Have you ever heard of the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, written by Robert Cialdini? In the world of marketing, this book is vastly considered as one of the Must Reads ! Many marketing and other influencer’s mention and discuss his work and particularity his principles from time to time. If you are familiar with the book, you must know the 6 basic principles of persuasion that the author talks about.

These principles are considered and followed all around the world. Once you are associated with them, you will start recognising them in almost everything.

You will observe the application of these principles, at least one in any CTA, ad post or simply content.

Out of these 6 principles, there is one principle that grabs our attention at the moment: Social Proof !

In this digital world, where most of the marketing is digitized, the social network is something we all live and breath. Is it not interesting to look at what all our favourite personalities, and friends are up to?

Like, share, subscribe, the three vital elements of the social network can yield groundbreaking results. It does make sense, doesn’t it?

Here is the fact: your website ranking can totally go high with a good social score. Get people talking, it gets you more traffic!

Yes, social proof, with right technique or techniques can help get a high website rank. In other terms, it acts as the best SEO technique.

The task here is to create more and more brand mentions. We will state some of the strategies that you can use to your benefit.

If you absorb these pointers, it will be a great deal of help to you. So, take your time and learn this bit:

What Defines Brand Mention and How Can It Help?

We will provide an answer to the above with a simple example.

We are certain you must have heard of the website Product Hunt

Yes you have, it is a popular site to find interesting services and products, plus, it is used by thousands.

To put it straight, the products that get displayed on the 1st page of product hunt are sure to grab more eyes. This may ultimately result in a grand sale.

Here is a specific example of a brand mention:

Neuralink is a new company started in 2016, but when it’s on Product Hunt’s front page, it goes viral.

This is exactly what defines brand mention. Where people and more people get familiarized with your brand and your services.

Indiegogo and Kickstarter are a couple of crowd funding sites that also provide brand mentions, however on a limited scale.

There are multiple ways in which a brand mention can take place. Understand that mention of your brand or service is nothing but reaching out to masses.

Let’s say, your brand name is mentioned by someone in a blog, it is a brand mention.

One thing leads to another, it’s like a cycle. Your brand is mentioned somewhere, people start talking and that creates an organic bustle.

This kind of buzz occurs on social media platforms or some blog sites. Sharing and referring are two common things that could lead to this kind of chain reaction.

This massive sharing will essentially lead to potential sales. This is how powerful brand mention is.

Doesn’t it sound good? It will be amazing to grab such attention!

Check this out:

This may not look like a great deal. But, as a matter of fact, it is a significant patent. If you have noticed, this is registered by Google.

And it is for one of their algorithms, Panda. The essential nature of this patent that is of interest to us is the below paragraph.

The system determines a count of independent links for the group (step 302). A link for a group of resources is an incoming link to a resource in the group, i.e., a link having a resource in the group as its target. Links for the group can include express links, implied links, or both. An express link, e.g., a hyperlink, is a link that is included in a source resource that a user can follow to navigate to a target resource.

An implied link is a reference to a target resource, e.g., a citation to the target resource, which is included in a source resource but is not an express link to the target resource.

Thus, a resource in the group can be the target of an implied link without a user being able to navigate to the resource by following the implied link.

The key term is “implied link” in the above highlighted part. We are familiar with the term link, naturally! But the implied link is different, isn’t it?

According to Google’s definition, implied link refers to any source which is not a link. The source here refers to brand mention.

A brand mention here is not hyperlinked or directed to another page or website. It is simply a source or a brand reference mentioned in a specific content.

However, it is in reference to one brand in particular. It imposes as a link, but it is technically not a link. Bit confusing right?

It is simple, your brand name is mentioned in a way for people to spot it and even allows them to visit your website. However, it’s just that there won’t be any direct link that leads the audience to your site.

Why Google Cares About Implied links?

The important question is what role implied links can play in branding. It is also important to note that this is going to play a role in ranking as well.

