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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.

 

Online Brand Presence Depends upon Online Reputation

As the world continues to rely more and more on the online community many businesses are desperate to try anything to bolster their own online brand presence.  While a passion for moving forward has never hurt anyone, too many small business owners forget the power of networking.  Just like in the real world online brand presence relies heavily on networking and gaining a superior online reputation to match a real world reputation.

Online Brand Presence – Tell Everyone

Most people are used to passing out business cards when meeting customers, peers in one’s chosen industry and even friends and family.  This practice should not be ignored when trying to build an online brand presence.  A simple change to a business card can reflect the growing online presence one is trying to create and encourage people to maintain contact online. 

Online Brand Presence – Conduct More Business Online

It may easiest to pick up the phone and call a customer or client but to really propel one’s online brand presence one must also reach out via the internet.  By no means should someone forego a friendly phone call or face-to-face meeting but add to it a follow up email with one’s company’s website prominently mentioned as well as links to all social media sites and blogs.  Many people prefer to communicate via email and will be happy to make the switch from phone to computer.

Online Brand Presence – Keep an Eye on Reputation

One’s online reputation is just as important as their real-world reputation.  By doing frequent search engine checks of one’s name and business name a good start can be made at catching damaging online content.  One can increase their online reputation by writing articles for other companies within the industry, making frequent and thought-provoking comments on forums and industry blogs and making essential allies of competitors. 

There are many ways an online brand presence can be successfully created and just as many ways it can be restored.  By remembering that what happens on the internet lives on forever and treating every comment and every post as if it were broadcasted to the masses one can begin to build an impressive online brand presence.

Managing one’s online reputation will go far not only with one’s business goals but also for a personal reputation.  No one anticipates slander or demeaning comments but it happens frequently and one must be prepared to battle it when it does.  Keeping tabs on one’s online reputation and doing damage control when necessary will go a long way toward maintaining a powerful online brand presence.

 

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.

Build Online Brand Presence Quicker with Smarter Blogging

We talk a lot about the importance of blogging to create online brand presence and while that is true there is a component of the blog that is often times overlooked.  In short, a blog is a social experience which builds community around one’s service or product.  If a business views their blog this was online brand presence is greatly enhanced.  If they see their blog as a way to increase search engine rank or make a sale online brand presence will be slow in attaining.

A blog might seem like a lonely task, information only going in one direction, from the writer to the audience, but in fact it is an online conversation.  A recent article explained just how important the social aspect of blogging really is to building an online brand presence.  Within the article several tips were given for small businesses to keep in mind when writing blog posts.

Online Brand Presence through Blogging – Communicate

The audience is every bit as important as the writer as a blogpost is a conversation not a lecture.  A post should pose questions to the audience and expect answers in the form of comments.  One relatively new way to engage readers and promote comments is to add social media buttons to each post.  These are small Facebook ‘like’ and Twitter ‘tweet’ buttons that allow readers to send a link to the blog post to their respective social media account.  This is one of the best ways to create and maintain online brand presence available today.

Online Brand Presence through Blogging – Content

While the content will be ultimately determined by one’s industry there are certain topics that readers do not want to see in a post. Small businesses should refrain from technically complicated (above their average audience’s knowledge) information, bland industry news and vulgarity.  Controversial topics are great if they are not too divisive.  Controversy can be a great conversation starter or it can be damaging.  Topics should be part of the overall social media plan with controversial topics one possible strategy to increase online brand presence.

Once a small business gets the hang of writing a blog and is beginning to see involvement from their target audience it is time to take their writing to the next level and seriously begin working on their online brand presence.  By becoming aware of subtle manipulations to one’s company’s blog can make the time invested writing and maintaining it well worth it. Building and creating online brand presence is a job all in itself and when a business works smarter they reach their goals quicker.

Social Media Tools Aid in Building Enhanced Online Visibility

As more and more small businesses begin to realize the benefits of launching an online marketing campaign with social media as the primary strategies to increase their enhanced online visibility a new industry has been created.  Social media tools are now available for a variety of tasks to aid the small to mid-size business owner in streamlining their social media marketing tactics and interpreting analytics.  For a business to truly see an enhanced online visibility taking advantage of these tools would be most beneficial.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Adding Multi-Media

There are a slew of new social media tools aimed at helping account holders integrate music, video, pictures and even voice recordings into their Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media accounts.  Research has proven that pages rich with multi-media generate more interest and engagement with the community.  With so much at stake in online marketing businesses would be wise to use every tool at their disposal to help create their enhanced online visibility.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Time Savers

As a small business gets more fluent in social media and their audience grows they will quickly find themselves devoting a large amount of time to the websites.  Best practice dictates that to have a successful social media marketing campaign a business must be constantly available to respond to comments and post comments regularly.  If successful this will require a lot of time especially if several sites are being utilized.  There are many new and exciting social media tools on the market now aimed at this time issue.  They streamline the updating and monitoring process by funneling all activity from multiple websites into one, easy to understand dashboard.

