that one business is behind all of the posting which is the opposite of one’s online brand presence goals.

Online Brand Presence – All Writers Understand Goals

Behind every great online marketing strategy should be even better goals.  These should be decided upon before a single Facebook or blog strategy is even discussed.  Once the goals are clearly defined any employee managing a specific strategy can stay on course since the goals are set in place and understood.

Online Brand Presence – Monitor the Brand

Even the best laid plans, clear goals and consistent writing will do no good if one’s online brand presence isn’t established.  To ensure this top priority is being met every small business owner should search their brand regularly.  For some this will mean weekly, for others almost every day.  Sometimes a search (on several search engines) will allow a clear and unbiased look at how the strategies are working.  If consistency is an issue a good search should expose it.

Regardless of how a small business goes about establishing their online brand presence consistency must be kept in the forefront of all writers.  Although this is an issue primarily when there is more than one writer a lack of consistency can still pop up with one writer if the writer doesn’t stick to the previously established goals and not let mood or emotions interfere with the job at hand. 

Everyday Items that Boost Enhanced Online Visibility, Part 2

We looked at previously how every day marketing strategies employed by small businesses should be looked at from the new perspective of building one’s enhanced online visibility rather than throwing away what has proven to work in lieu of completely new practices.  While there is no harm in a small business owner trying to make the transition to an online presence on their own they may want to at least consult with a professional online marketing company to make sure they are doing enough and not wasting precious time and money on strategies with little effect on an enhanced online visibility.

The key to tweaking current marketing strategies to make them applicable to an enhanced online visibility is to start with what works best.  Below are a few strategies every business already should be doing but can easily be used to bolster an enhanced online visibility.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Print Advertising

Almost every small business has print ads of some kind even if it is an ad in the local high schools basketball program.  It doesn’t matter where print ads are located; they should always include a website, blog address and social media information if an enhanced online visibility is the goal.  As suggested in Part 1 contacting a professional online marketing agency may be a wise decision when designing ads of all kinds as they have experience in promoting websites and social media.  The changes to the ads may appear subtle but usually have an amazing impact.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Promotional Material

A great marketing strategy is to give promotional material away to customers and target customers.  Depending on the industry these gifts can range from teddy bears and lollipops to Post-Its and pens.  No matter what gifts and materials a small business uses to market to customers and potential customers along with the company name should always be the website address.  Again, this is crucial for developing an enhanced online visibility. 

The focus of marketing needs to shift from the customer thinking of Business A when needing their product or service to the customer thinks of Business A’s website.  Enhanced online visibility does not happen overnight and takes a lot of work.  Thankfully, most small businesses already have effective marketing strategies that can easily be manipulated to move them online and get customers thinking of them as an online presence.  With a little help from an online marketing professional any business can quickly begin building an impressive enhanced online visibility.

Everyday Items that Boost Enhanced Online Visibility, Part 1

These days it seems that too many companies don’t see the forest for the trees in regards to their enhanced online visibility.  With acronyms like SEO and SMO and SEM thrown around accompanied by anecdotal warnings to those not adopting such methods the message is clear – move online or close the business doors forever.  Of course there is some truth to moving online. As the world’s economy has shifted from brick and mortar stores to online versions businesses (especially small businesses) must make the transition as well to keep customers.  That doesn’t mean that good, old fashioned business and marketing practiced must be abandoned completely.

There needs to be a balance and when working fervently on creating an enhanced online visibility for a business remembering that the business was built by people, not computers, will go a long way in making the transition to online a success.  There are several ways that a small business can take great strides at building and maintaining their enhanced online visibility with very minor changes to their current marketing strategies.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Business Stationary

Every piece of paper with the business’s name must now have the business website, blog address and social media information.  It may seem like a small step but, in fact, it is huge.  How often does one go digging for an invoice to look for a phone number when the phone book or computer is two feet away? By adding all of one’s online contact information on business stationary customers will have quick and easy access to additional ways of interacting with the small business which will do wonders for enhanced online visibility.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Vehicles

Regardless of what industry one may be in almost every business owner owns a vehicle.  Business logos on a car or truck are not just for delivery vehicles anymore.  This mobile billboard can be one of a small business’s greatest marketing tools.  To really make it work there must online information included.  By adding one’s website address and a Facebook or Twitter logo can greatly increase enhanced online visibility.  Turning to a professional in the online marketing field to design an attractive sign for a vehicle is not a bad idea as those in the industry know what works.

These are just two ways a small business owner can use every day practices and items to create and maintain an effective enhanced online visibility.  Rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater businesses must reexamine what marketing practices they are already employing to see what small changes can be made to bring them online and get the customers online with them.  That is the challenge of creating an enhanced online visibility.

 

Create Online Brand Presence Face-to-Face

Any good politician knows to really get votes they must go out and meet the people; the same is true with creating an online brand presence.  While online chat rooms, webinars and social media sites are great they do not substitute for real face-to-face meetings.  For those with a small business that brings customers into a physical store this online brand presence building strategy is easy.  They have been doing it all along.  For those, though, without the luxury of customers walking into a physical store finding ways to interact in reality can be more challenging.

Online Brand Presence Face-to-Face – Host a Speaker

Hosting an industry leader at a local conference center is a great way to meet one’s customer base and open channels of communication.  Industry leaders often have lecture series and, depending on the industry, can be relatively inexpensive to book.  By offering a reservations-only luncheon with guest speaker any small business can begin to meet their customers and potential customers away from the computer screen yet still build the powerful online brand presence.

