Online branding is really a form of art. You’re painting your image. You’re projecting a picture of what you do, who you are, what you want to say to the world. Just as any artist would need tools for colored pencil art, the same is true for an online brander. Luckily, there are some fabulous tools out there that can be utilized quite effectively in order to get your online branding done right.
Article Directories – Directories created specifically for articles provide an untapped arsenal for those who are anxious to spread the news of their brand online. Typically, these directories do not charge for people to upload their informational articles with backlinks to their websites. Since article directories have a huge amount of content on them, with countless links, they often pull a lot of weight with the search engines. This means your articles have a great chance of ranking on the search engines and therefore helping you to spread your online branding. Some great examples of these sites would include Ezines, Scribd, TheFreeLibrary and Hubpages.
Video Sites – Not everyone who surfs the net is a fan of reading. Videos can get through to some target demographics much more effectively than articles can. Online branders who take the time to create short, informational videos that incorporate their brand can dominate the search engines and their target market. Uploading these informational videos to sites such as YouTube, GoogleVideo and MySpace TV can spread the word about your brand to groups of people who might not have ever read your articles online.
Social Media – This is quickly growing into the most effective way to brand online. It allows you to engage and bring in your audience. Of course, just because it’s the most effective does not mean it’s the easiest method. It’s easy to start out on the social media branding path but it does take some dedication to keep going.
Grab your brand name as your username for sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Find the groups of people who fit your target demographic and make a presence where they convene – especially on the forums. Schedule a block of time every so often to concentrate on social media online branding and hopefully that will keep your efforts going strong.
Indeed, just as an artist needs his colored pencil art tools for his creation, you will need your tools for yours. By utilizing the tools of social media, video sites and article directories, you’ll have much more success with your online branding than if otherwise.
Image taken from: Junta42