Harnessing Social Media’s Branding Power Through a Simple Step

     Social media has revolutionized the way in which many companies communicate and interact with the public at large.  Platforms such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, & YouTube are just a few of the mediums allowing companies to connect with consumers on a much more intimate and personal level.  While many large and well funded companies are able recruit and retain employees savvy with all things social media, many start ups and smaller companies lack this expertise, and are therefore unable to leverage the marketing potential offered by social media platforms.

     The thought of implementing a social media marketing strategy can be downright daunting for many smaller companies that simply don’t know where to even begin.  Even if your company is not quite ready to launch a social media marketing campaign, it is important that you move quickly to protect your brand name on social media sites.  Most social media sites allow individuals and companies to reserve customized user names that are used for identification purposes, and they often double as URL extensions.  Reserving a user name is as simple as creating a profile on a site and this small step will ensure that companies or individuals with very similar names do not gain rights to your company name; which is very crucial because your company name will be instrumental when building a brand.

     When the time comes for your company to actually engage in social media marketing, this very simple step will save you a good deal of grief.  I was having a conversation with the owner of a recruiting start up last week, and the topic of social media sites was raised.  She mentioned to me that she had recently begun investigating various social media platforms for marketing purposes.  To her dismay, her company’s name and multiple variations of it were already taken on many popular social media sites.  By following the aforementioned tip and reserving specific user names ahead of time, it will ultimately make your transition to social media marketing much smoother.

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