Online Brand Presence Face-to-Face – Discussion Groups 

This is, by far, the most inexpensive way to meet customers and others in one’s industry community.  Every industry has news and issues confronting the industry.  Libraries, churches and community centers often are home to industry discussion groups that meet monthly or even bi-weekly.  By engaging customers with discussion face-to-face it is easier to transfer the communication to the online arena which is exactly what one must do to build a strong online brand presence.

Online Brand Presence Face-to-Face – Trade Shows and Booths

For those small businesses unable to bring in a speaker or host a discussion group the booth can become their best friend.  By having booths at all expos and trade shows which remotely relate or appeal to their industry and target customers they can begin to meet customers and answer questions in person.  Especially for those small businesses with a handful of employees getting out and meeting customers and showing them the business is committed to their satisfaction is crucial for getting ahead.  Once a physical connection is made it will be easier to entice them to engage online which in turn builds online brand presence.

These are just a few ideas of how to create and bolster an online brand presence for small businesses.  With many of us confined to computers most of the day it is easy to forget how important human contact is for making great impressions and capturing customers.  Online brand presence is only possible if the customers are interested in one’s business.  Often times building that interest takes work only face-to-face can accomplish.

Schedules Important to Online Brand Presence

Most small businesses now understand the value of social media, blogs and website content when creating and maintaining their online brand presence.  Once all of those components are up and running, however, it is easy to become overwhelmed and begin to fall behind in updates.  Before ever committing to various online strategies an online marketing plan must be created including goals and strategies.  Most important in the plan should be schedules. 

Each individual piece of the online marketing plan runs on a different schedule to maximize online brand presence.  Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter should be updated at least once a day. Blogs should have at least one post per week, preferably three to five.  Websites should be updated as information chances and at least once a month to keep content fresh.  Industry forums should be visited on a regular basis with comments added.

With all these different schedules anyone can see how a small business can quickly lose track and inadvertently lose online brand presence.  That is why setting up concrete schedules for each arm of one’s online marketing campaign is absolutely necessary to meet goals.  As goals are met or are changed schedules must also be reevaluated.

 Businesses should pay close attention to analytics in order to revise schedules as needed.  For instance to keep engagement at its peak and online brand presence at a maximum a business might discover that posting comments on social media three times a day is ideal.  Any more posts and the numbers remain the same; any fewer posts and the numbers drop.  In that case the social media scheduling should be changed to reflect the analytics.

While keeping up with scheduling is crucial to the success of online marketing and building an online brand presence small businesses must not forget their goals.  Social media, blogging and a business website are all great tools at gaining a great online brand presence but are not the same as sales.  The focus of any online marketing plan should always be to gain and retain customers – not get as many ‘subscribers’ on Facebook as possible.

With so much at stake in today’s company and more and more small to mid-size businesses focusing their marketing online all businesses, regardless of their industry, must bring their A-game to truly build an online brand presence.  By starting with the basics of developing a solid marketing plan and realistic schedules reflecting the goals of that plan a true online brand presence can be attained.

Don’t Forget Email for Enhanced Online Visibility

It appears that with all the hoopla regarding social media and blogging that many companies have forgotten their first method of building an enhanced online visibility – email.  While it’s not as glamorous as Facebook or Twitter it has the ability to make a substantial impact on a business’s enhanced online visibility if used correctly.  Typically email address lists are voluntarily provided by customers making the chances of emails being read much higher than other forms of online marketing.  Also, much more can be said in a newsletter sent out en masse via email than with a tweet or post.

Enhanced Online Visibility through Email Address Lists

Most businesses have been collecting email addresses of their clientele for years, if not decades.  Email is much better than physical mailings for newsletters and updates because people tend not to change their email address as often as physical addresses.  Also, there is no cost to distribute email newsletters.  This fact alone makes email distribution a good investment.  Although these reasons are compelling enough for companies to focus on email address lists there is an even better reason – email addresses are given voluntarily, almost assuring the recipient’s interest in one’s business which will ultimately help build enhanced online visibility.

Enhanced Online Visibility through Email Content

Many people think newsletters are a thing of the past.  With instant information at everyone’s fingertips why would anyone take the time to read old information in a newsletter? People still read newsletters because they do not think about the business or industry until the newsletter pops up in their inbox.  While those deeply involved in an industry or company may have run across the information distributed in the company newsletter it is safe to say the average customer has not.  Weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly newsletters give a nice synopsis of a company’s activities and industry news without overwhelming customers.

Enhanced Online Visibility through Email Updates

Yes, it is true that updates can be given on Facebook and Twitter but for many customers an email account is checked more often than a social media account. Or even if the social media page is seen by the customer they may accidentally overlook a company’s update.  If a customer cares enough to keep a company’s email notifications and newsletters in their inbox and not spam box they are much more likely to read the updates than in any other venue on the internet.

There are many other reasons not mentioned in the post regarding the benefit of email in building an enhanced online visibility.  Although there is not enough time to give a real discussion to the tried and true email method of distributing information and, in turn, building an enhanced online presence, it is safe to say it is worth considering.  There is nothing wrong with an aggressive social media marketing campaign but companies would be wise to not forget about the power of the company email when an enhanced online visibility is the goal.