Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in How to Build Your Online Brand

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

Jeff Ramos — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:23:07 -0000

Google Alerts are also the best to keep track of who's talking about you and your brand. It's a great way to jump into a conversation about you, right?! :D

http://twitter.com/ohjefframos

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

VK — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:52:57 -0000

Online networking is driving many people in small businesses and profesionals to the web.

I like the tutorials that are avaiable in video format on YouTube
and other places. Just today I was watching how to create an online business.
http://tinyurl.com/onlinene...

Would you have any books to recommend?

Thank you
VK http://rightpath-marketing....
Thare are many people like Jonathan Budd and Jennifer Korol? who have
excellent tips.

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

victoryfanclub — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:03:20 -0000

Great Information, Thank-you!

http://twitter.com/victoryf...

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

myra rothenberg — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:17:54 -0000

Loved the listening post idea. Would you look at my site and tell me who I could have a conversation with? I have no real competitors, so maybe some people who are in a like category? But who are they? I haven't found them yet.And I'm not looking for placemat people, maybe designers? Kitchen manufacturing people? But why? They already have products and everyone is for themselves these days, so why buddy up?

So, I am on Facebook and Twitter and Linked-in, Plaxo and a few others, but I haven't figured out what to really say to anyone that made any sense. And I don't want to outright just say buy the product( even if I think it's awesome and everyone needs one and the ones who have them love them).

So, I can aggregate and listen up, but I still can't see the point. I must be missing something, but it looks like everyone is 20 something and just out for a good time. I am 57 and really as hip as I can get, but what kind of community does one build with 20 year olds? Trust me when I say I can dance you under the table, but what does that do for me in a community? Should I talk about dancing? That would be fine, but I'd like to intro my product to people and can't get that together.

I need some help from somone savvy. Ca ya help me?

I'd love it if you could!

myra rothenberg
www.decormates.com

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

SEO — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:51:34 -0000

Great tips!

I for one believe on the power of social media. One can't be successful in a SEO campaign without performing one. It is organized into these categories:
a) Social Networking sites,b) Social Business sites,c)Social Bookmarking sites,d)Content voting sites,e)Online News Aggregation,f)Collaborative directories,g)Video Sharing sites
A variety of options is there for the user. So the opportunity of Social Media is somehow boundless..

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

Abhishek Kumar — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:38:08 -0000

Nice overview, I just hope an integrated client tool was available to do this multifaceted task every time. Maybe add everything up and provide me a single interface. You know of any such tool? (feedalizr does twitter, facebook, friendfeed, flickr; but not linkedin or youtube. And the freedom of what you can do besides view status updates and change yours, is quite limited)

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

FaceySpacey Technologies — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:41:10 -0000

@Max, never said it was one or the other, just which is more effective. And for the scenarios we're discussing, the social media conversational crap barely counts.

However, building social media tools, applications, widgets, etc is where the real marketing magic lies. So I'm saying that the creativity of companies with larger budgets should go to building something, not carrying on a million conversations. Build a tool that upsells your company, and let everyone else have the conversations.

James
from
FaceySpacey.com - "The Startup Incubator"

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

MaxGladwell — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:27:19 -0000

James/CaseyP: It's certainly not one or the other. Look at http://www.pickensplan.com. Unlimited budget. Tons of TV ads and PR. Scroll to the bottom of the page and see all of the social media links. And he's not actually selling anything. No consumer product. It's new brand, if you will, launched on July 8th. Heavily focused on public policy, actually, so they're taking a page from Obama. It translates into any type of marketing. With limited budgets, social media makes sense in terms of ROI.

With bigger budgets, that just means you can get more creative and guide customers from TV, print, outdoor, and radio to social media in order to engender the two-way conversation and viral spread of the message. It's an accelerator for traditional/email marketing, as well as an end of its own. You're only limited by your ability to think up new ways to mash up old and new media and leverage the most from them.

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

FaceySpacey Technologies — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:16:23 -0000

I do think that from the customer service perspective it can be fantastic--i.e. have someone go out and respond to all negative (and positive) comments throughout the web on your company's product. I don't think that a company that does a lot of sales, but has minimal web input on it, will benefit much from it. Maybe that's an unlikely scenario if you're company is that big, but maybe it's not. The point is whether it's better to do "online advertising" or "social media relationship building" for a non-tech startup with a lot of capital and no presence already through which you would drill down and find there are no customers already talking about. It seems that a small one-man social media initiative could be part of the whole marketing scheme, but certainly not the main avenue.

