E-Branding

The 5-Minute Brand Reputation Audit

When it comes to branding on internet,we have to differentiate ourselves
from plenty of other brands.Internet marketing is giving us chance to find
right and simply way for making brand of our site.






Many years ago branding was simply the act of marking one’s cattle with a unique identifier so that they could quickly be sorted and would be difficult to steal.
 With the arrival of big corporations and the maturation of
marketing, branding has evolved into something much more. Today,
companies like Pepsi Cola spend hundreds of millions annually on their
branding and marketing campaigns. With the popularity of search engines
growing, SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) have started to gain ground in
these budgets. The following is a guide on how to perform an online brand
reputation audit, which is necessary for measuring these growing
resources.

Using the Brand Search Engine Result Page

Whenever I see top search query lists, I am always surprised at how often
people search for exact domain names or brands. It is for this reason that
the brand search engine result page (SERP) is so useful. The following
actions can help you identify what improvements might be necessary for a
branded term search result page.

Search for the brand name in the major search engines.

To complete the first action item all you need to search for is the brand
name of the given company. This will bring up a results page with about
10 results and some ads. This is one of the most important pages about
the given company, and many otherwise smart company executives don’t
pay attention to it. For many searchers, this will be the front door to
information about the company. Google knows this fact and has crafted
algorithms to take advantage of it. Upon analyzing the SERP for a wellknown
brand name, you may notice some seemingly unusual results. This
is because Google’s brand-specific algorithms intentionally show more
diverse results than they do for a normal search. These results tend to
include reviews and websites that share opposing views.

An ideal brand search result page means no matter which link
searchers click, they end up on a company-approved page.
The main domain would have Sitelinks, a group of Google chosen
links to primary sections of the given website in search engine
results. 

The end result of a result page like this is that no matter which link the
searchers click, they end up on a company-approved page. Although this
isn’t necessarily the best experience for the user, it is the best business
tactic.
Search all of the following and identify potential problems
(this is not a comprehensive list):

Brand Name Sucks
Brand Name Scam
Brand Name Cult
Brand Name Problems
Brand Name Issues
Brand Name Support
Brand Name Broken
Brand Name Error
Brand Name Review

The second and last action item on this list requires you to run a series of
directed search queries to see if you can identify any problematic
webpages. This list is not comprehensive and is only intended to be a
starting point. I use this list in my work and customize it to my clients
based on their product or service. (For example, if I was working for an
oil company, I would run queries for topical negative queries such as
“Brand Name environmental impact”) This step is important both
because it helps identify problematic sites early and because it mimics
behavior that a skeptical user might do. Remember, if potential
customers read even one negative review about a given company, they
are significantly less likely to buy its product regardless of the source of
the content.

Brand Searching in the Social Media

My sincerest hope is that by the time you read this book social media will
no longer be the overused buzzword it is at the time I am writing this. It is
definitely a very important part of the Internet, but it is not the be-all-end-all
feature that may make or break your brand. It is merely a technological
supplement. Remember, people were talking about brand on the Internet
well before the creation of Facebook or Twitter. Use these services, but
don’t lose track of the real driving force behind brands—their products and
services. The following list will help you glean some of the benefit these
tools provide:
Brand searching social media can help you respond to criticism as it
happens or just shortly after.

Search Twitter for brand name mentions.

This first action step is to search Twitter for any real-time (or near realtime)
mentions of the brand. To do this, go to http://search.twitter.com
and type the name of the brand into the search box. This step is
important because it enables you to respond to criticism as it happens.
Having been the guy that a corporation has contacted after I complained
about them on Twitter, I can say that not only did it resolve the problem,
but it left me giving the brand some well-deserved credit.

Search Google Blog Search for brand name mentions.

This next item requires to you to search Google Blog Search for brand
mentions. As the name implies, this searches only through the
blogosphere. This is available at http://blogsearch.google.com and is
quick and easy. For best results, narrow down the time span by clicking
one of the available time filters. This action is important because it allows
you to quickly see both what influential and beginner bloggers have to
say about the brand. Bloggers’ opinions can travel to many ears and
make a large impact on overall brand, and you’ll typically see company
mentions on Google Blog Search prior to those stories going viral and
spreading on Twitter and other social media sites.

