Recently, I wrote about the importance of protecting your personal brand in the age of social media and constant (and almost instant) information streams. Due to overwhelming public demand (well ok, just a few people including @Wise_Man_Say) I have been pressed to specify a few ways to help protect your personal brand.In the article, I stressed the importance of being aware of your image – knowing how your brand is viewed by your customers or clients and others. Here, I decided to start at the beginning and think of five initial things that can be done to protect your brand online. Here are five steps that can be taken right away to help you monitor your brand:1. Trademark it!This may seem like a no-brainer to most businesspeople, but you’d be surprised how many businesses never take the time to take the legal route to protecting their brand. I would suggest making the investment in a trademark lawyer who can do a proper and thorough search. This can be relatively inexpensive if you think about all of the trouble that can show up down the road if you have to start from scratch because someone else has been using your name or a similar logo or slogan, etc.2. Buy The Domain Names You NeedNow that you’re in the clear with a trademark search, marking out your space online is crucial. Your website will be one of your most valuable resources – the place where your brand will be on display for all to see. There are several inexpensive and reliable options for purchasing domain names (NameBargain.com, GoDaddy.com for example). Most people usually only think of the most obvious website address, but I suggest that you buy multiple versions of this website and have them all point back to your main web address. Also, think ahead. Do you have any future goals of branching out into other areas? Go ahead and buy domain names for those projects as well, just to lock them down. For about 10 dollars a year per domain name, it’s not a bad investment.3. Social Media PlatformsYour website will be the hub of your business online, but don’t forget about all of the social media platforms that your business should actively participate in. (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) A great resource that I found recently is knowem.com, which allows you to search for a specific user name across hundreds of different social media sites. It then shows you if that user name is available on each site.4. Monitor Your BrandAs I wrote before, being aware of your brand online is extremely important. This consists of knowing what your customers are saying about you – or if any publications or bloggers are reviewing your services or product, etc. One of the best ways to monitor your brand is by setting up Google alerts. If you have a Google account, you can set these up where you can get daily or weekly email notifications when your brand name (or your name, etc) shows up online. This is a great way to see where your brand is popping up online.Since more and more consumers are finding and interacting with businesses through social media sites, I also suggest setting up an account with a third party social media manager like TweetDeck or HootSuite. Through these, you can post updates to several different social media sites at once as well as monitor what’s being said about your brand by Twitter and Facebook users and so on.5. Be Social!It’s not just enough to have a website, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Use them! You are the best representative of your brand. You know more about you that anyone, right? So, be sociable with people – if someone comments on a blog or article of yours, give them a thank you, or keep the conversation going.Customers like to know the people they do business with. Be involved with your customers (or friends and followers.) Isn’t the best to have a” friend in the business?” So be “friendly” and you’ll be amazed how many people will seek you out when they need your services or product.

People tend to stick to the stores and brands that they are used to because they trust them. For a small business owner this makes it a lot more difficult to establish themselves as a solid, legitimate business. They are essentially seals in a sea of big sharks when it comes to the sea of capitalism. This is why is is integral to design a powerful, simple, and relevant logo to represent your business and help consumers to remember it gain their trust in your brand.The symbol is what brings iffy customers into your store to see what you have to offer, it is the wrapping paper on the present. You always pick the most eye catching present to open first at your birthday. You want the brand to contain the essentials in it, your company name, and some symbol that can be easily related to the products or services that you offer.There are hundreds of businesses in any given area that are offering the same sort of product this is why having a brand can make or break your business. Consumers just don’t have the time to try every store and see which one is the best. Studies show that people decide whether they want to do business with any store in the first few minutes of encountering them. This means that it is extremely important to make the best first impression on these people.To do so, have a good and powerful company logo that makes a positive and lasting impact on potential customers. Keep your store neat and organized, package your product appropriately, let the customer remember their experience in your store. Keep your brand memorable and leaving a positive impression on people and word will spread and people will go to your store first.

Restaurants need to encompass considerable marketing avenues for the sake of success. Without publicity and marketing, there are chances that the restaurant may not survive in the market. But with thorough planning and enactment, the restaurant’s promotion can grab the customer’s attention just like that.

The restaurant business is quite tough. It is difficult for the owners to flourish in this thrift and with very low profits. Restaurant owners are enthusiastic about food because not much profit is left after paying all the mandatory expenses like produce, wages, upkeep, and maintenance. Better so than eternally, restaurants publicity and marketing are necessary.

Some restaurant owners thoroughly expand their profit margin by contracting their business prototype and resemblance to others, assembling a franchise, spreading their reputation, and cultivating a future passive income. While others choose to concentrate on their flagship eatery, trusting that quality over quality is vital for drumming up future business.

Smart advertising encourages the restaurant owner to create a good reputation in the market and reach customers who might not even have heard about the restaurants near them. It also promotes the restaurants with discounts, offers, special occasions, and new items to the menu.

For marketing purposes, the best way is social media. Whether people are seeking someplace to dine in safely or looking for the best takeaway service, they turn on the social media app. The more the traffic drives to your specific website or page, the more you will succeed in this business.

What the advertising brings to the restaurants

It helps to target customers, as if the customers like the taste of the food at a specific restaurant, they will start recommending that place to their colleagues and friends. Advertising helps target particular types of customers and proves to be more effective.
Advertising certainly helps to stay competitive in the business. The competitors will be advertising their specific establishment to the customers. They will assume that the establishment has lacked publicity, is less thriving, and offers less than the other competitors.
Publicity and advertisement are thoroughly an investment. If the restaurant owner is investing wisely, they will surely profit from that. But the amount to be spent on publicity depends upon the area and type of restaurant. Usually, casual and family-specific restaurants do not spend more on advertising, while fine-dining restaurants spend more because they must create a lavish image.
Publicizing can certainly help to develop crucial aspects of the restaurant’s reputation. Advertising fetches the customers by creating the business’s reputation in the community.
Hiring a marketing agency can reduce almost all of the burden regarding advertisement. A good social media marketing agency can maintain whatsoever the name’s niche and aesthetics through social media. Great brand recognition can lead to more followers, leading to more traffic to the site and a boost in orders.