So far, link building has been the hit strategy for many SEO success brands out there. Good backlinks are still a hit strategy to see success on Google. However, Google often encounters SEOs and other digital marketers who masterfully use link schemes. Link schemes are nothing but the black hat techniques used to attain traffic.

To have a better understanding of unnatural link generation, follow the link below on moz

“What is an Unnatural Link? An in-depth Look at the Google Quality Guidelines”

Take a look at this:

It is a sponsor site which gives links to people by taking a donation from them. Though the term they use is the donation, it is an exchange of service for a particular amount. Hence we can call it a paid link.

Link schemes can happen in various forms such as link generation via automated programs, blog networks, link exchange and of course black hat SEO techniques. Why do people do it? Because it is an easy way to undertake SEO. However, they fail to note that this will not bring any organic traffic.

Let’s take a look at an organic traffic generating site:

Business Insider gets traffic not because of link schemes, but because of their content which genuinely attracts readers.

This is how different a site with organic traffic is from the one which is popular on search engine page due to link schemes.

Let’s get to those Cialdini’s six principles !

To get more insight on the 6 principles that can apply to your website, go through the article below:

“How to Apply Cialdini’s Six Principles of Influence to Your Website “

However, this is the important part for us at the moment. Look at the picture, it starts with social proof. It is an important principle in marketing and so is to Google.

Google likes a social proof and showcases an interest in the sites that have organic traffic which makes them popular. This is the reason why brand mention is important.

If your brand has been mentioned, that is considered as implied link by Google. This, in turn, will help boost your SEO.

So far we talked about why brand mentions are important, now, let’s talk about how do they influence.

Where Should Brand Mentions Happen?

According to Cialdini, social proof is vital. The phrase we all use often “word of mouth!”, in social networking is replaced by “sharing and resharing”. Viral content is the best example in this scenario, people read, like, share and keep sharing and millions across globe end up reading it. Wow, right!

You can determine your popularity or brand interest basis the brand mentions you already have. There are tools available on the internet which will help you get an idea on this. We recommend using 2 or 3 tools to get a good idea.

Below mentioned are few tool which can help you perform the task:

Google Alerts:

This is the best place to start in order to identify your brand mentions.

Google Alerts is oldest and yet is an outstanding tool to perform the task due to its simplicity. Besides, it doesn’t cost you a penny. However, it may not be the one for you, if you are looking for a detailed report. But surely a great option to generate basic information, considering the fact that it’s free.

You can create an alert by using a key term or a key phrase.

go to https://google.com/alerts 

Your keyword here would generally be your brand name. Just enter it to activate the alerts.

However, click show options before activating the alerts.

This will allow you to control how many alerts you want to get, where you wish to receive them and other details.

And, just click “Create Alert”

That’s all there is to it. From now on, you will receive alerts each time your brand is mentioned on any site.

You can set up multiple alerts, which is ideal if you want to track product mentions.

SocialMention.com

This is again another good option which comes handy at zero cost.

Social mention as the name suggests is a tool to track brand mentions on the internet. It comes with different options to accommodate search needs

Costing nothing, the results it yields may surprise you. If you have a zero investment plan, this is a right option.

The search options, in this case, will be various channels. You can usually opt for “All” as you would be interested in knowing about your brand mention on various platforms.

This will yield a list of results in a descending order, with the latest mentions on the top. You also have the option to check by date and time, along with sources.

You can check out the mentions by clicking on the source link

The Backlink is not the only way, implied links or brand mentions serve the same purpose. This happens across a wide range of content from blogs till social media.

You can check for the information in the sidebar

Keywords, hashtags, metrics and you can also pull out the data on your brand mentions in terms of positive and negative discussions.

Scroll down to see sources:

This is precisely how brand mentions happen.

Mention: This is another tool that can help you find your brand mentions.

