Increasing Your Brand Exposure

Business and Self Promotion

Decide what you want to convey about yourself/your business

• Your domain should include your brand or high-search keyword

• Website design must be intuitive, search engine friendly and good reflection of your brand

• Your content must be fresh, clear and relevant, catering to your target audience

http://chicagophotos.blogspot.com

Look for positive ways to promote your brand!

• Social Media NetworksFacebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Plaxo, Twitter

• Social Book-marking SitesDigg, stumbleUpon, Delicious, Yelp

• Online CommunitiesMyBloglog, Technorati, local communities

• Distribute your RSS feed!Feedburner, friendfeed,ping-o-matic, pingFM

Visits are not enough, remember to engage

• Reach out and acquire new and existing customers in a way that makes sense

• Be genuine, your customers can see right through your intentions

• Market your brand in a positive way

• Make sure you make time to commit to your marketing initiatives

• If you allow comments on your site, monitor and respond

• Test, measure and adjust

Maintain Engagement With Widgets

Widgets also known as ‘badges’ allow you to easily embed content within your own site or share your site content into other site.

•Video

YouTube, Ustream, Viddler, Vimeo, Podcasts, ChannelMe.TV

•Pictures

Picasa, Flickr, PhotoBucket, RockYou

•Networks

Facebook, twitter, legit, myBloglog

Increase your brand value by creating loyalty

• Listen to your customers needs

• Customer usability should be at the top of the list

• Remind your customers of the benefits you offer

• The customer may not always be right but they sure have control

• Incentive programs should be the final item on your checklist

Social Network BreakoutLinkedIn Community mindset: connect Primary demographic: 35 to 55 Ideal fit for: service providers, industry associations Biggest opportunity: creating thought leadership via Q&A and Groups Biggest challenge: time commitment Metrics: profile connections, best answers, group members, discussions Helpful tools: Applications, Salesforce plug-in

Blogs Community mindset: create Primary demographic: 35 to 55 Ideal fit for: technology Biggest opportunity: develop thought-leadership Biggest challenge: requires significant resources over time Metrics: feed subscribers, comments, Technorati score, pingbacks, inbound links, visibility in search engines Helpful tools: WordPress plug-ins

FacebookCommunity mindset: connect Primary demographic: 25 to 45Ideal fit for: entertainment, lifestyle brands, and non-profits Biggest opportunity: using ads to build fans Biggest challenge: few appreciate Facebook advertising Metrics: fans, comments, likes, wall posts Helpful tools: Lexicon, ad interface, applications, analytics, connect, etc.

Twitter Community mindset: create (microblogging) Primary demographic: 35 to 45 Ideal fit for: service industry Biggest opportunity: customer service, consumer insight, sales and marketing Biggest challenges: noisy; reliability issues; platform limitations Metrics: followers, @ replies, retweets, direct messages, custom hashtags Helpful tools: BingTweets, TweetBeep, TweetDeck, HootSuite, CoTweet, Mr. Tweet, Twitalyzer, blog plug-ins

MySpaceCommunity mindset: connect Primary demographic: 15 to 25 Ideal fit for: music and entertainment Biggest opportunity: providing music samples Biggest challenges: noisy; losing market share quickly Metrics: friends, favorites, groups, impressions Helpful tools: Open Platform, MyApps, MySpace Toolbox

YouTube Community mindset: vote Primary demographic: 25 to 45 Ideal fit for: big brands and entertainment Biggest opportunity: creating viral content (e.g., United Breaks Guitars) Biggest challenges: noise; conversions Metrics: views, comments, subscribers, ratings Helpful tools: TubeMogul, YouTube Insight

Source: “6 social media platforms at a glance - Your social media platform checklist” - Kent Lewis, http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24168.asp; 08/24/09