Your personal reputation and your employer’s reputation are crucial. When one suffers, so might the other. While understanding the importance of reputation management is one thing, it is quite another to track and monitor the right things. Reputation management experts can tell you that you should be monitoring mentions of the name of your company, and members of the executive staff and board of directors, but proper and extensive reputation management goes beyond monitoring and responding. Here are five tips to getting more out of your reputation management monitors: Measure the Who, What, Where, When, and Why.

Measure the Who: Who is saying things?
Different people have different knowledge and motives. Determining who is saying things and how influential they are in their online communities may help determine how persistent and damaging the news will become. Break down who is talking. Look for:
- Former employees
- Customers
- Journalists
- Bloggers

Measure the What: What are people saying?
A mistake may hurt a person or company, but other issues may reveal systemic problems that will only continue and potentially snowball into even larger concerns. Organize what people are talking about based on the topic. Look for:
- Customer service
- Product defects
- Questioning management decisions
- Financial information

Measure the Where: Where are people saying things?
Consumer generated media can appear in many places. Breaking down the types of sites may help determine the reach and any viral aspects of the mention. Look for:
- Blogs
- Forums
- Social news sites
- Review sites
- Mainstream media
- Personal sites

Measure the When: When are people saying things?
The time of day and day of week are likely less important than knowing if people are saying things after their first contact with you and/or your company, or after many years of working with you. Look for:
- First contact
- Repeat contact
- Loyal contact
- Before/After official press release
- Before/After purchase

Measure the Why: Why are people saying things?
Not everyone is out to get you, even with negative commentary. Some negative mentions may be criticisms, though not necessarily constructive. Look for:
- Criticism
- Revenge
- Social change
- Public awareness

Remember to rate the tone of both positive and negative mentions. Don’t just focus on the negative! There should be plenty of positive buzz that you can work to expand and grow as part of your proactive reputation management efforts.

Filed under: Reputation Management on Friday, October 19th, 2007 by Jacob Wolfsheimer | 2 Comments
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