Search Google 24-hour Search for brand name mentions.

This third action point involves searching Google for brand mentions that
happened within the past 24 hours. You can accomplish this by
searching in Google, clicking Show options on the resulting page, and
clicking Past 24 hours. This searches the Google web index for mentions
that happened within the prior 24 hours. Taking this step is important
because it gives you the chance to track down mentions before they are
widely read. That said, on the Web, 24 hours is a long time and if you
catch something too long after it happens, it might already be too late.

Search Google Realtime Search for mentions as they occur.

Google Realtime Search (www.google.com/realtime) is a relatively new
interface from Google that allows you to search for articles, posts, and
tweets that reach the results page within seconds of going live. You can
filter your search results by geographic location and by time, so it’s very
simple to track trends when and where they happen. Currently, most
search results come from social media sites such as Twitter and
Facebook (due to their sheer volume), but expect to see more sources
represented soon.

Search Facebook for fake accounts and fan pages matching brand name.

Facebook is unique in its ability to avoid looking corporate (with negative
connotations) even when it is being so. This is largely due to the number
of real-life friends who communicate on the site. So, the next action step
has you search Facebook for fake user accounts and brand-related fan
pages. To do this, simply log in to www.facebook.com/ and type the
brand name into the search box as if you were searching for a person.
You can then contact or browse through any of the information offered by
that person or page.

Search Myspace for brand name mentions.

Similar to the previous step, you should also search www.myspace.com/
for brand mentions. This social networking site is smaller than Facebook,
but covers a lot of people who do not use Facebook regularly. To do this,
log in to Myspace and search for the brand name as if you were
searching for a friend or username. This will help you see how the given
brand is being talked about by the Internet-savvy demographic that is
largely different from Facebook members.

Search YouTube for brand name mentions.

You should also search YouTube for brand name mentions. Though this
isn’t comprehensive (it doesn’t detect words spoken in videos) it is the
best video search available at this time. To do this simply go to
www.youtube.com and search for the given brand name. This step is
important because of the inherent nature of video on the Web. It is easy
to consume and easy to share, so its potential for spreading is
enormous. My favorite example of this working against a brand is a
songwriter whose favorite guitar was ruined by United Airlines workers.
He contacted the airline several times to resolve the issue, but they
refused to reimburse him for his broken property. Upset by their lack of
integrity he wrote a song and published it on YouTube. As I am writing
this, the video has been watched more than five and half million times.
The airline tried to respond to him, but the damage was already done (to
his guitar and the United Airlines brand).

Search Digg submitted stories with brand name.

This item involves searching Digg for submitted stories with the given
brand name. To do this go to www.digg.com and search for the brand
name in the search box. The trick here is that you are not necessarily
looking for stories that have gone popular (because odds are they would
have already turned up); instead you are looking for evidence of people
who are trying to start something by posting negative brand stories to
Digg. These people are especially important to find early so you can deal
with their complaint before it erupts into a major problem.

Search forums for brand name mentions.

The eighth action point is a bit more complicated than the ones before it.
It requires you to go out and find industry-related forums and then search
them for brand name mentions. The easiest way to find them is to search
Industry Name Forum or industry name inurl:forum*. (The asterisk here indicates
the search is for “forums” with an “s” or “forum” without, plural or singular.)
This is important because forum members tend to be early adopters and
more technologically advanced. This makes them very good people to
impress.
Search Craigslist for brand name mentions.
This action applies most to companies that sell products. It requires you
to go to www.craigslist.org and search for brand name mentions. This
helps identify aftermarket sales and sales opportunities. It is also a good
way to find pirated or fake goods, which is important because it can
directly affect the bottom line. If you do this, be sure to check all of the
applicable localities because these are important filters on Craigslist. If
the product is global, you can check just the major cities. It should give
you an idea of how widespread the problem is.

Search torrent sites for brand name mentions.

The final action item has you search BitTorrent sites for brand name
mentions. BitTorrent is a protocol for sending large files over the Internet
quickly. This makes it a very good protocol for file sharing. The easiest
way to see if a given brand’s product is being shared via torrents is to
either search for Brand Name torrent or torrent search engine and search for
your brand. This step helps identify which products are in demand for file
sharers and shows you what people are saying about your product.

Reputation managment cycles