Tag: Branding
The last post discussed why online brand reputation management is important. This post will explain how you can monitor the web for mentions of your brand.
This excellent 21 step by step guide was taken from ronnestam.com and his post on 21 Steps on How to Monitor Your Brand Online and Keep Track of the Conversation
Follow these 21 steps to take gain some sort of control of where your brand might be mentioned online:
- First thing. Head over to Google Alerts and enter the keywords you want to monitor. This is the easy one.
- Then do the same over at Socialmention Alerts. An easy one too. However, these first two ones are a little bit slow so continue reading.
- Register an account on Netvibes.com and once your done keep that Internet browser window open.
- Open one more window (press CTRL+N or CMD+N on a Mac)
- In the new window, go to socialmention.com and perform a search on the keywords (for example the name of your brand) you want to track.
- Once you have gotten your result. Look for the orange RSS icon in the top right corner.
Click the RSS Feed icon.
- Now select the link in your web browser and copy (press CTRL+C or CMD+C on a mac).
- Switch back to the window where you have your new Netvibes.com page.
- In the top, press new Tab and name it with the keyword you searched for.
- In the top left, click the green button ‘Ad Content’ and choose Ad a Feed in the drop down menu.
- Place your marker in the field that says ‘Enter a feed address or website URL for auto detection’ and paste (CTRL+V or CMD+V on a mac).
- Press the button Add Feed besides your pasted link.
- Now press the little green button that says ‘add’ and you search result will be displayed in the bottom field below the Tab that you just named.
- Switch windows and perform the same search in Socialmention but this time click the tab Microblogs above the search field
- Redo the entire process and you have added your next search.
- Once you are done you should have searches in each and every area from the web.
- Now Switch window back to the one with Social Mention and go to Icerocket.com
- On Icerocket you will find the RSS results to the left.
- Now perform the same process except for creating new tabs in Netvibes.
- Once done, go to Twingly.com and perform the same searches on both Blogs and Microblogs.
- Last thing to do. Go to the preferences of your internet browser and change your startpage to netvibes.com
Carrying out these steps will ensure you are aware of what is being said about you, where and by whom.
Happy monitoring!
March 15, 2010
With the majority of people (approx 80%) searching the internet before they purchase a product or before they get in touch with a company they want to work with, it’s vital that all small business have an online presence that conveys a feeling of trust and creditability.
Everyone has had the experience of clicking onto a website, only to get the feeling that it hasn’t been updated since the mid 1990’s! What do you do when you get to a site like that? Click the back button and go to the next search result that Google gave you, that’s what! Have a think about your small business website – what do you think people feel when they first arrive? Do they immediately trust your company? Trust that you can deliver a good product or service? Do they feel it’s worth the investment of their time to spend ten minutes browsing through your site? Or do they get a worried feeling and decide to leave without even reading what you’ve got written on your homepage?
However, ensuring your website has a feeling of credibility isn’t just about good design. Granted, that does make up a lot of it. In the same way that we all judge books by their cover (even though we know we shouldn’t), we all judge websites on that initial split second view.
I’ve been reading a report by BJ Fogg from Stanford University. He carried out a huge research study into exactly what makes a website trustworthy. You can view the report here, or browse through a presentation on the subject on SlideShare.
