Building and maintaining a brand is a never-ending process - in good times and especially in bad. HOW you go about it may morph based on the macro economy or your company’s micro economic environment. Today, we’re recommending that our clients use free Internet tools as much as possible. And the good news (in the midst of the bad) is that you may actually make your branding and marketing more effective! Here are some ways we’ve been using Web power to max marketing:

• Electronic media relations - centered around press releases with a number of hyperlinks, i.e., links to pages on your Website that cover the subject(s) you reference in the release, to organizations, to partner companies, etc. Put the releases out electronically over newswires, through appropriate social media channels, and they’ll optimize your search engine results and enjoy a long half life on the Web.
• LinkedIn or Facebook “campaigns” - Begin or maintain an active presence on LinkedIn if you’re a B2B company or both LinkedIn and Facebook if you’re primarily B2C. Build up your contacts/friends lists, let your contacts know what projects or products you’re working on, ask questions, join groups related to your field or that of your company and become active online.
• Conduct regular  ePromotions - Create and maintain an eNewsletter or simply go with a regular ePromotion schedule. Launch your products or services. Give recipients a discount on a product or service for a limited time period. Reprise the special offer on the home page of your Website. Use your ePromotional vehicle to get customer/client feedback on products and services. Reward them with a gift card if they respond.
• Monitor Web coverage - Track yourself/your organization using a free tool such as www.yacktrack.com, which monitors blogs, online communities, etc., to find out what they’re saying about you. Reputation management is a major component of branding and ongoing brand management.