Online branding is an integral part of self-promotion, necessary to making yourself visible to your niche audience and customers. Presenting yourself as a professional will not only make you appear as an expert in your field, but will build trust into your brand in the mind of the consumer.

Here are some ways to build a good online reputation for an emerging brand.

1. Join as many social networking sites as possible.
This should be a given. Everyone is on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn — but are you? Social networking sites are free, so take advantage of this amazing marketing tool that’s fun, easy, and will span your reach globally.

2. Be a know-it-all.
The way to establish trust in a brand is for the consumer to know that you are an expert in your field. In other words, you have to allow your audience to see that you have the best knowledge of your industry, inside and out. Are you blogging? Are you involved in any speaking engagements? Are you outsourcing the best help to represent your brand? A good question to ask yourself would be…

Are you the best at what you do?

If not, how can you improve? What books can you read and what seminars can you attend to build up your knowledge base? Not knowing every angle of your industry will present itself as you being seen as the weaker competitor to the next brand that stays on top of its game.

3. Communicate.
No, really, communicate. Add comments on a regular basis on a blog that you admire. Leave personal messages to your fans on Facebook. When someone adds you as a new follower on Twitter, send a direct message to personally thank him or her to show that you are appreciative of the networking opportunity. Generic messages copied & pasted then blasted out to everyone generally get ignored. Try to make each member of your audience feel special and seen. If you really want to make social media work for you, actually get to know people. Learn and remember names. Try to build a new friendship or work relationship. Be open to respectful constructive criticism and other suggestions directly from the mind of your consumer. Take full advantage of the power of the Internet and the millions of users across the world who log on every day.

4. Keep the disagreements to a minimum.
Sometimes, a person online could take a comment the wrong way and make a smart remark in retaliation. You want to snap back, right? Well, by all means, don’t be a doormat, but there is a way to do it professionally and in good taste. No one likes to witness what is called internet beef. How silly is it to argue back and forth over someone through a keyboard? Think about it. If such an occurence arises, take the high road, agree to disagree, and leave it as that. If a person insists on harping on you, maybe the best response would be no response at all. While building a brand in the public eye, it is vital to a brand’s healthy growth to stay professional at all times. Getting yourself involved in internet arguments will linger in the minds of your audience, and therefore tarnish your online repuation and diminish your brand equity.

5. Don’t tYp3 lYKE THiiS!.
Please. We aren’t high-schoolers sending text messages to each other. We are adults conducting business. When doing your social media networking, type out each word in its correct form — and the only exception to this rule would be on Twitter where there is only a 140-character limit. Sometimes it is necessary to replace “you” with “u” or maybe “through” with “thru.” But habitual childish character typing will be automatically dismissed as an immature, teeny-bopper business that won’t be taken seriously. Also, keep a dictionary and thesaurus handy as part of your business library. Occasional typos are understandable, but if it’s clear that spelling and grammar were not your best subjects in school, refer to your dictionary whenever possible. Or hire someone to do your online marketing for you, and just stick to what you do best.