However, if you’re short on time (which to be honest, most small business owners are), you can just read the main points below:
Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site
You can build web site credibility by providing third-party support (citations, references, source material) for information you present, especially if you link to this evidence. Even if people don’t follow these links, you’ve shown confidence in your material
Show that there’s a real organisation behind your site
Showing that your web site is for a legitimate organisation will boost the site’s credibility. The easiest way to do this is by listing a physical address. Other features can also help, such as posting a photo of your offices or listing a membership with the chamber of commerce
Highlight the expertise in your organisation and in the content and services you provide
Do you have experts on your team? Are your contributors or service providers authorities? Be sure to give their credentials. Are you affiliated with a respected organisation? Make that clear. Conversely, don’t link to outside sites that are not credible. Your site becomes less credible by association
Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site
The first part of this guideline is to show there are real people behind the site and in the organisation. Next, find a way to convey their trustworthiness through images or text. For example, some sites post employee bios that tell about family or hobbies
Make it easy to contact you
A simple way to boost your site’s credibility is by making your contact information clear: phone number, physical address, and email address
Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose)
We find that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone. When designing your site, pay attention to layout, typography, images, consistency issues, and more. Of course, not all sites gain credibility by looking like IBM.com. The visual design should match the site’s purpose
Make your site easy to use – and useful
We’re squeezing two guidelines into one here. Our research shows that sites win credibility points by being both easy to use and useful. Some site operators forget about users when they cater to their own company’s ego or try to show the dazzling things they can do with web technology
Update your site’s content often (at least show it’s been reviewed recently)
People assign more credibility to sites that show they have been recently updated or reviewed
Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers)
If possible, avoid having ads on your site. If you must have ads, clearly distinguish the sponsored content from your own. Avoid pop-up ads, unless you don’t mind annoying users and losing credibility. As for writing style, try to be clear, direct, and sincere
Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem
Typographical errors and broken links hurt a site’s credibility more than most people imagine. It’s also important to keep your site up and running.
If you want more information on creating a credible website, or if you want some help getting your website ranked well in the major search engines, come and talk to us. We’re a very friendly bunch and are passionate about helping small businesses succeed.
October 6, 2009
Heard of a little thing called Twitter? I hope so! At SMEketing in Hampshire, not a day goes past where we don’t read some kind of article on it. They’re not always positive articles – like most success stories, there are people who love it, and people who loathe it. But at the end of the day you can no longer ignore it. Twitter is here to stay, and it can help your small business.
How? Well, many of the articles I read surround success stories of Twitter – how it has directly helped businesses gain more customers. And you know what? They’re always small businesses – these are the people who are using Twitter to maximise their product/brand awareness and as a result are generating new businesses and boosting the spend of existing customers.
Here’s a couple of Twitter success stories:
Hubspot, a fantastic source for online marketing, recently wrote about the Kogi Korean BBQ taco truck in LA. They’ve been using social media, and in particular Twitter, with astonishing affect. They identified that their young, techno-savvy customers were using Twitter, so they got involved too. They now have a community of over 14,000 people. They used Twitter to broadcast the locations of their trucks, solicited new names for their trucks and are also designing new company t-shirts via their blog and Twitter. As a result, they now have constant queues of people, lining up to get their hands on one of their tacos. Considering the current state of the economy, that’s a pretty nice position to be in!
Another, well documented Twitter success story is that of CoffeeGroundz, a coffee shop that has credited Twitter with almost doubling their clientele! CoffeeGroundz owner, J.R.Cohen registered with Twitter and started following members of his local Twitterati (definition: the tweet elite, whose feeds attract thousands of followers and whose 140-character spews capture the attention of the rapt who doggedly monitor them) – he soon build up over 1000 followers. One day one of his followers called Sean, sent a direct tweet to Cohen, saying that “I want to pre order a bkfast wrap so I can zip thru drive thru to get back for gas man. C’est possible?”. Cohen replied straight away saying ‘Wi. What do you want on it?”. Ten minutes later Sean had been through the drive-thru and had picked up his breakfast wrap. This simple exchange generated a lot of buzz on Twitter, and was hailed as the first time a to-go order had ever been placed via the medium. Grasping the opportunity with both hands Cohen started taking to-go orders via direct messages from any of his Twitter followers.
CoffeeGroundz has also expanded on their Twitter success by hosting a Tweet-Up – an event where local Twitterers meet up to chat, network and generally get to know people better. Not only did this generate great PR for CoffeeGroundz, but they also kept the 100+ Twitterers well fed and watered – lining their pockets even further!
There are many examples of how small businesses are using Twitter for their advantage. It can be as simple as confirming an appointment, offering some advice, or just commenting on other people’s conversations. The point is that you can’t gain from the benefits if you’re not there. Twitter is perfect for small businesses – it doesn’t cost a penny, and it allows you to reinforce one of your key USPs – your individual character and personal touch to business.
What else can you use Twitter for?
