A new website has entered the social networking space for small businesses. The name is Briz.com.

After playing around with this website for a little bit I’ve discovered that there is much more to it than one might expect simply by the brief description above. There are some unique features to Briz.com that make it stand out above other social networking sites. The obvious comparisons are MySpace, Facebook, and LinkIn. But Briz.com is nothing like any of these, but it does provide some of the same features as each.

For instance, like Facebook, you can open a profile and network with other local businesses, but unlike Facebook, Briz.com is organized so that consumers can have an account and save their favorite local businesses into a group called My Briz while the business owners themselves can establish a profile that gives a complete description of their business and allows them to network with consumers, other businesses, and suppliers.

One unique feature that I like about Briz.com is that you add other businesses to your profile. If you own a chain of stores, for instance, you can add a profile for each location and choose to put them under the same profile heading or create a separate profile page for each business. You can do this all through one account. Briz.com also allows marketing companies to create a marketing account and manage the business profiles of their clients, another feature that I find to be extremely helpful (wink wink).

Briz.com is not intuitive until you start setting up your business account. I did have a little difficulty figuring out how to navigate from setting up a personal account to getting the business profile started. But once I figured that out, setting up the business profile was easy.

If you are a local business and you are looking for a way to network with other local businesses and consumers in your area then Briz.com looks like a good resource.

As a consumer, you can send messages to businesses, add them as favorites and friends, visit websites, vote on your favorite businesses, and post feedback about businesses. Briz.com offers businesses an opportunity to connect to consumers, suppliers and other businesses and provides consumers a way to rate their favorite businesses. Not a bad system at all.

Would you like Small Business Mavericks to set you up a business profile at Briz.com? We can.

An article at Inside CRM lists 15 websites that can influence your business for good or bad, but the article is rather flawed. Here are the 15 sites the article lists that are influential enough to make or break your company:

• Google
• YouTube
• Amazon.com
• Wikipedia
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Digg
• TechCrunch
• Colbert Nation
• Valleywag
• Twitter
• The Smoking Gun
• Oprah
• The Consumerist
• The Huffington Post

The problem with this list is that most of these websites don’t give a hoot about your small business enough to pay it one iota of attention, let alone boost it on a pedestal or drag it through the mud. Of this list, most small business owners need only consider 4 of them, maybe 5, as potential websites to concern themselves with in protecting their brand.

Those 5 sites are:

• Google
• YouTube
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter (wild card)

Google, of course, is the most popular search engine today. They really don’t care about your site. An impartial source, Google algorithms do all the work. It’s up to you really how well, or how poorly, you are perceived through Google’s lenses. Google does nothing; you do everything. They catalog information; you present it. But you can build a solid business online without being listed in Google (though I wouldn’t recommend it).

YouTube is a video sharing site. Yes, you can have videos go viral. Many have. But look at the odds. Seriously, millions of videos uploaded, only thousands with a record of success. Possible, but don’t bet money on it. Just build your brand honestly, create and upload videos if they’ll benefit you, and just do good business. To be honest, YouTube isn’t for everyone, but for those that it will benefit it has potential.

Facebook is one of the best ways you can build your brand. Like Google, it does nothing. You do everything. These sites provide the opportunity; it’s up to you to take advantage of it. Network, network, network.

MySpace is for teens. Does your business cater to teens? Use it. If not, forget about it.

Twitter, I’ve never used it. I’ve heard it’s great. It probably is. Many people use it and say sweet things. If you want to give it a go I see no reason why you shouldn’t.

But what about the rest of these sites? Amazon.com is an online book store and product retailer. Do you sell through them? Is it a place that you could sell through? Then by all means it could help you. If you’re not a retailer then Amazon likely won’t be much good for you.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. Most of us don’t need to be listed there. Have you made any significant accomplishments? Maybe they deserve a mention. But don’t expect a flood of business just because your friend Biff went up and told the world that you won the Blue Ribbon Award for Dog Grooming in Nantucket, Illinois (Is there a Nantucket in Illinois?).

TechCrunch, Valleywag, The Smoking Gun, The Consumerist, and The Huffington Post are all news sites. If you aren’t newsworthy then you likely won’t be mentioned on any of these. TechCrunch and Valleywag only deal with technology so if you aren’t a technology company then don’t count on it. The Smoking Gun destroys reputations. Sound inviting? The Huffington Post is a political site. The Consumerist is The Smoking Gun of the marketplace, but if you aren’t a big brand worth talking about then they likely won’t care that you ticked off Bongo the Clown because you didn’t have any red balloons.

