That’s right. There is absolutely nothing more important than name recognition. This is especially true in the business world. You might be wondering why I bring this up, and why you should care. I’ll answer the first part of that question immediately and explain during the course of this article why you should care.

I logged in a while ago and started going through comments to previous posts. One of the comments I came across was from Blackysky who asked how much traffic I got via Blog Catalog and if the time spent was worth the traffic received. I immediately replied that I was after name recognition and not traffic, but then I decided that I should expand on that position.

Now let’s establish some basic parameters regarding name recognition so everyone is on the same page.

How do we define name recognition?

In politics name recognition is the number of people who recognize a politician. That’s a pretty good definition, but for our purposes we’ll say that it’s the number of people who recognize our websites and blogs.

How important is name recognition?

Think of it this way… There is a list of links on a web page you are visiting. You only recognize one name in that list out of about 25 names total. With all things being equal chances are you’ll click on the familiar name. Why? Because it is familiar. Because you recognize it. That’s how important name recognition is.

What can I do to help someone recognize my name?

There are several things that will help someone recognize our names.

Repetition

The more often our names are seen the more recognizable they are. In other words “spam” your name as much as you can.

• Use your online name as your signature in forums and on blog comments
• Drop the name of your blog anytime you possibly can without being obnoxious
• Develop an email signature with your name in it
• Update your content at least once a day so people have a reason not to forget you
• Guest blog as often as possible and introduce yourself to a wider variety of audiences
• Hold worthwhile and noteworthy contests

What other ways do you “spam” your name?

Our logo

Once you convince people to associate your name with your logo the battle is nearly won. (Think Shoemoney’s dollar sign)

Content

From the kind of things we write about to the actual quality of our writing, it all helps us build name recognition. The more we write the more our name is exposed. Obviously the better our writing the more that exposure benefits us.

Friends

The old saying of “It’s not what you know, but who you know” has never been more aptly used than in terms of name recognition. The more influential our friends the more likely our names will be recognized. Think about it, a link from Problogger is much more valuable than 20 links from day old Blog Spot blogs.

Is name recognition important to you? Are you better known for your name of for your brand?

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Tags: marketing, name recognition, promotion