James
from
FaceySpacey.com - "The Startup Incubator"

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

CaseyP — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:23:11 -0000

@James,
I have to agree with all your points. I'm a Marketing Director at a startup company in a very traditional industry. We're in the middle of shifting our marketing strategy to include the Web 2.0 ideas, and integrate with more traditional marketing. What I've found, is basically your point, mass emails, very targeted ads, and Podcast Advertising has increased our internet sales dramatically, while the social networking, and many of the other web 2.0 strategies mentioned here (listening outposts, interacting with blogs, etc) has largely been ineffective.
From my point of view, I've come to see the social networks, blogs, etc, as a mildly useful ancillary to our other advertising. The cost is minimal, so if it results in even one or two new sales, then it's worth it, but it's hardly the centerpiece of our online marketing. I see it working wonderfully in other industries (specifically tech industries), but you're simply not going to get the Diggers buzzing about non-tech or non-geeky products. I am interested to see how Chris responds to your comments though, as I would love to see if we're doing something wrong, and this could be more effective!

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

FaceySpacey Technologies — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:05:17 -0000

Max,

I totally agree--it all starts with the blog. And you need to feed that everywhere you go, and then interact with people there so they notice the articles popping up from your feed. And you do that by using tools like Technorati, Summize and Google, so you get the right taste-makers aware of your brand. The only thing is that this sort of stuff is way harder to manage at a larger scale. Some industries it might work--imagine you have a huge sports brand, you can get a bunch of interns to yap all day about it, as little diplomats powered by the blog and its feed. But even then, they will never exhibit the same genuineness that the founder of that company would.

So at best, my arguement is that there is diminishing returns in Social Media, the larger you get...And really, my goal here isn't to argue this to the bitter end. Obviously, I'm a self-proclaimed social media guru myself, and use this stuff, and love this stuff. My goal here is to play devil's advocate to find some answers. I'm about to embark on one of the biggest marketing campaigns I've ever done, and I'm starting to get a little apprehensive that we won't get the most marketing value from something more "advertising" and less "relationship building." It takes a lot of coordination to perform the aformationed tactics for a company that wants to do hundreds of millions of dollars of sales. And is that coordination and hiring going to cost more than a more automated advertising approach--maybe using some of the new cool behavioral, in-video, etc advertising systems. The latter would definitely be easier for me too coordinate. What do you think Max? What do you think Chris?

James
from
FaceySpacey.com - "The Startup Incubator"

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

John Samson — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:19:02 -0000

Its interesting that one can use all these Social Media/Networking sites to get one started.I was thinking a more direct approach of marketing would work but when you think about it marketing through friends is the best way to go. Where does one find all his/her friends...Facebook,Myspace E.T.C

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

MaxGladwell — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:18:51 -0000

James: Your point is well taken about how the tech world often mistakes itself for the whole world. It's akin to believing that the sun revolves around the earth. That became all too clear in Calacanis' claim that blogging was dead.

But social media marketing tactics, as Chris outlines in this starter kit, can be utilized and replicated in pretty much any industry, regardless of whether you're an established brand or startup. There are exceptions, but by and large your customers are on the web. A vast majority are also on the social web. It's just a matter of (a) making yourself findable (discoverable) and (b) going about finding them. Chris glances over the blog tactic in the intro, but we feel it's absolutely essential. Start a good blog should be first. Then do all of these other things to promote it.

In "Can a Blog Lead Your Business Strategy?" (http://www.maxgladwell.com/..., we look at this as the hub of any brand building or social media strategy. Whether you're a clothing designer or local bakery, a blog can be the primary source of your brand signal. So all of these other tactics revolve around your blog. I'd argue the resources that you'll put into a blog will earn far better returns than any type of online ad, SEO or spam campaign. It's sustainable.

Example: Here's a company that sells eco-friendly mattresses (http://keetsa.com/blog). Hardly a tech company. And yet their blog is one of their primary means of traffic, customer acquisition, and branding. Note their dedication and blog frequency and topic range. This could stand on its own as a green blog. And what are the costs? These people are clearly experts in their field, so they're just sharing knowledge and experience.

Anyone can do this. It's sincere. It's authentic. It's cost effective. And it works. Plus, as an authentic blogger, you transcend PR in the eyes of other bloggers in your space and open yourself up to coverage that you don't even have to ask for. Because you are making a valuable contribution to the conversation. You have a product or a brand, but you are also providing value for its own sake.

No social media marketing starter kit should be without "start a blog" as the first step. Even if you have to pay a consultant (like us) to set it up and help you maintain it, the ROI beats any type of online advertising (CPM, CPA, PPC, lead gen, email), SEO, traditional advertising (print, radio, TV, outdoor, event), or paid public/media relations. It's not an all-encompassing solution, and these others can complement it. It's just the single best and most cost effective one. Because we've done all of the above and have never experienced ROI results like this.