That leaves Oprah, Colbert Nation, and Digg. Oprah is very influential. But you have to work your soles off to get on her show and it’s a task. Unless you have something that has a very wide and potentially popular appeal, don’t waste a lot of time chasing Oprah.

Stephen Colbert is a funny guy. Why would he care about your small business? Only Colbert knows.

And Digg, hmmm. Interesting site. Can help you get a lot of traffic. But if you look like you are trying to get publicity through Digg then you’ll get blasted by the in crowd at Digg. They either like you or they don’t and they generally don’t like marketers. But you can get some traffic here. Personally, I think you’re better off with StumbleUpon and a few other social sites. The most popular isn’t always the best.

Honestly, Yahoo and MSN Live can do you better service than some of these sites. As a small business, just stick to the basics and you’ll do fine.

Do you have a small business Internet marketing blueprint?

One of the most important things you can do for your business online is to set up profiles at all of the social bookmarking and networking sites. If you don’t, someone else could.

Online, anyone can essentially steal your identity and pretend to be you, making promises in your name and not fulfilling them, doing all sorts of damage that you’ll spend hours upon hours upon hours cleaning up and still not sure if you got it all. That could be worse than cleaning up a negative credit report!

It’s up to you to protect your brand online and one of the best ways to do that is to set up profiles in your business name or brand and actively engage other social media marketers through those profiles. Even if all you do is set up the profile and never use it you’ll at least stop others from using your brand name illegitimately. Many social sites offer link juice for the links from your profile to your website so that alone is worth the effort. But actively using your profile by networking with others in those social sites could lead to additional business as you develop relationships. Not only will you be protecting your online reputation, but you’ll be building your business brand in a positive, forward-moving way.

Want to protect an image? There’s a new tool online to help you do just that. It’s called TinEye.

TinEye is the first image search. The best application I can think of for this tool for small business owners is to see how your images are being used online. If someone is using your image without authorization and in ways that you don’t approve of then you can stop them from using your trademarks illegally and unethically.

According to their sales page, TinEye uses image identification technology and pattern recognition algorithms to see if images have been modified. So if someone takes your original artwork and modifies it for their own use without paying you for the privilege, you’ll know about it. Other uses of this technology include:

• The ability to research corporate brands and products
• To see how others have used a particular public domain photo so that you don’t duplicate them
• Research the use of stock photos online
• See how images you know have been modified

I’ve got to hand it to the folks at TinEye for coming up with a unique and creative idea in image search. If this tool works better than Google Images then I can see partnership coming. Image search online needs some improvement.

There are two great ways to use the Google Custom Search Engine to brand your business and help your site visitors find what they want more easily.

The first way involves building a local search engine so that visitors to your site can find what they want in your local area. The second way is to create an industry-specific search engine that helps visitors to your site find what they are looking for in your industry no matter where in the world it may be located. Both types of search engines can be used as a branding tool for your business.

Let’s say you own a dentistry website in Wayzata, Michigan. You can build a local search engine to help people in Wayzata find anything they want in Wayzata and that can be an effective way to brand you to your local customers as well as keep your local visitors on your site longer and when they are in need of veneers, who do you think they’re going to call?

On the other hand, you could skip the local search angle and build a dentistry search engine. Anyone interested in finding something related to dentistry - be it a dentist in their home town, the latest technology used in dental offices, research currently being conducted in the area of teeth maintenance, etc. - and visitors to your website can find anything related to dentistry through your website.

You can brand your custom search engine using Google’s unique branding features and design your search results pages to look just like your website. Since Google Custom Search also powers AdSense for Search, you can turn the search engine into another source of revenue for your business. How cool is that?

So, to recap:

• Branding
• More Traffic
• Visitors Stay Longer
• AdSense for Search
• Customization

Why not start your own search engine?

Branding your business online is every bit as important as branding it off line. And it’s really a lot simpler. You can do some of the same things, of course. Your company logo can be used online just the same as it can off line, and you should use it wherever and whenever you can. The perfect place for your company logo is in the headers of your website and blog. But why stop there? You have so many other branding options available to you online that to ignore any of them is to effectively shoot yourself in the foot.

One of the best ways to brand yourself online happens before you ever put up your website. Proper keyword research can lead you to the perfect domain name. A good domain name not only tells visitors what kind of business you are, but it also can be used as a branding tool. Small Business Mavericks is more than just a website that caters to small businesses - it is a brand. It was designed that way on purpose.