- Understand your customers - by using Twitter polls, you can gain insight on your followers that can be fed back into business
- Form valuable business relationships - it’s not just your customers who are using Twitter. It’s likely that journalists and body representatives are using it too, so use if to build relationships with these key people
- Events and reporting - if you are hosting an event, create buzz about it by broadcasting details via Twitter
- Offer exclusive offers and promotions - offer discounts to Twitterers only
- Reputation management - use Twitter to make followers aware of your service levels, answer customer questions and engage i conversations about your offerings
If you’re still not sure if Twitter is right for your small business, come and talk to us at SMEketing. Based in Southampton, Hampshire, we can help you plan your Social Media Marketing campaigns to ensure you receive best possible results from your investment. Get in touch, even if it’s just for a quick bit of advice! Of course, you can always reach a SMEketer on Twitter – follow us at http://twitter.com/SMEketing
If you’re already using Twitter to great success then let us know. It’s always good to hear from small businesses that are doing well – especially in the current economic climate. Leave a comment at the bottom of the post…
For information and advice on setting up a Twitter account – stay tuned. This will be the subject of the next SMEketing blog post.
April 14, 2009
Okay small business owners, I have some questions for you here:
How many of you reading this, know what your logo is? (I’m really hoping you’re nodding along, safe in the knowledge that you know what your logo is! I’ll be scared if you don’t, unless you’re just starting a new business and haven’t had a logo created yet…in which case, get in touch, we’d love to help!)- Great, number 2, how many of you know the difference between your logo and your corporate identity? (From our experience, approximately 60-70% of people reading will know)
- And finally, how many of you understand the difference between your corporate identity and your brand? (this is the biggy – and I’m assuming that some of you might not be 100% sure of the answer here…)
It is really is important for your small business, that you understand not only the differences between these key elements, but also how they work together to form the overall impression of who your company (or personal brand) is… So here’s a quick and easy guide to the differences and how they all work together:
Logo: It is rare that a company, even the smallest of small businesses, doesn’t have a logo, even if it’s a simple word, mark or symbol that someone internally has created to serve as your identifier. A logo can be made up of a different parts, which may or may not always be used together; the word mark, a logo symbol, a tagline.
Corporate Identity: These are the elements of your small business’s graphic/identity/visual language, and are usually, but not always, devised from the elements that make up your logo. If you have worked with an marketing agency (such as SMEketing) to develop your corporate identity, you must ensure that they provide you with a manual, commonly known as the Brand Guidelines (also called a brand manual) as part of the package. This will guide you, your team and suppliers, as to how to correctly utilise your corporate identity. It safeguards your investment in your brand and prevents it from being diluted.
Your corporate identity is made up of symbols, textures, colours, images, photography style and fonts. If you’d like to see an example of some brand guidelines get in touch with us and we can send you some examples of ones we’ve created for past clients.
And all of these elements come together visually in your marketing material (business cards, stationery, website, brochures, forms, email marketing, signage, advertisements, vehicles, etc) to express your corporate identity. A strong corporate identity is one that maintains a consistent use of the elements to achieve quick recognition by a potential client when they come in contact with a marketing piece.
Brand: A lot of people will tell you that your brand IS your corporate identity, however it is much much more than that. A Brand is the sum of ALL parts that make up a company. It includes your logo, your corporate identity, and any and all of the follow elements:
- your company name
- your company culture
- what customers have come to expect from an interaction experience with your company
- team uniforms
- company policies
- tone of how your written content is delivered
- corporate identity
- logo
- tagline
- word of mouth advertising (how your current clients & suppliers talk about you when they refer you)
- partner relationships
- sponsorships
- the space you work in
- and many more..
To summarise, your brand is what people come to expect from your company, whether it be from seeing an advert in a magazine, to ordering a product online, to interacting with a team member over the phone or in person, and so on. And with any great brand these elements are always consistent and congruent.
Developing and maintaining a corporate brand is essential in modern business. SMEketing can work with you and your small business to develop your brand and carry it through all your marketing efforts.
Speak to us about logo design, company stationary, website design, copywriting and more. See our Services page for a full list of marketing solutions we provide.
Our small business marketing agency is based in Hampshire and service all of Hampshire, as well as Wiltshire, Dorset and Surrey, Sussex and Berkshire (and of course the Isle of Wight – in fact it’s so lovely over there we’d welcome the excuse to visit!).
April 6, 2009
