As we mentioned before, your brand is only as strong as its weakest link. This applies to brands in the internet era especially. If someone does not recognize your business or product, they will likely move on to the next most similar one. But, how do you monitor your brand mention?
To ensure that your branding is solid, you must monitor what others have about you online. This is called brand monitoring or brand research.
There are several ways to do this including using free brand mention tools or paid ones. Some of these are completely free to use while some require an initial investment but can be used indefinitely.
We recommend trying out at least two of them to see which one works better for you. That way, you can pick the one that fits into your budget more easily.
Brand mention tool 1: Bright Local
Creating quality content is key if you want to increase traffic and engagement to your site. However, it can get kind of expensive to write articles and posting them on blogs or sites.
That’s where paid advertising comes in. Paid advertisements are anything that costs money to place yourself (ads on Facebook or Instagram are a classic example of this).
But what if there was a way to generate more revenue than just ads? A way to make money off of your own website or even other websites and their audiences?
This has become possible with an app called BrightLocal. You can create free accounts on their platform through social media channels like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
From there you can begin placing business listings for your company online. These listing services are for things such as local search engines, shopping carts, restaurant review sites, and fitness centers.
These listing services give you credit for adding value to their site by bringing in new customers.
Brand mention tool 2: Talk to Your Customers
As mentioned earlier, your business has a name and a brand that other people associate with what you offer. If someone else uses your name as theirs, they are defining you for others.
This is why it’s so important to maintain control of your company’s reputation. You don’t want to be known only for poor service or expensive products, because if enough people find this out, then no one will ever do business with you!
By having direct contact with your customers, you can get some great information about how you run your business and what you could use an update. This way you’ll know whether there are ways to improve your image and reach out to them to do just that!
There are many ways to gather such feedback.
Brand mention tool 3: The Key to a Good Brand Name
As we mentioned earlier, your brand name is an important part of your business’s identity. Creating a strong brand name is like creating a personal style – it takes time to find yours!
When investing in your business, make sure you have investigated all potential avenues for success. You don’t want to start working hard only to be met with “me too” products that are also called XYZ product.
You deserve better than that! Find a product that has good reviews and that fits what your company offers.
Don’t just focus on the catchy, fun names either; research your best choices. What colors do yours and their packaging use? Is there anything about the logo or typeface that represents the quality of the product?
Take some time to think about how you can incorporate the qualities of the product into your own business.
How to Find Your Own Brand Name
Finding your own brand name is probably the most difficult part of starting a business! Luckily, you are not alone in this challenge! Most entrepreneurs struggle with coming up with their own brand name.
Businesses that have become famous use well-known brands as their base for success. For instance, Coca-Cola was first founded in 1886 by Charles Caleb Parke and Joseph Daniel Sawyer, but now it is a global powerhouse. Coke is such a strong brand that people will recognize the product even if they can’t place the name or remember what company created it.
By using a well-known brand as our foundation, we can learn several things from how successful companies built their names. First, they usually don’t launch with their final brand name because many times it isn’t unique enough. Second, they often test different versions of the brand name to see which one catches the attention the most. And finally, sometimes they combine parts of the brand name to create something more identifiable.
But how do you choose a good brand name? There aren’t any hard and fast rules, so go about brainstorming and testing your options casually. You may also want to consider some alternatives at this stage to ensure there is no chance of someone else already owning the mark.
Once you have determined your main brand, start thinking about ways to develop the identity and credibility of the business under that moniker.
Protect Your Brand
The rise of social media has ushered in an era where your brand is not protected from exposure unless you are actively managing it. With every person across the world having access to your products, services, and brands, this can go wrong very quickly.
As we have discussed before, staying active on all major social media platforms is essential for business growth. But what about those times when you are offline or just don’t feel like spending time on the internet?
That’s why there are now brand mention tools that will protect your online presence if you use them correctly. By adding yourself as a “protected user” of these accounts, you can still maintain control over who sees what while also protecting your privacy.