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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.

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.

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. 

 

 

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.

Take a Second Look at the Company Website for Online Brand Presence Hindrances

Creating an online brand presence is no easy task just as maintaining that same online brand presence requires devotion and time.  Many companies contract out their website design or have an in-house team take charge of the process and don’t give it much more thought.  Unless one has hired a leader in website design with a proven track record in brand building, particularly online brand presence, they should not assume that their website is good enough.

Unfortunately the look and feel of a website associated with a brand plays as much an influence in determining online brand presence as social media presence, blogs and web content.  A website’s aesthetics should match the brand’s goals, beliefs and overall theme.  All too often website designers get caught up in using a successful website design as a one-size-fits-all template when the truth is that each brand should be looked at with fresh eyes.

Sometimes the remedy is simple.  A company can greatly increase their online brand presence by changing some colors, fonts, and adding a few pictures.  Other times it takes a complete overhaul of the website.  If one is not happy with their company’s online brand presence hiring a professional specializing in branding isn’t such a bad idea.  The trained eye can pick up many subtle components of a website that others never consciously notice but react to emotionally nonetheless.

One tiny adjustment that everyone can do to their website that has been proven to increase online brand presence is add photographs of people.  If one questions the validity of this marketing tool they should look at highly regarded national and international brands’ websites.  Photographs of people are splashed all over the place.  The same holds true for social media sites and blogs.  People like to look at other people, plain and simple.

So before blaming web content or small budgets for one’s lack of online brand presence try looking at the website for a change.  If it was designed by someone without the training and experience working with creating and building online brands it probably is flawed.  Flashy graphics are cute but they won’t keep customers coming back for more.  By focusing on the website as a whole representation of one’s brand – color, fonts and all – an online brand presence can really begin to form. 

This is not dismissing web content by any means.  That is still the meat and potatoes of any website.  Customers and potential customers don’t visit websites for the graphics or catchy slogans.  Successful websites with the goal of increasing online brand presence understand that all the components of the website must work in harmony to create on overall brand image.  That is the only way online brand presence is achieved.

 

Focus on Others to Build Your Own Enhanced Online Visibility

Let’s just assume that everyone has their blog up and running, is posting on it every day and makes sure to make the posts thoughtful and well planned – all in the name of building an enhanced online visibility.  Maybe the numbers aren’t as hot as you’d hoped they’d be or you’re running dry on content.  Whatever the problem may be you’re feeling frustrated with the whole blog process starting to wonder if enhanced online visibility is ever going to happen and if it does is it even worth it.

Don’t fret. Yes developing your enhanced online visibility is most definitely worth all the hard work you are putting into the blog whether you realize it today, tomorrow or months down the road.  In an effort to give a new perspective to the company blog this post is devoted to increasing your enhanced online visibility by focusing less on yourself and more on others.

I know it seems counter-intuitive to say that but in reality it works.  Enhanced online visibility depends on others being interested enough in your product or service to know you exist.  A blog is a great way (as we’ve established many times) to accomplish this.   But not all blogs are equal.  One of the ways a blog fails miserably is by focusing only on itself. 

“Look what we are doing.” 

“Aren’t we cool?”

There is only so much of that kind of posting that people can take.  That is why focusing the majority of posts on other companies, other providers of service, other anything related to your industry will beef up the enhanced online visibility.

It doesn’t end there though.  Part of focusing on others is responding to comments.  If a fan of your blog takes the time to comment it is only polite to pay notice.  Not all comments are relevant but many are.  By just checking the comments once or twice a day and making a quick comment back blog traffic will increase followed by enhanced online visibility.

These are not difficult tasks to perform for someone already posting daily or every other day.  Sometimes it is even easier to stop trying to think of more wonderful news to write about your own company and look instead for advancements in the industry.  Enhanced online visibility is not easy to create and time must be dedicated for it to be done right but in the end it is most definitely worth it.

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.

Quality over Quantity Is the New Game in Building an Enhanced Online Visibility

Now that we are squarely in 2012 everyone must begin to look to the year ahead and how to better their enhanced online visibility.  New reports of what to expect in every industry are coming out by the bucket loads.  After reviewing the predicted trends in industries related to enhanced online visibility we’ve pulled a view that are worth mentioning.  The biggest prediction we have noticed has to do with Google and the changes predicted in its algorithms used to determine rank. 

Google is going to battle in 2012 with those who manipulate the algorithms to get ahead.  They are focusing on the quality of web content rather than the quality.  Up until this point to raise one’s rank and enhanced online visibility in the process more pages needed to be added to a website.  Google interpreted that as good because obviously a company who has many pages has a lot to say.  Well, we all know that necessarily isn’t the truth.

There is a fine line between manipulating search rank algorithms and using guidelines to increase one’s likelihood of receiving a higher rank creating a more vibrant enhanced online visibility.  We have tried within the posts of this blog to feature tried and true ways of competing in the brave new world of online marketing by building an online brand presence and enriching enhanced online visibility.  These trends noted in the 2012 predictions (not the end of the world predictions) are in concurrence with our advice.  In short, to achieve an enhanced online visibility companies must devote the time and experience necessary to get the job done right.

Now that the Google Panda is onboard with this ideology we expect some big changes in 2012.  First of all, things are going to get more competitive.  As Smartphone activations are growing exponentially more and more people are utilizing search engines making those top ranks even more coveted than ever.  As Google and other search engines are realizing the underhanded schemes to improve rank through less than honest methods and begin cracking down on such practices new less than honest practices will emerge confusing companies even more.

Again, we fall back on do the job right.  There are no shortcuts to creating an enhanced online visibility.  There is no magic trick that one can do to become an overnight search engine sensation.  Creating a viable enhanced online visibility is possible for any company if they stick to the tried and true methods and heed advice given by the experts in the field.