There are a lot of ways where you can employ a brand strategy to make your brand more popular and more familiar to your market. In times of stiff competition, like now, one has to be really creative and make do with the opportunities that are presented and the possibilities of expanding the brand in more ways than one.

Almost every company now realize that utilizing the power of the Internet is a must and that it can indeed open a lot of doors of opportunity for a brand to grow. It is already a given fact that using the social media networking sites are very important if one wants to reach their target market. The brand manager must be able to plot the course that would lead to the right social media agency and design marketing strategies that would directly communicate to their desired market. In other words, one must be able to use the rights tools for the right job. In this case, the right social media marketing tool to the right market using the right language and the right opportunity as well.

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One of the fastest possibilities of growing the brand’s market base is to use webcasting as a brand strategy tool. Webcasting is not a totally new concept. Imagine a TV show that is being beamed live in all major cities. Now, webcasting does the same thing but this time on a much bigger audience – the world! To webcast is to broadcast whatever material you have to everybody who is connected over the Internet.

Others would also call webcasting as streaming – how ever one wants to call it does not really matter. What is important is that it does the same thing- to broadcast audio or video to a group of people. Webcasting may or may not be a live program. It can be a canned material that is scheduled to be webcasted at a specific time.

Depending on how fast your broadband connection is, webcasting can even show broadcast materials as clear as the video quality of your very own TV. Although a lot of components come into the capability of a host to stream his video like the capability and capacity of his servers to handle traffic and the Internet bandwidth among others. Others may say that this is just another additional cost but think about it in a positive way. If your market appreciates streaming and would prefer to hear more about your brand through webcasting, then don’t you think it is a good business opportunity for you?

If this is how the market is going, then it would be a wise move for anybody to use this media innovation and take advantage of the broad possibilities of using this tool to make our brands known. If the times are changing, then you can’t do anything else but go with the flow and let it bring you and your brand to greater heights. You don’t have to settle with just reaching your market with email marketing, blogs, micro-blogs and in the social networking sites that they are always in. This time, you have another brand strategy tool that you can use and that is webcasting.

Digital brand promotions are a great way to reach Generation Y. In fact, some Gen Y marketing experts will tell you digital brand promotions may be the only real way to reach them.

This is important, because Gen Y born between 1977 and 1994 are worth 0 billion in spending per year, and they affect another 0 – 0 billion in family spending (i.e. restaurants, clothing, and even cars). But they’re ignoring ads on traditional media, choosing instead to consume media online and on their cell phones, the home of digital brand promotions. So they’re not actually seeing your TV commercials, hearing your radio spots, or reading your newspaper ads.

This will actually make life easier for the brand promotions manager. As Generation Y consumes more media online, your digital brand promotions can be quickly created, easily tracked, and changed or dropped when you find something is working.

Gone are the days of traditional brand promotions through TV ads and radio campaigns, where you had to wait until the end of the sales quarter to see if your efforts had any effect. Gone are the days of guessing whether it was your billboards or the TV spots that resulted in the most sales. With digital promotions, you can get real-time results and see if people are buying, watching, or downloading whatever product or service you’re selling. If they’re not, change a few of the creative variables and see if that makes a difference.

Social media sites like Facebook and MySpace are a great way to reach Gen Yers and effective avenues to build a database for your brand promotions campaign. Purchase digital ads that are delivered to people who your target demographic. For example, you could promote an upcoming concert by selecting people between the ages of 18 – 24 in the cities on the tour. Brand managers collect names to build a marketing database, by offering social media users free music downloads or ringtones to people who register for the promotional giveaway.

You can further enhance your concert brand promotions by offering prizes or swag to the fans who promote the concert to their friends, asking them to forward it to their friends. Then, collect everyone’s information, and you’re also building a future contact list of fans where you can promote future concerts, upcoming albums, and merchandise. Gen Y is responding to digital promotions and prize offerings in a big way.

Text messaging is another great way to reach Generation Y, because they’re texting like crazy. A recent report on NielsenWire says the average teenager is texting 3,146 times per month. So your digital brand promotions should include texting. Text promotions reach these consumers in their element.

Whether you’re creating an opt-in text club, or including ads as part of a service, like sports scores or news updates, people are more willing to accept brand promotions messages as a part of a service. And the more useful your service is, the more often they’ll see your ad. In fact, according to an article in the New York Times, during the 2008 NFL draft, Coors sent text messages about draft pick updates and put Coors branding on each message.

