Advice given for online brand marketing

Many PR agencies have been "slow" to adopt online technologies, a search engine optimisation expert has claimed. Peter Young, SEO manager at Mediavest, wrote in E-consultancy that search and digital marketing agencies had taken advantage of the "window of opportunity" created by PR agencies' failure to capitalise on online marketing trends. He advised tracking audience perception of brands, mentioning such tools as Buzzmetrics, Market Sentinel and Brandwatch as possibilities for web analytics. Blogs and forums should be checked to see what customers are saying. Tracking and researching should take place before a "potential crisis" can hit, with people such as a company's PR agency, digital marketing agency and traditional media on hand for quick response. Mr Young warned: "The worst thing you can do is nothing." Jennifer A Jones recently wrote in Adrants about viral online marketing. She warned that if a brand name was too overt it could "upset the viewer", but placing it too subtly risks accusations of deception.