Why You Should Care About Online Branding
What is Online Branding?
Online branding is a way to get more exposure for your brand on all levels of online marketing, especially search and social. Building authority takes online branding to the next level by making each online presence for a brand authoritative. It goes beyond just about creating a blog or social media account. Your online brand includes what your employees say online. It also includes things that you can’t control, such as online reviews.
Why You Should Care About Online Branding?
According to reports, 80.8% of referrals check out your company by looking at your website – and 59.9% review your social media profiles.
If that doesn’t make you reconsider the importance of your online branding, then here’s another statistic – 51.9% of referrals rule out firms without talking to them.
1. It will reinforce your position as the expert
The number one reason referrals don’t get in touch with your brand is that the referral couldn’t understand how your firm could help them.
2. It will attract prospective clients searching online
In today’s marketplace, people search online first. They still let their “fingers do the walking”, but the Internet replaced the phone book long ago. Even if someone’s not looking for a provider just yet, they are looking for answers to very specific problems. If you show expertise in navigating these difficulties, you’re well-placed to be their future service provider and not be forced to bid your services as a commodity.
3. It will help attract top talent
The best employees look online and shortlist the firms they’d prefer to work with. In professional services, your employees are your product, and mediocre hires won’t cut it. Ignoring your online presence tells potential hires to not even bother, especially if you’re trying to recruit Millennials.
How to build your online presence?
#1 MAKE SURE YOUR BLOG DOESN’T SUCK
Your design is critical, but I’m not talking about how beautiful your header is or how great your sidebar is. I’m talking about formatting design. Well-formatted copy makes your information come to life. You can be an incredibly gifted writer, but if your formatting is terrible, no one will care. Let me be perfectly clear here. Everything Matters when it comes to formatting your copy.
What you bold, what you offset, where you break your paragraphs; every aspect of formatting matters.
#2 WRITE FOR THE WEB
From the moment your site opens before them you have to grab their attention and convince them they want to keep reading. You have to convince them they have arrived at THE PAGE that will give them all the information they want or need.
Believe it or not, there is a science to this. A lot of science. More science than I can possibly give you here, but here are the high points of what gets people’s attention online:
- Bulleted Lists
- Short Paragraphs
- Subheadings
- Numbers & symbols (see what I did there?)
- Bolded Words(Things in parenthesis, even unnecessary things)
- Periods. In. Random. Places.
#3 KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY AND WHO YOU WANT TO SAY IT TO
You read a lot about target markets, niches, customer avatars. There’s a reason so much is written on this topic.
It. Matters.
You cannot write to the masses because the masses aren’t going to read you. You have to know who your market is and then Own. That. Market. Write for the people who need your outlook, your wisdom, your product or service.
#4 START WRITING EVERYWHERE
Once you’ve accomplished 1, 2, & 3 , then you need to start writing everywhere, not just on your own blog.
You are establishing yourself as an expert in this niche, to your target market.
- Connect with 5 other sites who have a readership / target demo you want to get in front of
- Think in terms of how you can add value to other’s sites.
- Build community for what you can add to the community. As you build community you will build your platform organically.
#5 KEEP LEARNING
New technology, new tactics and new information are always coming.
Invest in yourself and your blog, business, personal brand and stay on top of new trends.
You cannot afford to overlook this step. Your primary business takes place in the land of technology and information!
Source: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/ http://alliworthington.com/
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