1 - Social Media

According to Matt Muscat of Tread Stone Mortgage, “social media pages are great because people actually want to interact with businesses, unlike old static forms of marketing and branding that may be ignored by consumers.” Wendy Troncone, of CBK, agrees that Twitter, Facebook, Blogging are all great ways to build brand recognition, but she cautions, “only if you have something smart to say.”

In order to be successful, says Wendy, “You need to give something credible.” To do this it is important to be part of a group of like-minded people. Start by following individuals in your industry or a complimentary field and interact with them. For example, on Twitter comment appropriately, retweet, share your ideas and ask for opinions.

A Facebook Fan Page is also useful. Business can put up links to articles and updates about special events, but remember to keep the information fresh and useful. Wendy encourages small businesses to use their blog to show expertise in field. She encourages business to find complimentary products to collaborate with and cross promote via the blogs. Wendy cautions, “While it might not cost anything monetary, it does cost in the sense of the time you spend. Take it seriously.”

Suzanne Fulton, Principal at Soarings, LLC uses Twitter. She sends out updates that are PR or marketing related and show her knowledge of the industry..  Suzanne averages “one hour per week posting business related info to one website or another.” While she personally doesn’t schedule her post times, choosing to do it when her schedule permits, there are services such as Hootsuite that helps users schedule tweets and aggregates your presence on several social media sites from one dashboard.

2 - Networking

With technology so prominent in our lives, it is sometimes easy to forget about the importance of face-to-face contact. Make the time to join a local organization like the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, or local networking organization. Just like participating in online discussion, it is a way to build your base and can lead to business referrals

3 - Specialized Marketing

Sometimes a little exposure can go a long way, Tracy Corcoran LaunchHER.com, a niche market, for woman owned business, explains. LauncherHER offers a way for a new woman owned business to get some online press.  The “freshly launched” section of the LaunchHER site features two newly launched woman owned businesses per week.  It brings attention to the business and serves as a way to gain traction.

Another way is to write your own press release and submit it to one of the free press release services like PR.com.

4 - Google

Google is more then a search engine, explains Christopher Wise. It offers several tools for business owners to help them increase traffic to their site, thus increasing their brand recognition.  He recommends using Google alerts, analytics and webmaster tools. The alerts let you know if your business is mentioned online, that way you can immediately handle any negative press. The tools give you statistics on who links to you, what keywords on your site are most relevant, the click through rate and number of impressions for your organic keywords. In addition, it helps identify any broken links or malware on your site. Plus, it gives you crawl stats and suggestions for improving your html--so your site loads faster. 

5 - DMOZ

Christopher recommends DMOZ, which is a website listing directory. He feels it is important to list your site with DMOZ because “it is the largest, oldest, and most well respected human edited and reviewed directory online.” He explains further, “They have a lot of authority and "link juice" to give a site that is listed in their directory, which in turn helps your rank on Google.” While these methods are free, they do represent a significant investment of your time and energy, but with proper use can significantly improve your brand visibility.