Getting your brand mentioned online and creating an online reputation is becoming more important than back links and the like for SEO. There are plenty of useful tactics to get your brand in more places on the web to bring it to people’s attention. Here are five effective ways to increase how many times your brand is mentioned.
#1. Guest Posting
Guest posting is one of the best ways to put your brand in front of a wider audience. When your company’s site receives 10,000 visitors a month and you can guest post on a site that receives 50,000 monthly visitors, you’ve just expanded your potential audience considerably.
When guest posting, you’re usually allowed to add your company’s brand and the author’s name. Most websites don’t have a problem with that; they’re more concerned about an obviously commercial keyword in the link.
The trick with writing for another site is to provide a piece of content that is applicable for their audience but still has some applicability to your own brand. The site owner isn’t going to publish a walking advertisement – they want well-conceived, genuinely useful content for their readers. When you hitt that mark, some readers will be interested in what your company has to offer and actively search you out. Plus, commenters might talk about your brand and the points raised. You’re free to engage them in further dialogue too.
With guest post placement, don’t look too narrowly at the possibilities. The site doesn’t have to be a close match to your own. For instance, a company selling dog coat apparel for the winter months could have a guest post published on a website for RV owners. While this might seem like an odd selection at first, a significant percentage of RV owners also have at least one dog that loves to travel with their owner. Therefore, a guest post about keeping dogs warm and therefore saving on vet bills is going to be ideal. This way, the brand gets slipped in naturally.
#2. Social Media
Depending on the industry or niche that you operate in, there is at least one social media site that is a great platform to use. That doesn’t always mean you should ignore any of the major ones, but using the platforms that suit your industry or niche will provide more play for each brand mention.
The main thing with social media is to share other’s content as much, if not more, than your own. That means that you should not have a Twitter account that only promotes your latest products. It’s very difficult to build up a decent follower count when you’re only broadcasting on a single topic. Providing links to useful resources that benefit your customers (and potential customers) indirectly makes your brand look good. It’s likely that this will lead to more brand mentions when you direct the tweet or Facebook post towards another person’s or company’s account using the ‘@’ symbol.
Bear in mind, when people see your useful content on social sites, they’re more likely to share it. The total number of people who see your tweet or check out the Facebook post increases. It gets retweeted with the brand right there. Sometimes, it will even go viral if it’s that useful or interesting.
#3. Networking
Networking in real life with new and existing contacts at trade shows, conferences and other industry events is an excellent way to become better known. Often this leads to mentions of the brand in future blog posts, social activities and more.
When you don’t put yourself and the brand out there by being a known entity in the industry, people don’t know either exists. Similarly, if you stop going out to these types of events, people naturally assume you’re no longer in business or the brand is not a force to be reckoned with any longer.
On a case-by-case basis, it’s sometimes useful to tweet or comment on social media about a recent meeting at an event. You have to decide whether that’s appropriate on the basis of privacy. Usually, when discussing something that’s relevant to people in your industry, it’s appropriate to share it. This may lead to posting an article, tweeting or adding commentary about what was discussed, and crediting the person you discussed it with.
If it was their idea, don’t take credit. Advance smart ideas to a wider audience so they may benefit from them. Doing this generates new dialogue where your brand is talked about in the same sentence when the idea is discussed.
#4. Help a Reporter
HARO is a great way to get your brand out there. The idea is to register on the HARO site that you’re a source of information for reporters on certain topics. This is how busy reporters locate reliable sources to get industry data, check facts that they plan to use, and get quotes.
While they don’t always link back to your website through the online version of the article, they usually mention your name and brand when quoting you directly. Be prepared for a conversation that gets truncated down to a one-line quote that facilitates a point they’re making in a single paragraph. However, when you consider the readership of the publication and how many people will read the article over time, the brand mention is well worth it.
#5. Infographics
Creating a useful infographic that is shareable on other websites is a great way to increase brand awareness and backlinks. Quite often, blogs will include the infographics once they are made aware of it and mention the brand or website behind it. The logo is also on the infographic image too. Infographic directories help with distribution or they can be privately marketed.
There are many ways to ensure a brand is written about frequently. The more time is put into achieving this goal, the greater the occurrence of the brand mention. It also helps with local search results when companies get talked about a lot online.
