With so many artists and creative businesses online, it can seem impossible to stand out from the crowd – especially if you are just getting started.
Before you spend thousands of dollars on advertising or try to cold call people in the hope of generating interest, take a moment to understand how the influencers in your field are using technology now.
Analytics, brand monitoring tools, and news feeds give business owners the power to filter the information they regularly see including blog posts and other mentions of their companies.
These tools are time savers for businesses and are free and widely available, which means most smart businesses are using them to monitor their online reputations. What does this mean to you? It means you can take advantage of technology to get your brand in front of the most influential people in your area of interest.
Here are 3 highly effective (and free) ways to use technology to get noticed:
1. Brand Monitoring: A Two Way Street
An article, interview, review, or mention of an important contact on your blog is not just a gesture of good will, it will also help you appear in their brand monitoring alerts. Most established companies use press clipping services and Google Alerts to monitor their brands online. These services look for mentions of a person or company's name. Guess what? If you mention them and link back you will show up on their alert and even in their site analytics tools as a referring site.
2. Become A News Maker
Content is a hot topic in marketing right now. Even as technology platforms evolve, one thing is clear: quality, valuable content will always draw a crowd. Regularly write press releases about what's happening in your business. Instead of just asking other sites to link to you, try offering to write articles for industry specific news/content sites and industry publications (yes, that's right – it's not all about content on your site anymore. Expand your reach by writing for other sites). Become a subject matter expert on sites like suite101.com, DivineCaroline, examiner.com, About.com. Participate in any interview that is requested of you and make sure be active in media outlets like HARO to be available to any journalist seeking information about your area of interest. The more you do this, the more you will find people seeking YOU out.
3. Get Active in Industry Groups and Blogs
Making a point to give rich, authentic, and thoughtful feedback on well-read blogs and forums in your industry is not only good for your brand reputation, it can also boost traffic and help your reputation with search engines. If you are a blogger, you know most comments that come through are spam. Insightful comments will get noticed and can help develop relationships that lead to business growth. This is also true when interacting in business groups on LinkedIn.
Bonus Tip: Be Consistent
As tempting as it is to treat everything like a project and be done with it when you are busy running your business, these strategies are intended to help you build a brand awareness over time. Consistent effort here is key - taking even 15 minutes a day to focus on these simple online brand building strategies will have a positive impact and grow over time.
Molly Fisher has more than 10 years experience building brands and social networks for leading companies such as Schooldude.com and Burt's Bees as well as several other clients. She currently runs Craft Ideas Weekly Facebook Community, the Craft Ideas Weekly Blog, and works as an eCommerce and Social Marketing Consultant in Chapel Hill, NC.
Main photo courtesy of Maschinenraum.
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2 Comments
I always do this. I respond to the blogs that pique my interest and add a thoughtful (at least I hope they are) insight of something I may have experienced on the same subject. I go on early in the morning before I dive into to work and at the end of the day.
I do it in a limited time because I can easily spend the day reading everything, there are so many great topics out there. You all have been so helpful and generous with all the information you provide. From how to transfer info to how to link stuff to where to get inspiration from. How to best use Twitter to how to design your facebook page. All at the click of a mouse, what an age we live in! Kudos to all you designers, artists and the media gurus. I have learned so much from all of you. All at my own pace, one step at a time.
I have been getting contacted now at least once or twice a day inquiring about my jewelry assembly outsource service, with emphasis on my "passion". I love that!
I almost think it's working better than driving traffic to my own blog! The right people are finding me and business has never been better. Thank you!
I think consistency is the hardest part for me. My preferred approach is to get things DONE. Immediately and all at once. Heh. Good for some situations, but I can see that won't work for this. Thanks. :)