Combining Social Media, YouTube,
and Your Website to Optimize Brand Awareness
By
Jason Bayless
To be successful as an online marketer, or to promote your brand effectively requires a strategy. And that strategy must involve more than just one thing. Any successful entrepreneur or online business owner will tell you this. Using analytical software, for example, to track web visitors is a great idea. But it is not enough by itself. The successful online business owner has found the right combination of techniques to maximize product and brand awareness. So, just what is that formula?
It can be different things for different people but there is a general formula you can follow and tweak it as you go. The results will be determined by your level of hard work and determination to find the right ingredients. But, if you follow these steps, you may be on your way to using the best of the web to maximize your brand potential.
1) Use social media as a link-building service, as well as free advertising. Many people already use Facebook, Twitter, and other well-known social media to advertise their message to the world. But they miss the part about link-building. Years ago, when the internet was first getting started, link sharing was a big deal. It is how businesses got more traffic for their site and increased sales. WIth all of the other tools available today, it seems this has been somewhat forgotten. But it is no less important. While this step alone will not result in hundreds of thousands of new customers, it will provide more “back doors” for your customers to come to you, by back-linking from other sites.
So important is linking that Google is likely to rank sites better when they have more and better quality links from other relevant sites. So, have your friends post links and post them yourself back to your site, your YouTube, and other accounts frequently. Google will notice, and so will your customers.
2) Use Twitter as a quick “shout out” of important things you want to focus on. Twitter was not meant to be for long posts. Save those for Facebook. But if you just want to tell the world about a new product, service, or feature, it’s the best way to get your message out fast. Adding followers will increase your power, and make all posts “public” for maximum exposure. Of course, don’t just tweet about yourself. Sharing relevant news and links is a great way to ensure that your followers appreciate your communications. Many business tweeters recommend about six tweets per day.
3) Build consistency across the web about your brand by using similar terminology. In YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, your website, and other platforms, strive to use some of the same terminology, search terms, keywords, and descriptions. Not only will this increase your ranking potential in Google and Yahoo, but it will also reinforce your branding in the minds of visitors in a very big way.
4) Produce well-done, professional-looking videos that catch their eye. Just like in blogging or online writing, you need to create engaging content first. Don’t use filler material and just sprinkle keywords in the piece. This will get you dropped by Google fast. Use true, original content that is useful to readers. Using “custom thumbnails” is another great way to create branding. Instead of using the default thumbnails YouTube takes from your videos, create your own that best reflects your brand.
5) Create more than one video and cross link them together in YouTube, using similar keywords, or the same keywords. By continuing to reinforce the same wording associated with your brand, it will make people notice your company more often and create a sense of importance across the platforms.
6) Use your business website as a sales/landing page where sales conversions will occur. Make your website shine with impressive graphics and a professional look. Create a “call to action” at the end of the video from YouTube and make sure and provide a clickable link at the end of the video and ask people to click it. Remember, conversions are the key to sales and promotion of your brand and products. Ask the customer to click the link and proceed to the final step of the sales process – conversions.
By combining the best of the web, via the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and your website, you can virtually create your own web of links and content that will immerse someone in your brand. It doesn’t have to be the most impressive sales presentation ever known to man. You just need to get across the personality you wish to convey of your business, in various ways and formats, using the best tools available on the web today.
There are no magic formulas for success in online branding. But the practical, strategic use of these various means of getting your message across can create a consciousness of your brand that was not there before. And consciousness is the first step in landing the sale. You’ll stay present in the minds of potential customers and the search engines. And, on the web, where a myriad of sites are competing for the same customer’s attention, that’s the name of the game.
Jason Bayless is a professional blogger that gives small business and entrepreneurs SEO advice. He writes for BestSEOCompanies.com, a nationally recognized comparison website of the best SEO agencies in the United States.
