Branding is essential for small businesses in today's marketplace!! Whether you're a local business, upstart, online entrepreneur or a national brand, you need to identify your niche and establish your brand name within that niche.

More importantly, is having a viable online marketing plan while branding yourself to the world or your local community. Social media and websites can be an effective means if done properly. Here are a few options:

Twitter: Amazing way to connect with people across the internet. You follow people that interest you while others have the ability to follow you. But, it is filled with spammers and bots, so be prepared. And don't get caught up in the "I follow you, you follow me" mentality. It doesn't matter if you have 20,000 followers if nobody is reading your posts. Great tool if used properly!!

Facebook: Another great tool if used properly. Probably the best platform for communicating with existing customers/clients! But, it has limitations since it's really a closed circuit and Facebook limits your communications to your circle of "friends/likers". Bottom line: great for staying in touch with customer base and poor at finding new customers.

KaChoom!: New player on the block with the slogan "Putting a Face Behind the Brand". Main objective being: helping small businesses establish their brand name within a defined market. Should be a major catalyst in the B2C market when launched in late June. Currently have a live landing page that showcases one of their programs "Battle of the Brands".

Groupon: Basically a site that gives discounts from local businesses. Great way to bring new customers into your establishment if you wish to offer a one-time discount. There is one caveat though: Groupon takes a 40-50% cut of the take, so you really need to work the numbers. But, definitely one way at introducing your product/service to new customers.

A website is also key these days!!! And unless you have something huge and complex, a wordpress based site is the way to go. They are simple to set up while being very easy to update with new content. Plus, they are very friendly in terms of SEO for engines such as Google and Bing. Updating content, keywords and links are one way make gains in search results. Many reputable companies out there to help you set up a wordpress based site but one in particular, Alamead, does a 2 page setup for only $99. Not bad…….

Those are just a few options that business owners have with regards to branding themselves online. There are many more!! Living Social, FourSquare, and Yelp are a few more of the major players that you should check out when deciding how to move forward with your online marketing plan, relationship building and subsequent branding.