Enhanced Online Visibility – Analytics

After all the hard work small businesses put into their marketing some form of analytics must be available for review.  This could not be truer for those wishing to affect enhanced online visibility through an online marketing campaign.  Several social media tools provide customizable analytics ideal for the small business.  With information presented in easy to understand formats one doesn’t have to an expert to make sense of the information. 

After a company becomes comfortable with social media (one site at a time, please) they should investigate social media tools and determine which could benefit their business and make social marketing goals more attainable.  With so many tools available now and the number increasing regularly there is a social media tool available to help any business in any stage of growth build their enhanced online visibility.

Language Matters with Online Brand Presence

Everyone, by now, understands the importance of online brand presence and the various vehicles to help build and maintain it.  The most popular routes to boost one’s online brand presence where it needs to be are social media, blogs, and website content.  All three rely heavily on the written word yet companies are more and more often neglecting the English language.  There is no quicker way to lose respect from one’s audience and actually hurt online brand presence than by getting lazy with grammar and spelling.

Social media has been quite a blessing in terms of improving online brand presence.  All of the wonderful aspects of social media that make it so appealing are what make it so easy to lose control of proper grammar and spelling.  First of all, misuse of language is rampant on sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Even the most devoted English grammar-abiders can’t help but fall victim to the ‘everyone else is doing it…’ mentality.  While one’s audience may misuse homonyms and misspell common words frequently companies must take the high road and stick to writing good copy all the time to increase online brand presence.

The casual tone of blogs and social media also lends itself to the misuse of grammar.  While there is absolutely nothing wrong with dropping the formality, something which is a great tool for building an online brand presence, when posting on the company blog certain rules must still be strictly enforced. There should always be a distinction between conversational tone and bad writing.  Fragments should be avoided at all costs.  Misplaced modifiers should not exist and all words should be spelled correctly.  Tone has nothing to do with these issues.

Errors found in website content are perhaps the most disturbing. The website is the company’s online clothing.  It should display the best the company has to offer.  When customers and potential customers see misspelled words and grammatical errors within the website it damages online brand presence and sends the message that the company is not professional.  No matter what the company sales or offers in services correct grammar and spelling must be used on all web pages.

The trend to let grammar, spelling and punctuation slide is upsetting. The entire profession of editing exists to catch such errors and is now being disregarded in lieu of fast and easy.  While it might be fast to throw a Facebook post up without review it’s a company’s online brand presence that suffers if it isn’t up to par.  By taking just a little bit of time to review and edit all writing, even a simple Tweet, companies can guarantee they present a professional image and, in turn, maintain their online brand presence they worked so hard to attain.

Building Online Brand Presence through Social Media, Part 2

In part 1 of this post we looked at three very basic rules to remember when building online brand presence through social media accounts.  These rules apply to businesses of all sizes in all stages of their social media development.  Online brand presence is carefully cultivated over time and with thorough plans, not just appearing overnight to a few lucky chosen. 

With that in mind we can jump right back into some basic rules all businesses must follow if they hope to reap an increased online brand presence through social media use.  Today focuses on three rules that are unique for social media marketing but no less important.

Be Active

Online brand presence is such a finicky thing as are one’s customer base.  If one were to study the companies with the largest, most influential, online brand presences they would find they were constantly doing something.  Of course a small business can’t compete with the likes of Coca-Cola or Playstation but they can make themselves available to their customers by responding quickly to comments and posting interesting comments which leads to the next rule.

Initiate Conversations

Facebook and Twitter are vehicles for conversations, not an arena for sales pitches.  Customers can turn to a business’s website if they want to learn about how wonderful a product or service is.  Online brand presence is, also, not directly about sales.  It is simply getting the word out about one’s business.  By posing thought-provoking questions and posting intelligent, interesting questions customers will respect and admire one’s Facebook or Twitter page resulting in the highly coveted online brand presence.

Take the Time

This cannot be stressed enough.  When businesses complain that their social media accounts are not building the online brand presence they were expecting time is usually the reason why.  Businesses need to post a comment at least once a day and respond to comments within a maximum of twenty-four hours.  There are a variety of online solutions for being notified when a comment is posted.  If a business cannot make the time to do social media correctly then perhaps they should explore other ways of building online brand presence.

The rules set forth in this two part post are very rudimentary yet still highly accurate in creating an online brand presence using social media.  It’s easy to get distracted with all the applications and customizations Facebook and Twitter offer a business, but at the end of the day if the goals aren’t met and online brand presence isn’t gained the job just wasn’t done right. 

 

 

Enhanced Online Visibility Developed through Social Media Content

After setting up a company blog to build an enhanced online visibility it can become difficult to find quality content to post especially if posting daily. The same situation can occur in social media posts like on Facebook and Twitter.  While creativity is a wonderful virtue to possess in the world of social media and blogging and goes a long way in achieving an enhanced online visibility there are certain rules for content that should always be adhered to.  Below is a list of some of the most common rules every company should obey at all times when posting a blog or social media comment.

