Online branding is perhaps one of the most important thing SEO should do. Most companies enter the web without any thought of creating an online presence and that’s a wrong approach. If you think about it, many companies don’t create an offline brand either, relying only on a bit of PR, a bit of marketing (more along the lines of advertising) and a bit of customer relations (an outsourced call center).

But what is this brand everyone speaks of? Well, it’s an identity. It’s not a name, or a logo, or a catch phrase, it’s like a person… A brand is a story, it’s something Pavlovian for the customers, something that makes people behave in a certain way when they’re exposed to it. A brand is something to help people chose a product from a million identical ones. It’s something people identify with. It’s something that draws people to a company or product. A company without a brand is like a person without an identity, it’s not memorable because it’s anonymous. How many people remember who Steve Something is who presented something at a conference a month ago? But how many people remember Steve Jobs? He’s probably one of the best examples because he is a walking talking brand. He is what Apple means to people. He’s cool and elitist and makes the fans tremble at his announcements.

Now that we (don’t) know what a brand is, let’s talk about how to get one. A brand cannot be bought, although it costs a lot of money. Rather, a brand is made, it’s a process of little steps which one by one build an entity, a sum of stories and reactions which define a company’s interaction with its customers. Which brings us to what a brand is again. A brand is in a sense more than PR, and it’s more than the product’s characteristics. A brand is how a company does everything it does. It’s style, and it’s passion, and it’s uniqueness. It’s breaking the mold in a way, or making the mold in another.

But enough talk about brands, what is so different online about a brand? Well, since the web is a very interactive place, a brand on the web has to be interactive too. You have a cartoon character as your mascot? Make him talk, interact with people, get a fancy yet highly seo unfriendly website where he talks. But be careful about his voice, his tone, the way he moves, there are so many details you can get wrong on the web… So many companies get this wrong… Many people lack the detail orientation needed to truly understand a web campaign.

What is the difference between a 10$ photograph made by a student and a 1000$ portrait made by a pro photographer. Well, aside from the gear, it’s the fact that the pro will always get it right. He’ll always take something to help your personal brand grow. Just look at concert posters and tell me how many look like they’re made to match the person, the music, the lifestyle. And tell me how many look like they were simply botched together.

Online media is easy to create but the fact that so many people can do whatever they like with it is a bit daunting in the sense that think of how your website may look. Think of different flash versions, think of different browsers, default fonts, not to mention screen sizes (think installed toolbars, etc) and so on. Then there’s RSS which can end up anywhere and so on.

But online branding is in a way trying to tell not one story, like in conventional media, but rather many stories at once. One on youtube, one on slideshare, one on digg, and so on. Also, unlike conventional media, anyone can say whatever they want about your story using the same channels. Anyone can comment, anyone can complain and anyone can say a nicer story than you since it costs them nothing. The Internet is a challenge.

And how is branding important on the web? Well, think of it this way. When I want to check out a movie, what do I do? I go to imdb. It’s a reflex, and I know what the movie site is called, and I know a lot about them. Sure they don’t really have a story, but they have something to say. They have all I need. However, if I’m searching for subtitles, I go to… umm… I’ll google it. Or song lyrics, yeah, google too… A brand is what makes people come to your site instead of Googling the information. So technically, the more direct visits the better…

Another example as to why a brand is important is word of mouth. Say you have this amazing authority site that’s first in Google, about tennis shoes. And there’s this kid who doesn’t feel that mike’s tennis shoe emporium extraordinary says anything to him so he just tells his friend to google custom tennis shoes. Sure enough, mike’s website comes up, but what if some day joe makes tennishoe, a catchy name (albeit stupid i know) with a better optimized website. Sure prices are higher and goods are somewhat poorer in quality, but to the kids it’s the first result that matters. So without a brand you’re lost if something happens. Maybe like me you do something that destroys your htaccess file and google thinks you’re gone… And you only have people who search by brand, or who go directly to the address.

Also, a brand is important in differentiation. Unlike brick and mortar stores, online stores have the big disadvantage to the seller that they’re only a click away from each other. In real life, I’m more willing to go across the street to buy a new keyboard, but online I don’t care. It gets shipped to my home anyway and I can buy one anywhere I want. Also, there’s no sales rep to convince me that I really need to buy that one from there… Which is again where brands come in play. Will I shop at bestbuy or bhphoto? Or maybe that small second-hand dealer whose prices are a lot lower and merchandise just as good… Brand is memorable, and on the web people forget all the time. If I look at my history, I’ve visited at least 200 sites today. Do you think I remember any of them? Well, some due to use all the time. But I know I watched vids on YouTube and Metacafe. I know I checked my Gmail. I know I’ve read xkcd and not from concentrate. I know I’ve checked engadget. Because all are known brands to me. I know what each does and how each offers me something. I may not know why they’re called that but they got stuck in my head.

That’s it for today, check out the blog tomorrow for a bit on brand protection.

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