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

chrisbrogan — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:40:12 -0000

Hi James. I'll answer a bit later. Tied up at PodCamp Boston 3. : )

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

FaceySpacey Technologies — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:48:42 -0000

@Chris - Good answer. I do the same...I guess here is what I was thinking, and it's nothing against you whatsoever: more often than not, people are giving out the beginner's lessons, and I don't want to read that. I want to read an idea that in itself is just money. It's just too much of this Scoble listening post stuff + "go out and genuinely relate" crap. It's not that I don't agree--I do.

My point is really this: we should make a reality show for Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs, with the same crappy contest/elimination format as all the reality shows, to showoff their Social Media Marketing skills. And from that we'll see how it's really done, because what your sharing Chris is way too general, and the social media marketing knowledge most people share is way too general...So maybe it should be a documentary instead of a reality show. The point is that at the end of the day, what people really need to do to promote their brand + website is way more painstaking than some gobbledy-goop. The main thing it takes is to do all those things we've mentioned, and just reach out over and over again with a ton of tenacity, trying different ways to approach people. To me the tools will change, but it's still about reaching out to people and how you do it. Every vertical has a different way to interact with people. Some markets allow for being more salesy and others prefer a subtler (and sneakier) back-door approach.

At the end of the day, my experience is that complete social media marketing (i.e. not being spammy) is over-rated and works way less than people think. The point is that things like Friend-Feed take off because everything collides into a perfect pinnacle point for a piece of tech software like Friend Feed to become popular. The reason is because of this: Imagine tech bloggers on Mashable, etc, writing all day about real estate Web 2.0 tools. They really don't. But they do talk about Friend Feed since it pushes the technology envelope so much. Friend Feed is a tool, just like Twitter, that the masses will never adopt, not in these formats--maybe packaged into other vertical-targeted offerings. But the point is that because everything kind of collided at that perfect point where tech bloggers were talking about a piece of technology that only other tech savvy people can use, it virally took off, gaining everyone's respect (and of course it's a good product too). THIS PERFECT POINT DOES NOT EXIST FOR MANY MARKETS. It's only because of this Web 2.0 bubble where every 20 year old kid from southern california or Miami wants to jump on the Social Network train and make a couple million quick that we have this market. I've promoted several brands in different markets, and it's been so much easier to find people in Web 2.0 groups and convert them. The reason being is that it's super narrow niche of like-minded Web 2.0 fanatics that we're in, and it's so easy to find us, since all the places to go are obvious. You got the A-List blogs like Mashable and Tech Crunch, then you go the A-List single-guy blogs like Chris Brogan and Jeremiah Owyang, etc, then you got the top Web 2.0 scene hangouts (twitter, friend feed, etc). It's just frickin cake for us to reach each other. Look, I'm talkin to the famous Chris Brogan right now lol!

IT'S WAY HARDER IN OTHER MARKETS! And every market has very specific things you can do. I'm honestly tired of extremely unspecific methods. This is nothing against you Chris--and it's probably something against me since I haven't been following all the blogs in a couple months since I've been busy building stuff. But, every time I pop my head out, all I read is the same regurgitated crap about genuinely reaching out to people. And the funny thing is that spamming people genuinely works 10x better. I personally am all about the product as the key ingredient in the product's marketing. Although my pitch is generally about building innate natural viral functionality into the product, I'm also convinced more than ever that it doesn't matter as much how you get the product out there, as long as the product is impeccable and you actually get it out there. Just get it out there the cheapest route. Also, from experience, the whole "beakon lookout post" thing only works once you already have a brand and people talking about you. Otherwise, you're just going to where people are talking about motorcycles and doing what I'm doing here, which takes a lot of work, and definitely not be a viable marketing plan for a big company unless done in a spammy way. It can get you to meet some VC to invest in your motorcycle part company, but it won't get you thousands of customers to your new laser tattoo removal service company. It might if the company has been around and has people buzzing about it on the web, but then you've essentially already made it, and it's not always the highest value in your marketing dollar to have guys go around to all the groups related to tattoo removal, trying to convert them into customers. In conclusion, Social Media Marketing works for very Web 2.0 networking very well, but less so in other markets. And when it does, your best suited by spamming, unless you want to actually build stuff--which is why I build applications instead. Social Media Marketing is just not real marketing--it's about building a product that self-markets itself (e.g. like Utterz). However, thanks to Social Media Marketing, I've built my brand: FaceySpacey.com. And maybe I'm just bitter I can't re-create it as well in the industries of my clients, but networking in blogs, groups, etc doesn't work anywhere close to how well it does in technology in any other industry. I'd prefer to use the latest behaviorally targeted ad-platform or setup a social networking spam engine.

