We work with a lot of smaller companies who tell us straight up that they are too small or below the radar to have a brand.
We say hogwash!
Every single organization – for profit or non-profit – has a brand. Included in the brand are tangible and intangible things like:
- Reputation
- Logo
- Standing of the leaders of the organization
- Iconic images
- Presence on the internet (web site)
- Presence on social media
- A song or ditty that represents your organization
- What your customers think of you
- A particular phrase or tag line that people associate with you
You can control a lot of these aspects of your brand digitally and those that you can’t control, you can still influence.
If you hear of a company or meet someone interesting at an event and immediately do an internet search for them or their website, you can understand the power of your digital brand. Sure it is easy for the big brands. I actually rewrote the first sentence of this paragraph, changing “google” to “do an internet search for”. We get the big brands, from Nike’s swoosh to McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it” to the theme song for “Game of Thrones”. But for “little brands” like you and I, what are we to do?
First thing is to do a search for your name. Don’t add a “.com” or “.org” on the end. Just your name. And look at the results. Check beyond Google. At least add Bing into the mix. Do you like what you see? Here are some things to look for:
- Does your company or organization dominate all the listings? It should.
- Have you claimed your location on each site you search on?
- Are the images the location associates with you appropriate to your brand?
- Are there reviews of your business? If so, are they favorable?
- Do any of your competitors appear in the results?
If you don’t like any of the answers to these questions, we can help. Want to do it yourself? Here are key things to do:
- Claim your location in search engines like Google and Bing (and any others that pertain to you)
- Upload photos and other images that are related to you in your location profile
- Encourage happy customers to provide favorable reviews on sites like Google and Yelp
- Make sure you have a social media presence. If for no other reason, do it so that your search listings will have more links to your brand.
- Make sure your website is optimized for search engine indexing so that all of your pages will appear in search results.