In order to measure the success of each strategy used for building their client's reputation, the reputation management company will firstly benchmark the client's current online position in terms of branding. One of the most basic metrics of any reputation campaign is the monitoring of blog, social media and website visits and so the first step is to benchmark the time spent by visitors on each of these platforms, the number of visits by unique visitors and the number of fans and followers on social media sites. This will help the company to measure the progress of the strategies implemented, by checking for increases in these numbers.
The success of a particular strategy can also be quantified by the level of negative or positive discussions on discussion boards such as forums. This is where many people come to talk about their experiences with a company and so these boards can serve as great indicators of how well a reputation management strategy is going. The company will check to see if people's opinions on the business in question are changing or improving, and will be able to use the feedback to perfect their strategy.
The monitoring of these areas on the internet can also help the online reputation services to nip any negative commentary in the bud by dealing with it immediately, rather than allowing word to spread.
To gain further insight into how well a brand management plan is working, the company will often evaluate the competitors of their client, as these can also affect a person's reputation. For instance, the competitor's content may be overshadowing the client's content on the search engines, leaving them with little opportunity to increase their business's visibility. In this instance, establishing what content the competitor is using for their own SEO will help the reputation management services company to adjust the content used for their client so that it can achieve a high page ranking.
When a person is considering buying something from a business they are not familiar with, one of the first things that they will normally do is type the company's name into one of the major search engines and check for reviews, feedback and discussions. If they happen to come across negative commentary on their search, this will often be enough to put them off using the company. When enough negative feedback is left on websites which are high ranking, this can spell the end for business; particularly one which has not yet established itself as a high authority in its industry.
One of the sounded investments a business or an individual with an important position in their community can make is hiring a reputation management company; preserving the positive reputation and persona will ultimately lead to more success, both personally and professionally.