Generation Y is also skipping the TV in order to watch YouTube and Hulu videos instead. If you got the brand promotions budget for it, consider placing ads on Hulu videos, rather than buying a TV commercial. Since Hulu will only show 3 or 4 commercials per 30 minute show, people are more willing to sit through them, rather than getting up or flipping around. Several of our friends have watched shows on Hulu, and actually even taken the time to rate commercials, rather than ignore them.

In short, Generation Y is online, and they’re responding to those brands that communicate directly with them. Rather than trying to reach them through traditional promotions, give digital brand promotions a try instead. Communicating with Gen Y through relationship marketing is a surefire way to reach them and get them to respond to you.

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If I showed you a simple swoosh symbol, would you recognize the brand? Absolutely, its Nike. How about a red soda can? Obviously Coca Cola. And a silhouette of a polo player on a horse? Of course – Polo. What do all these have in common? You and the fact that you recognize them just from a brand logo. This type of brand recognition is what other companies dream about and envy. How did these companies get to where they are? How can other companies get to same place? Business video advertising is the way to go – Here is why:

Business video advertising makes brand awareness easy for the viewer.

As a consumer, I do not want to have to work to see an advertisement. What does this mean? I am not going to click through several pages, read for several minutes, or have to scroll to the bottom of the page. Sorry. It’s just not going to happen. That’s just one of the reasonsusing a personal illustrationthat business video advertising is so much more engaging. It’s so easy. Is a video coming? All I do is sit there and soak it in. It makes it easy for the viewer, who is your advertising target, to simply absorb the advertisement. This will also make it easier for the advertiser to cover the consumer in a deluge of brand awareness.

Business video advertising makes brand awareness compelling for the viewer.

I have a confession to make. Maybe this will sound bipolar, but I have a love/hate relationship with the Geico gecko. I can’t stand himhis arrogance, his self-consumed wittiness, and his strange little smile. But at the same time, I feel like I have to watch every ad I see with him. Why? Because I just have to know what is coming next. I want to hear that accent again. It’s like that with business video advertising. You may not have a gecko to sport your style, but you do have a continuing theme (translation: brand) to present to a viewer. You want to create a sense of compelling anticipation, about the life of a key character in your advertising schema, about the suspenseful progression that a video creates. Business video advertising takes your brand and makes it interesting, and compelling. And that, in short, makes your advertising dollar go a lot farther.

Business video advertising makes brand awareness information-intensive for the viewer.

One of the goals in advertising is to furnish the potential buyer with information. The more knowledgeable the consumer is about the purchase, the better they will feel and the more likely they are to make the purchase. Videos provide that perfect level of knowledge. Videos are information intensive. There is only so much you can say in 140 characters or less. There is actually quite a bit you can say in twenty seconds or less. When you combine the power of the spoken word, written word, music, motion, pictures, imagery, and pathos, and roll it all up in a slick few seconds of powerful videoyou are nearly guaranteed an increased level of brand awareness. People crave information, and when you provide it to them through a video, their perception of you, i.e., your brand, increases.

Not every brand is going to have the longevity and household status of Coca Cola. (There are those that actually use the brand to decorate).) But you can be successful by tapping into the culture’s most prevalent means of advertising, and boosting your brand as a result.

More than a decade after Tom Peters mentioned the term personal branding, it is still going strong as an efficient and powerful tool for creating a productive brand for many individuals and businesses alike. You too can create your own brand and leverage its power to produce revenue, support or even elevate your status to that of a star. All you need is to follow simple steps and keep away from the loopholes and your personal brand will take no time in establishing itself.

Create A Personal Branding Toolkit

Once you have zeroed in on your niche, you need to prepare the necessary materials that will help in personal branding. First, you will need a business card. It does not matter who you are or what you do, your business card must contain your picture along with a statement highlighting the brand e.g. Freelance Writer or Hospitality Expert. You can also share this card through your cell phone or even through websites like BusinessCard2.com.
Then you will need documents like a resume or cover letter that formally portrays your personal information, credentials as well as your aim. However, be sure that you keep it specific to the niche. Also, upload these documents on the net after adding favourable social features to it.

Podcasting And Livecasting

Portfolios in the form of a print, video and/or audio are also needed to create the necessary impact for personal branding. This must contain your works or an easy-to-understand description of your works along with your goals and viewpoints. This is going to highlight the ‘You’ to the people out there. So, make it count. While podcasts have originally been audio based, you can also think of video recordings for an enhanced effect on the person tuning in. YouTube is a god place to start. Even livecasts where you can go live for a discussion over the net can greatly enhance your reputation.

Niche And Personal Branding Goals

The biggest asset of personal branding is the niche. This is always controlled by the relativity of your ideas with your featured goals. Hence, do not stray from your original path; otherwise, people will shun you off as a cheat or a fraud.

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