Where to start? Get yourself a blog, but don’t settle for a free hosted one, invest in your own dot com. Everyone (possibly the exception being Seth Godin) eventually switch from a free service at some point. Commit to some kind of schedule and update it on a regular basis. What else? Venture into social media and start networking. There’s plenty of options, I’d recommend Twitter myself. Social media isn’t an obvious benefit for some, but one way of looking at it is that you create your own communication channel, and it enables you to network in new ways.

So what’s left to say? In 5 to 10 years from now, if you didn’t take action, you’ll likely wish you did.

Personal Branding – Invest in Yourself is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com

In many ways, the Internet is almsot a hybrid of most other marketing channels (print, broadcast, DM) with outdoor possibly being the exception. But the segments that really stand out would be social media and search. Engagement and influence has never been known to such a degree before.

Branding Online as a Medium is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com

Search marketing continues to dominate with the largest amount of the marketing budget, while social grows moderately. Mobile marketing overtook both social and email this year.

Source: Forrester US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2011 To 2016

Digital Marketing Forecast is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com

Its been said that a company can boost profits by 75-100% by retaining as few as 5% of their current customers. Whatever business you’re in, you’re success will be that much greater if you focus on creating a brand. The value behind a brand strategy offer long term benefits that increase your bottom line exponentially.

And with that in mind, here are some branding quotes for further inspiration…

“A brand for the company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”

- Jeff Bezos

‘Brands are the express checkout for people living their lives at ever increasing speed.’

- Brandweek

“If you are not a brand, you are a commodity.”

- Philip Kotler

“Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand.”

- David Ogilvy

“A Brand is not a product or a promise or a feeling. It’s the sum of all the experiences you have with a company.”

- Amir Kassei

“A great brand is a story that’s never completely told.”

- Scott Bedbury

*A brand is a personification of a product, service, or even entire company.”

- Richard Blanchard

“Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.”

- Walter Landor

“A business based on brand is, very simply, a business primed for success.”

- David F. D’Alessandro

“A brand that captures your mind gains behavior. A brand that captures your heart gains commitment.”

- Scott Talgo

“A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.”

- Al and Laura Ries

“The internet is fast becoming a “cesspool” where false information thrives. Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are increasingly important signals that content can be trusted.”

- Eric Schmidt, Google

“The primary focus of your brand message must be on how special you are, not how cheap you are.  The goal must be to sell the distinctive quality of the brand.”

- Kerry Light

“A brand name is more than a word. It is the beginning of a conversation.”

- Lexicon

Branding Perspectives is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com

To understand what’s driving the growth, its important to look at both demographics and psychographics of social media users in order to put things in perspective. Females make up the largest segment of social media users, and 18-34 year olds being the most active among all age groups.

Even today targeting is overlooked. Many are lost in a world of different metrics like followers, likes, retweets and more. Even social media marketing should cater to a customer segment through some kind of targeting.

All this is interesting, but what’s important to note here is how fast mobile is gaining on popularity.

Almost 40% of people now access social networks from their mobile phone, and Web users over the age of 55 are driving the growth of mobile social networking. That’s twice as many accessing social sites from their smart phones as last year.

Targeted Social Media is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com

Driving your online branding strategy often requires one to be perceived as a key resource or authority within your market or niche. Sometimes referred to as thought leadership, aiming to position yourself as “The Source” (or one of the top alternatives) poses more of a challenge than one might expect.

If you’re committed to this approach, read further for details on how to get started.

It’s important to have c-level buy for this approach to work within a market that has any real competition as it will require both resources and commitment for an extended period of time before you begin to see things working.

Communications are the cornerstone to developing authority, and as such, it’s important that a team of competent writers are at your disposal. While you might consider turning to internal resources, its worth mentioning why this often fails. Staff that already have a job to do or typically busy with doing just that, and even with the strongest intentions, will often find it difficult to find the extra time necessary to research and produce the content required to achieve levels of authority.

If cost isn’t a big concern, then creating an editorial team is the start towards success. Since most won’t have this luxury, or to a limited extent, another option would be developing a network of freelance writers that can complement the writings of any internal contributions. Be forewarned this often has mixed results, and if you’re handling your own administrative tasks like sourcing, proofing, and providing creative direction, its all far more time consuming than it seems.

Building authority creates trust, when builds equity in credibility. Keep in mind this can go far beyond a blog and include graphics, webinars, white papers, interviews, video and other mediums to distribute and share knowledge. Curation of resources to filter out noise can also be a great equalizer towards your quest.

But positioning your digital brand starts with a strategy or direction that’s been mapped, so dive in and explore the above options to see what makes the most sense for your own organization. It’s also worth noting that before you commit to a direction, you should do a competitive analysis of your chosen niche to get a sense of how difficult it might actually be. If you look up a few phrases in Google and keep seeing the usual suspects showing up, analyze them individually. How old is their site, how many pages do they have indexed, and refer to their backlinks to get a sense of their authority. Saying “we’re going to become the ultimate finance resource” would require extremely deep pockets and patience, but zoning in one certain aspects often makes more sense, in almost every instance.

Positioning With Digital Branding is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com

Branding Infographics is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com

It’s often wise to look through the eyes of an external and impartial observer to get a sense of how your brand might be interpreted. It’s this perspective that can contribute to your direction, and help define an online branding strategy.

While social media is a start to the conversation of who you are, keep in mind that search is often where things start. How you go about influencing one’s perceptions of your online brand also relies on is not that different to an offline approach, where positioning can determine everything.

Does Your Brand Scan? is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com

The newer, cleaner look is easier on the eyes. Click image to enlarge screenshots.

New Look for Google is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com

The results? While the clear winner is SEO, about 60 percent of respondents said they will increase their budget for social media marketing; with 53 percent planning to increase their budget towards SEO and 40 about percent will be increasing their PPC budget.

While social media is clearly the trend as of late, it’s often difficult to measure. But despite this, social media is not hype. What needs to be understood is that it takes time, and it can have significant influence towards online branding efforts.

SEO might take a while before seeing signs of progress, but it’s the clear winner. With the highest conversion rates, SEO outperforms all other means of online marketing. It’s worth mentioning that while PPC can bring traffic almost instantly, it will cost more over time than SEO, and is most suitable for starting a campaign to acquire traffic until an SEO campaign kicks into high gear. Additionally, PPC only earns about 10% of the potential search traffic, and if you’re not in the top spots (which are more expensive bids) then you won’t see a lot of visits.

Report

SEO, Social Media, PPC Compared is a post from: Online Branding Blog - reactorr.com