In the modern, digital age, competition in the digital sector is rife.  Therefore, it’s important for organisations to develop a strategy in order to stand out from the “background noise”, and building your brand reputation online is one of the best ways to do this.  Online authority means that you automatically become the web equivalent of a “household name” just by how often your name comes up, which builds an air of trustworthiness and professionalism around your organisation.  Here are three good ways you can begin expanding your brand’s influence online today:

Aim to educate with original content The creation of fantastic content is a fantastic start to building your authority online.  Content should be completely original, and should aim to educate both leads and customers on a particular subject in your field.  If your audience can learn something from your content, it will establish your brand as a thought leader within your market, building trust and reputation.  Not only that, but people are more likely to share good, original content across social channels, thus broadcasting it to a wider audience.

Be active on social media Having an active social media presence is essential when it comes to building brand reputation.  Not only do social channels create a means by which to broadcast your content, but they’re also the primary means of interaction with your audience, leads and even your competitors.  Good social PR and appropriate use of your social channels can really boost your presence online; even smaller firms can appear larger than life by dominating the newsfeeds of their customers and contemporaries.  Some of the more popular networks are LinkedIn (mainly for B2B), Twitter and Facebook, with Google+ users on the rise.  Tip: don’t forget to adjust your tone of voice depending on who might be reading your updates!  The Linkedin businessman might have a very different idea of professionalism than the Twitter yuppie!

Consider sponsoring your content A relatively new aspect that the big social media sites are starting to embrace is the sponsorship of content – this is worth getting into now while it’s new, because it gives your content the priority in your target audience’s newsfeed.  Sponsored content works how you’d imagine; you pay the provider a certain amount relative to how many times you want them to post your content on targets’ newsfeeds.  Social channels offer very good and specific means by which to define your target audience, meaning that you can sponsor your content on anything from a local to a global scale, depending on your budget.

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