This is a sharp tool with information represented graphically. It will determine your brand performance online:

Like in the previous ones, you can set up alerts in this tool too, to get mention alerts. However, it is a little more detailed in nature. You definitely want to check “influence scores”. This is the option that reveals how much influence the person or the site has. High the score, better it is for you.

This will also allow you to respond to mentions internally, that sounds comforting, right?

Yes, these comforts though come at a cost of 29 dollars per month. But they do have a great deal of data to offer in such a well structured format.

Here Are The Ways to Get Mentions

Guest Blogging: This serves is a great platform for brand mentions. You can reach out to the audience and allow more people to check out your website.

Here is a simple breakdown:

1. Identify leading industry blog sites or general ones such as Huffington or Forbes.

2. You need to get a grip on their guidelines. Understand the blog requirement and deliver accordingly.

3. Spend time on generating creative and useful content. Precisely, they should come back to you for more         blogs.

4. Once the blog is live, let it go on all your social media networks, send across emails and let people know          by using all your social networking platforms.

The last step is crucial in getting a good record of brand mentions.

Social Campaigns: 

A well drafted social campaign can lead to great success. This can get you brand mentions not only on the social sites, but also outside.

The hard part is creating a good campaign, work on that. Take your time to achieve a data supported campaign. All you got to do is be creative and give your audience the best.

Demographics and psychographics play a role here. They can be secured from Google Analytics:

If you have run social media campaigns before, you are most certainly familiar with the fact that social media platforms come with their own tools. You can attain the metrics using these internal tools. For example, Facebook comes with power editor:

Post extraction of metrics, you will know your audience and this you need to use in order to create a campaign. Focus on their interests and see how can your product engage them.

Customer Service: 

This is very easy to understand, right? You give best customer services, it will in return get people talking.

When we talk about customers, what comes into picture is “reviews”. Happy customers give you best reviews, simple!

Always interact with your customers. Thank them for a positive feedback and carefully respond to the negative ones. This happens and every business deals with unhappy customers from time to time. It’s alright, focus on dealing with the situation in order to bring down the negative number.

Sounds simple, but it is an effective technique as it directly impacts your potential customers.

How To Convert Mentions into Links?

Links are all the rage right now and have been few past years! They land people exactly on the pages you want. They also directly impact your website ranking.

You can look at converting a brand mention into a backlink.

This is where the above tools come handy. Find the brand mentions via tool and it’s source.

You can use Moz’s OSE tool, which expands as Open Site Explorer to check the Page Authority and Domain Authority of the source.

Check for the source’s score, if it is anywhere between 40 to 60, you are good to go. Get in touch with the site owner in order to convert the brand mention into a backlink.

It is simple, the conversion happens basis your approach. It should mostly be in your favor as your brand is mentioned by them already, which mean they have taken some personal interest in your product. This should make it easy for you to convince them.

You can either write a simple note or contact directly, whichever works for you.

Since it is not a very time consuming task, usually the authors or the site owners don’t mind giving you a backlink.

This doesn’t mean that you will have to do it for all the mentions that you come across. As mentioned earlier, check the score of the site’s Page Authority and Brand Authority. Pick a few best and go with them.

Conclusion

We hope that you understood what a brand mention is, how you can convert it into a backlink. It’s not a very complicated process. Follow the tools, understand the metrics and have a good social reach out strategy.

Successful execution of these steps will lead to good ranking followed by traffic.

This might take a bit of time to see results, but if you are acquainted with SEO, you already know it doesn’t happen in a snap. Nevertheless, this approach produces long term results with your constant effort.

Brand mentions are powerful and if you didn’t get a great understanding of it right now, it’s fine. Once you start practicing these techniques and witness some results, you will know how promising this is in enhancing your SEO.

It is a simple equation, more brand mentions imply a high ranking. This also allows the so called social proof that we are talked about. More people will come to know about your brand and with positive reviews and mentions, you create a positive feel about your brand and product among larger audience.

Making brand mentions a part of your SEO strategies and converting them into backlinks is an advantage. And, it will be worth a try!