Other ways to brand yourself online include:

• Using a creative tagline that tells people what you do and why you do it
• Website or blog design can be effective in branding your business
• Ads that run on other websites can be used to brand your business
• Even PPC ads can be used for branding
• Creative use of keywords can be used to convey a particular image about your company that brands you in the minds of your target market
• Your company newsletter or e-zine can and should be used as a branding tool
• Branding can also take place through your social media profiles
• And you can brand yourself in your author resource bios when conducting article marketing

There is no limit to how you can brand your business online. The tools and resources available to you are numerous and all you have to do is ensure that they work together to create an image that people can relate to, respect, and identify with. That’s what online branding is all about.

Branding is often most notable in logos and tag lines. Think of Nike and you think of the swoosh symbol and “Just do it”, and most successful businesses have a very memorable tag line. You´ll see online tags below the blog or website title, usually and this can be exactly what you want people to remember about you. However, in order to make this useful, you will need a great tag line and those don´t just fall out of the sky!

Branding Your Tag Line Tips

• Keep it short. Long tag lines are difficult to remember, while a short tag line is great for branding as it sticks in people´s minds.

• Make it relevant. You want the tag line to refer to your business or what you do, so it should be able to explain what you are doing in just a few words.

• Be snappy. Awkward phrases aren´t going to be memorable and certainly don´t help with branding, so keep things snappy and rhythmic.

• Brainstorm. Come up with a bunch of words that have to do with or describe your business and then see what you can do with them.

• Get a second opinion. Before you decide that your branding tag line is the greatest thing since sliced bread, get a fresh pair of eyes to look at it and tell you if there could be improvements made.

Branding is an important part of your business and it begins with the image you present on your literature and website. Make sure your tag line reflects who you are as a business and carries the spirit of the company. This will really help people remember you in the long run.

Online branding is just as important as offline, particularly if you run your business online. Online publicity is not the same as branding, though you can definitely do both at the same time. Basically, if you are going to pay for or even spend time on getting advertising or any kind of publicity online, you might as well be branding your business at the same time!

Signature lines. In email and forums or wherever you are given the chance to add a signature line, make sure it is the same. Don´t be using a variety of different ones, unless you have different online businesses. People will come to recognize your tag line.

Logo. It´s possible, especially for new businesses, that you may change your logo or develop it over time. Make sure you go back and replace your old one in any directories or ads whenever you do this. It´s a good idea to keep track of where you have written about your business or put up ads.

You. As the business owner, you have a unique advantage in that you can put yourself on your website and let people know that there is a real human being behind the business. Branding with yourself creates a more human connection with visitors and knowing they can contact you will help them trust you more.

Branding for your online business should be up there with all your important publicity techniques. It is just as important any advertising that you do and will pay off for far longer than a month long ad.

Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Online businesses often have the problem of proving that they are real. It´s pretty simple for anyone to set up a professional looking website and claim to be a business . . . so you need to make yours stand out by branding it. Online branding techniques take a bit of work, just like real world ones do, but you will find it is worth the effort.

Online Branding Techniques

Online branding is a bit different from offline in that you have more opportunities to get your name out there for free or at least very low cost. But following the same guidelines as for offline branding is still a good idea, since the principles hold true for both types of branding.

Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Graphic design is something that has long been hailed as THE method of branding your business. Good graphic design is certainly effective, but there are so many poor examples of it out there that it´s hard to see why it works. That might be partly due to our perception of what constitutes great graphics.

André at Small Business Branding offers a little insight into why graphic design is one of the worst methods of branding these days.

Businesses think nothing of letting the secretarial staff design their materials. This is not the case however if they need legal work done. The books are not handled by the janitor, they have an accountancy handle it and rightly so. Many pass off the in-house design as a way to cut costs. What they fail to see and apparently forget from business 101, is that marketing should communicate their brand message and differentiate them - NOT something that must be accomplished for peanuts, by anyone who knows there way around photoshop. The computer industry defines this nicely - Garbage in, garbage out. Garbage doesn’t make you money. The sad thing is, the lack of response to these amateur materials only strengthens businesses belief that marketing is at best a crap shoot, and the first things to cut in a slow economy.

Branding and marketing are two of the most important things you can do for your business. Without branding, you will have to struggle to bring in new customers every time you make a sale. Graphic design, when done properly, can create an image that people will remember and think of whenever they need your products or services.

As André´s post points out, it is well worth spending some real money on a professional graphic design artist, but you will need to hunt for one who actually knows what he´s doing. Otherwise, you´ll end up with graphics for your ads that just don´t convert and actually look bad. If good graphic design can catch people´s attention and draw them to your business, what does bad graphic design do? It´s worth thinking about the next time you start to hand off that graphic design job to your secretary.

Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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