What are your thoughts, Chris? I'm really interested to know. Are we just at some pinnacle point where perfect marketability occurs for the Web 2.0 scene, but not as much so for other markets???

James
from
FaceySpacey.com - "The Startup Incubator"
http://friendfeed.com/facey...

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

chrisbrogan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:42:10 -0000

@James - well see, that's how I do business. I actually sell the advanced ideas. I give away a post a day, plus a newsletter, plus several hours of free information every week. I make money on getting into the deep execution.

@MaxGladwell - your team seems to be doing lots of the right stuff. Keep it up.

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

MaxGladwell — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:32:39 -0000

Chris: Great starter kit, indeed. Max Gladwell used all of those tactics and more, and in less than four months we've had a fair bit of success.

We took it a step further in "Be a Beacon" (http://www.maxgladwell.com/..., and attempted to analogize and try to explain why we do all of these things. We think it's best described as (a) first making yourself discoverable by those who are looking for you and (b) sending enough signals so they cross paths with those who might not be actively looking for you, but would happy to follow that signal back to its source and find you.

Love your work, btw.

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

Barney Moran — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:35:40 -0000

Great Post on using Online Networks to build Brand! Remember too your unique Brand has a value blogging/network tools should respect and pay for, its simply a two way street for revenue, especially if the blog tool or network is making revenue because your brand/site is using it or a part of it.

P.U.B. [Publishers Union of Bloggers] has pending inquires to these entities concerning how they generate their income and what percentage of this income goes to the Blog Publisher making the critical decision to allow a Widget on their site for their readers, or joining a network. In addition we are requesting transparency on the critical issue of how the private statistic from Publishers Blogs are being used, or their network is monitored and possibly sold to third parties, hopefully with the Publisherâ€™s knowledge and permission!

Will publish these results to keep the community of Blog Publishers informed on this critical component of Widgets on our Blogs
Sincerely,

Barney Moran
Founder, P.U.B.

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

FaceySpacey Technologies — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:27:03 -0000

Chris the listening post thing works very well when you already have an established business. What would you recommend for people just starting out that won't find any results when they google, summize, etc, their name or company name (like you have the privilege of doing)???

It's very much a chicken and the egg scenario. What I've done is build the product of an alluring and impeccable company site, and go to where other people are who are interested in my niche (i.e. Web 2.0) and engage them about whatever it is they're most interested in. E.G: Comments like this one.

That's generic. Your idea is generic--they're the begginer's lesson. What's the advanced class? (for NEW businesses)

James
from
FaceySpacey.com - "The Startup Incubator"

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

chrisbrogan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:10:10 -0000

@Alex - I think it has to be done right. Look at the comments on this very post. Some people are pointing you towards their product in a heavy-handed way.

The other way to do that is to be interesting, and/or to take an idea further. Disputing a post sometimes builds a relationship. I find that my critics are the people I explore the most, because I want to understand them as fully as I can.

Shortest answer: yes, but only if you do it tastefully.

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

Alex Sicre — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:53:04 -0000

Chris: Great post. I should look back at your older posts as well, since I enjoyed the 50 Way Marketers.... I pretty much follow all that you mention, although I haven't used Technorati as much as I should. And after a few weeks of following Friend Feed tweets, I have succumbed.

What are your thoughts on blog comments as a way to build an online brand /presence? If a comment catches eye or is interesting, I usually click on the author and look into them. And I do not mean the spam comments.

keeps the tips flowing.

thanks!

@knightsicre

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

Becky Cortino — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:54:39 -0000

Excellent post, Chris -- thanks for sharing your sage words of wisdom on this topic!

You've presented a simple but comprehensive strategy to manage online presence from various points and web perspectives.

I especially like the way you describe the "Social Network Outposts," because I think definition bears repeating, for greater understanding of how to effectively apply these social networking tools.

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

Karen Putz — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:46:30 -0000

I've been resisting Friend Feed for a while now, you've almost convinced me to head over there.

I just find it tough to manage it all sometimes. I find that I'd rather cultivate a few deeply than spread myself thin over many.

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

Ron Capps — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:33:36 -0000

Solid advice, Chris.

Consistent branding and reputation management are the foundational blocks that far too many people miss or overlook.

Dr. Ron the Nicheprof

Re: How to Build Your Online Brand

Sharon R — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:50:10 -0000

Thanks Chris, I haven't checked out Lijit or Utterz. I'll need to give them a try.