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Manage Online Brand Presence

Your company worked hard to create and continually build an online brand presence yet you may be neglecting to monitor that brand to make sure that it is performing as it was intended.  To monitor your online brand presence all that is needed is some regular care and subscriptions to online tools.  With your online reputation so critical to the success of the online brand presence you can’t be diligent enough in monitoring. Below are some online tools that are free and will help you begin to monitor and maintain your online brand presence.

Online Brand Presence Monitoring with Google

Google offers Google Alerts which automatically notifies you via email when a new Google result pops us with the requested topic or search words you tell it to keep an eye out for.  Since Google is the largest and most popular commercial search engine Google Alerts should let you know about what others are saying about your brand fairly quickly.  Depending on what is being said your online brand presence may be strengthened or damaged. Either way, you’ll know and be able to react quickly and properly.

Online Brand Presence Monitoring with Technorati

Technorati is the largest blog search engine in the world.  When you register with Technorati you can be notified when anyone (also registered) mentions your brand in a blog post.  This is ideal for building online brand presence as many people rely on blogs to get first-hand, honest accounts of a brand.  Keeping tabs on what people are saying about your brand will help guide your decisions in reputation management.

Online Brand Presence Monitoring with Backtype

This service goes hand in hand with Technorati and keeping tabs on your online brand presence as portrayed in blogs.  Backtype monitors blog comments opposed to blog posts.  When anyone mentions your brand name in a comment you will receive an alert notifying you.

Online Brand Presence Monitoring with YackTrack

With so much of your online marketing campaign happening on social media sites keeping up with what others say about your brand on those sites is crucial to online brand presence monitoring.  Yacktrack combines the best of the best to let you know when any comment is posted on a social media website about your brand. 

With so much at state reputation management cannot be stressed enough.  If you’ve put all the hard work and time into carefully crafting your brand, releasing it to the online world and as a result creating an online brand presence, you’ll want to monitor and protect that brand as much as possible.  With just a little extra work your online brand presence can remain strong and vibrant through these online services.

When Online Brand Presence and Social Media Cease to Produce

Every smart business owner understand that social media is directly linked to online brand presence.  These days the two cannot be separated.  With this being the case many get disheartened when their well planned social media campaigned seemingly stall after a short time.  If goals aren’t being met, analytics are less than exemplary, the online brand presence is virtually nonexistent, and one has no idea what is not working, going back to the beginning is probably the best solution.

When going back to the drawing board with a social media campaign a re-examination of the social media marketing goals is the first step.  In many cases goals are lofty, ambiguous and not measurable. That is a recipe for disaster and will not bolster online brand presence. Unless there is a clear way to measure a goal’s success or failure it doesn’t belong in the campaign. When looking at goals every business should also take the opportunity to consider goals from non-tradition sources.  Sometimes thinking outside the box when dealing with social media and online brand presence gets the best results.

After clear and measurable goals have been established some type of metric must be created for each goal.  These can be simple like measuring hits on a webpage or blog or they might have the type of complexity that only a program devoted to social media analytics can handle.  No matter what the metric is it must be used to measure goal progression at all times.  Without accountability of one’s goals and their progress online brand presence will not grow.

Finally, in order to get a fresh start in a social media campaign a sense of humor must be adopted.  Too often businesses start a social media marketing blitz riding high on hopes and dreams and then crash when the results and online brand presence they believed would be forthcoming are not.  In order to combat this ‘blah’ attitude which most definitely seeps into social media and damages the already established online brand presence every business should diversify formatting (photos, videos, text, etc…), use different writers and remember to laugh.

The majority of social media users approach websites like Facebook and Twitter as well as blogs as a fun hobby and if a business is not a partner in that fun they hold no value.  Before giving up on social media marketing and the stellar online brand presence guaranteed to accompany, reviewing one’s entire social media marketing campaign is due. 

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.

Improve Online Brand Presence through Charity

While a company may be utilizing social media, a blog and including fresh content in their campaign to create an online brand presence they many want a little extra something to improve their game.  For many small to mid-size businesses the little extra something that gives a great advantage is charity work.  Not only does it help a good cause and the local community, it is also a proven winner at building online brand presence.

Online Brand Presence – Community Involvement

Everyone likes to help with a good cause.  Whether it is walking to raise cancer awareness or raising money for a local family whose home burned down, people come together for charity events.  Smart businesses realize their target audience is most likely among those helping and advertise accordingly.  With the advances of online marketing businesses can take local causes to the masses via the internet. 

Online Brand Presence – Online Fundraising

Small businesses with even a modest online audience have the capacity to do a lot of good when working with charities.  There are online auctions, prizes given away to all who donate and a myriad of other online fundraising opportunities.  People almost always share positive social media and blogging comments with their friends making online charity work a great way to spread word of a small business.

Online Brand Presence – Reputation Management

Most small business owners understand that reputation means everything in a competitive marketplace.  One bad comment on a blog or social media site and a lot of time and effort must go into correcting it.  Working with charities and local non-profits is a great way to strengthen a good reputation, a task that does a lot for increasing online brand presence.

There are many local charities in every community that anxiously wait for small and mid-size businesses to show interest in helping.  By focusing on only one cause and putting all one’s effort into advancing that cause through fundraising, awareness campaigns and donations a business’s name can become attached to the charity which will create awareness and ultimately bolster online brand presence.

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.

 

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.