Branding is important and can be easier with a domain name!

Local news agencies love social networking sites as they prey on people for news stories, pictures, videos and sources. One thing I see many of these news agencies lacking is branding. Providing an easy and memorable road map! Branding doesn’t have to be a fully business, it can simply focus on a specific part of your business.

Everything needs a name and often times that "name" becomes a brand! Not everybody is missing the boat, because a prime example of doing it right is CNN with its iReport.com brand! User submit tons of news for CNN through the iReport.com brand!

For an example when these news agencies are failing….

The news agency asks for people to share pictures, videos etc. during there newscasts and ask people to do so "on its Facebook page" or "explain" where to go on a crowded news website, provide an email address etc. Click here, click there, click … click…. click! The problem? Confusing is the first big problem. "I don’t know where the Facebook page is" or the user gets confused with all the clicking they need to do.

Provide them with an easy way to find it! That can be something as simple as a domain name! Using a 301 redirect is the easiest way to get somebody to a specific location on the web without heavily needing to explain! The road map is done for the user simply by visiting the domain name!

The brand can be developed further like iReport.com, it can be trimmed down and simply provide a minisite or the simple 301 redirect.

Example of a recent situation on Facebook where a large news agency (Gannett Newspaper) asks users to submit via email on Facebook! This is a perfect situation for when the brand StormShare.com can be very powerful and provide many options with apps and more!

Example

Lets say you are a news agency or business and want to focus on getting people to share weather related items to you. Create a brand or one easy location for them to do this!

StormShare.com is a domain name that I own that is a "brand in a box" for a situation like this!

The term is catchy, easy to remember and has plenty of potential to do really anything weather related with it. It is not to specific to a "weather related" situation like snow, or tornado or hurricane. With the term "share" in it, it explains what you want the users to do. People love taking pictures of clouds, storms in action, damage related to the storm and so on. This content attracts viewers and people are willing to share, so provide them an easy place to do it!

Creating the brand "Storm Share" and providing one easy location for users to share, via the domain name at StormShare.com! You can do something as simple as use the domain to redirect somebody to a location on your website they can upload things, direct them to your Facebook page for weather etc. You can further the branding with matching user names on the popular social networking sites like Twitter @StormShare and Facebook via Facebook.com/StormShare etc. and build a full scale brand like CNN did with iReport.com! TAll easily done with branding and a domain name!

Companies brand with a "name" so things can easily be found and this is no different for "little things" that you want people to easily find.

Asset

Domain names can be valuable assets to companies! Not all domain names are positive assets but many can be. What if you owned Weather.com? or WeatherNews.com? Tornado.com? Those can be valuable assets to companies just on there own. LocalWeather4UTodayNow.com not so much.

Make it easier for users to find and share or easily locate something with a domain name! Like a street address or telephone number but with so many more options! A domain name in your toolbox is a versatile tool to have and use.