1)    Enhanced online visibility should be a positive thing.  That means that all of a company’s posts need to stay on the sunny side of the street.  While times may be hard and the economy sinking one’s posts should always focus on the positive.  No matter what the topic there are ways to see the glass half full.  This is one of those times to let that creativity fly.

2)    Companies should avoid foul language, crude humor and trash talk at all times to create an enhanced online visibility.  There are, of course, a few exceptions – companies specializing in the vile and vulgar – but it is safe to say most companies’ target audience will not appreciate crass humor and profanity.

3)    Posts are not for selling products. Rather they are for selling solutions.  In fact, they are not for selling at all.  Social media is such a wonderful tool at building enhanced online visibility because it allows companies an ongoing and intimate conversation with their customers and potential customers.  That conversation is about sharing idea not pitching a product or service.

4)    Companies should keep a close eye on what trends their customers are following.  By allowing the customers to determine the topics they will be much more likely to participate in online conversations. Enhanced online visibility is deemed achieved by engagement of customers not the number of sales.

These are just a few tips for developing the much desired enhanced online visibility that companies so desperately desire.  It is possible through social media to create and maintain an enhanced online visibility while increase sales numbers but it takes hard work.  Companies utilizing social media and blogging should educate themselves on all aspects, not just content, before committing to this new and revolutionary enhanced online visibility tool.

Jump into Social Media for Online Brand Presence

For small businesses wishing to build an online brand presence participation in social media is a great way to do it while keeping the costs low.  In fact, the only cost involved with social media as an online brand presence building strategy is the time it will take.  Anyone who has ever been involved in a small business understands just how valuable that time can be which is why there are some simple guidelines to remember when taking that leap into social media with marketing as the goal.

1)    Start Small and Slow – Before biting off more than one can chew in regards to social media marketing for online brand presence they should commit to one website.  It doesn’t matter if the person updating has personal experience with the website or not when starting a page for a small business all the rules change.   We’ve talked in other posts about what should be included in social media posts and how to best attract and keep fans.  Learning to look at social media through those lenses takes some time to get the hang of.

2)    Update Often and Concisely – The often part of this tip is simple.  People want instant gratification and they love fast. Honestly, a small business should be posting at least once a day for maximum online brand presence growth.  The concise part of this tip is a little more difficult.  Communication is a skill that comes naturally to some and not so naturally to others.  One would hope that the designated ‘poster’ in a small business would have stellar communication skills but that cannot always be accomplished.  No one wants to take the time to read a rambling post.  Say what you mean and say it in as few words as possible to build online brand presence.

3)    Keep It In-House – It may be tempting to immediately contract out the work of building and maintaining an online brand presence to another company specializing in online marketing.  While there are plenty of successful and highly qualified companies one can turn to for these services it’s recommended that small businesses try to do it themselves first.  Social media is a very intimate means of marketing and customers and target customers want authenticity that can only be given by one of the team.  An essential part of online brand presence is authenticity.

These are only three tips to help small businesses kick-start their online marketing campaigns in an effort to further increase online brand presence.  The most important tip of all is to remember that social media is only one aspect of marketing.  It is a communication medium that helps the business connect with customers and future customers.  It does not make sales happen.  If social media is viewed as an opportunity to build online brand presence and not as a one-stop-shop of marketing it can be a success for any small business.

Key Words and Phrases Important in Social Media for Online Brand Presence Building

By now everyone understands the importance of social media for companies and their marketing campaigns if online brand presence in any way is desired.  No matter how big or small a company may be their presence in social media is a must.  But just designing a Facebook page is not enough to increase online brand presence.  Devotion to a brand’s page requires the same amount of effort as one’s personal page.  There are several ways to constantly improve one’s brand Facebook page, one of which being keyword optimization within the confines of Facebook.

Now that Google recognizes Facebook posts in its algorithms many marketing experts focus on using the social media giant to improve Google rank and therefore increase online brand presence.  While there is no hard in doing that companies should devote as much energy into improving their rankings within Facebook.  Keywords are also used for search on the website and companies maximizing keywords related to their industry will invariably create a stronger online brand presence.

When using social media companies have been told to keep it fresh, update daily, and find ways to keep their fans engaged to increase online brand presence.  This is great advice and is definitely the way to keep fans coming back, but how do companies get fans in the first place.  Part of building an online brand presence is roping in new target customers.  Not every customer is going to search for one’s company by name.  For them keywords are how they land on one’s Facebook page. 

Just like when writing original web content for one’s website social media comments must have keywords and phrases that will rank them higher in the internal search results thus building online brand presence.  Obviously the same rules apply as with web content – don’t overdo it.   The more natural one works key words and phrases into their comments the more effective it will be.  If one is a veterinarian in Peoria they would need to use phrases like ‘Peoria vet’ rather than ‘our office’ in comments. 

Thinking about what customers and potential customers will use as key words and phrases is only the first step to utilizing search engines for the maintenance of online brand presence whether they be Google or Facebook.  A lot of time and study goes into such processes and it is often in a company’s best interest to contact a professional in the industry of online marketing and development of online brand presence to get the ball rolling.