You can spread the word about your brand with advertising or publicity.

Advertising is something you create, pay for and control. Publicity is something someone else writes or says about you when you do something good, noteworthy or interesting.

In “The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service into a World-Class Brand“, Al and Laura Ries write about the Law of Publicity: “The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising.”

Social media like blogs, social bookmarking and social networks have extended the definition of publicity. Small businesses must learn to leverage different online publicity techniques effectively. Here are six effective ways to do it:

• Blogs:
  • Create a blog that other bloggers will feel compelled to link to, and update it often with useful, original posts.
  • Make use of trackbacks. Trackbacks are a common feature of most blog platforms. It works like this: when you link to another blog from one of your posts, your blog platform communicates with the other blog and a link to your post is placed automatically in the other blog (sometimes accompanied by a small blurb of text extracted from your post).
  • Post comments on other blogs: leaving useful comments on other blogs will drive traffic to your site from people clicking on your username, which will usually be hyperlinked to your site.
  • When you find a good post on another blog, email the blogger to complement him/her. They will love the positive feedback , visit your blog, and link to it when they like something you write.
• Tell-a-Friend Links: There is no better endorsement than a personal recommendation from someone you trust. “Send this page to a friend” or “email this post” links make it easy to recommend your posts. You can create them using a cgi script or by enabling the “email this post” feature on your blog.
• Social Bookmarking: Sites like Digg, Delicious or Stumbleupon let you to bookmark web pages and share them with other people. Write a few good articles or blog posts and bookmark them. If others like them they will bookmark them too and help spread the word.
• Testimonials: Authentic testimonials by satisfied customers are very effective. Testimonials must include contact information (a name and a link to a website, and maybe a picture). Always ask for permission before posting testimonials.
• Press releases: Write about a newsworthy event related to your brand and submit it to online press release sites. To write a press release remember to:
  • Make your information timely and unique.
  • Present it in an attractive and easy to understand format.
  • Craft a catchy headline.
  • Use quotes from newsworthy people.
  • Write in third person voice.

If you don’t feel confident about your writing abilities hire a copywriting service.

• Articles: Write quality articles and post them in article syndication sites. Publishers looking for content may reprint your articles provided that they include your resource box. A resource box is a short promotional paragraph at the end of your articles, that includes your name, an elevator pitch about your brand, and a link to your website.

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