Brands these days use Social Media to increase their credibility; it has revolutionized communication across all levels. It has given people and businesses a platform to share their views with the world. Engaging with consumers adds value and helps strengthen a brand’s identity. This is almost as effective as word of mouth but has an impact on a  larger number of people. Social Media plays a significant role in influencing the buying decision of consumers since people now search, read, review, discuss and then consider before making a purchase.

In order to build an effective brand communication through Social Media, you should be aware of your audience. This makes it easier to focus your activities across various Social Media channels. These channels can be categorized in this way:

Social Networking – With the advent of sites like Facebook, Orkut and LinkedIn, people have found a new way to stay connected with friends, colleagues and acquaintances. These sites can be used to target potential customers and prospects by sharing articles, videos and other interesting business links. This helps to establish relationships with customers and increase credibility.

Bookmarking – Increases brand visibility and enhances Search Engine rankings. Bookmarking web links of a home page and other sections of a website can improve search results in Google.

Micro-blogging – Twitter is the most popular site for micro-blogging. It is an interactive medium and is a powerful way to spread messages faster. To increase followers on Twitter, one needs to frequently update status and post interesting tweets. These tweets can include both promotional and non-promotional activity links.

Blogging – Creating a blog, posting interesting videos and articles and constantly updating content helps increase brand awareness. These blogs can also be bookmarked to increase traffic to the site.

Video Sharing – This tool can be used to effectively communicate a message in a few seconds. A well-made video, syndicated across sites like You Tube, MetaCafe and MySpace can help drive traffic and increase awareness of your brand. Creative and interesting videos can help reach out to a wider audience and facilitate viral marketing.

Discussion Groups and Forums - These are places where one can learn how consumers feel about a product or brand. Participating in discussions helps understand consumers well and accordingly position the product.

It is important not to adopt the “one-size-fits-all” approach to reach out to the target audience. you should select the right channel to develop a trustworthy relationship with the audience and get an edge over your competitors.

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Search engine visibility of a brand is an integral part of an Online Marketing strategy. A Press Release (PR) is a great way to increase your brand’s visibility in Search Engines.

Generally, a PR is used to spread news about your service, product, product features, alliance or acquisition.  There are two phases to get the maximum exposure in search results from a PR:

1. Writing the PR

2. Promoting the PR

Writing the PR

Ensure that your PR is Search Engine Optimized (SEO). Include the top keywords and the brand name in the title and repeat these in the summary and description.  We do this because Search Engines give more importance to keywords that are repeated at the top of the PR. Therefore, there is a higher possibility of your PR being ranked better in search results.

Promoting the PR

• Choose the right site for submission

Make a list of PR submission sites (paid/free) based on its Page Rank Value (PRV) and Alexa rank. Make sure the site you are submitting the PR to shows up for similar PRs in Search Engines for keywords similar to yours.

• Choose the right category

Select the appropriate category in PR submission sites for approval processing of your PR. In addition, some PR submission sites syndicate PRs to other sites. So choosing the right category for your PR is very important, as your PR will be syndicated across to your service/product-specific sites based on your category.

• Submission

Submit your PR to the shortlisted sites over a period five to six days. This is to ensure that your PR will show up on the news/web search results throughout the week for your top keywords.

• Bookmarking

Bookmark the active PR from the PR submission sites in websites such as Digg, Stumbleupon, etc. to enhance Search Engine visibility.

Follow these simple rules and do not forget to check if your PR is optimized in Search engines, news/web search results for your top keywords.

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