What is the best way to stand out from the rest in the ever-growing Internet space? Is that the question on your mind?

It’s no secret that brands are using the plethora of options on the Internet and consumers are using social media and networking to talk about brands they prefer. Ultimately, your brand is what your customers, market, and employees think about it.

Image Source: brands.com

Key Strategies to Represent Your Brand Online

Representing your brand online is more challenging than ever today. Businesses are screaming to be heard and to grab consumer attention away from all of them you must look for creative and valuable marketing opportunities. It is extremely important to have an updated website, with clear information about all your services and contact details.

Blogs – Fundamental to Growth of a Brand

If the Internet has rewritten the rules of marketing then blogging is one of the key factors. This amazingly cost-effective means has helped millions of small, medium and even large businesses “speak” to their audience and provide an excellent platform to talk about their products and services. Most importantly, blogs promote an active interaction in the community leading to a greater ranking in the search engines and increased credibility for the brand too.

With a blog, a business owner can ensure that a consumer reads more than an online classified ad and at times, more than what the website states too. However, if you start a blog you need to ensure that it is up-to-date with relevant information.

Also, with a blog, you are in complete control of – penning down your viewpoints and moderating comments too. Hence, you are in complete control of your marketing strategy and can experiment as you want.

An updated blog signifies that as a brand you are always trying to improve because you are writing regularly about your efforts to improve product quality and service. Employee’s blogging about his or her experiences and perspective is an added plus too.

Must-Read Blogs:

1. Jonathan Schwartz (President & CEO, Sun Microsystems)
2. Craig Newmark (CEO, Craig’s List)
3. Mark Cuban (Owner, Dallas Mavericks)
4. Ross Mayfield (CEO, Socialtext)
5. Matt Blumberg (CEO, Return Path)
6. Alan Meckler (CEO, Jupiter Media)
7. Kevin Lynch (Chief Software Architect, Adobe)
8. Robin Hopper (CEO, Founder – iUpload)
9. Jason Calacanis (CEO, Weblogs)
10. John Dragoon (CMO, Novell)

Social Media Tools

The social media trumpet has sounded and it is loud and clear. Social Media Optimization or SMO is all about activity on various sites, such as, Digg, Delicious, Technorati, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, etc. With and active and meaningful presence on the various social media websites, you can effectively convey your brand message to your target audience, at a much faster speed, at no cost at all!

However, it is important to be creative while you plan a social media strategy, give it some breathing time (don’t expect results in a day!) and analyze the results for better planning ahead. Also, it is important to engage with your potential customers through participation in forums and discussions.

Here’s a simple example – If you have around 200 friends on Facebook and each of them are connected to another 100-odd friends, you are automatically connected to friends of friends too, many of whom could turn out to be your potential customers because they read about your products and services on your Facebook page. Polls, sponsored groups and social ads are great options to represent your brand online and bring it to the notice of millions of web surfers out there.

Image Source:- flickr.com

Social media is best used in connection with your blog. With the blog as your main representation online, you can use the social media tools to share latest posts and more information on your brand.

And if you think that social media is a fad, think again. Also, check these statistics for yourself:

• Facebook has over 500 million users today.
• 66% of online Americans use social networking sites today, up from just 20% in 2007.
• 68% say they have shown their support of a product, service, company or musical group by becoming a “fan” or a “friend” on a social networking site.
• According to the May metrics report released July 1 by mobile ad network Millennial Media, there is a 50% rise in mobile ad campaigns that direct users to multiple social networking sites.
• 21% of BtoB marketers surveyed can directly attribute sales or revenues to their Twitter efforts.

Sources:

smrb.com
socialmediaatwork.com

In fact, Justin Kistner of socialfresh has stated that “we’re in the 3rd Era of the Web and its The Era of Social Media”. There’s much analysis and data to recommend social media as an innovation to invest in for businesses worldwide. The bottom line is to have a clear objective and be a valuable resource while you represent your brand online.

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