Every business has a reputation. Some companies allow their reputations to develop organically, but the most successful companies proactively manage them. They do that with reputation management companies or online reputation management (ORM) software.
You can take charge of your reputation by working with a reputation management firm.
These companies monitor conversations on your behalf. They help you come up with responses for negative publicity. They keep you informed of how people view your brand or business.
There’s a lot of overlap between reputation management services. So, we’ve rounded up the best companies and software to help you manage and improve your reputation.
Table of Contents
Why You Need Reputation Management Companies
Should You Choose a Reputation Management Company or Software?
Top Reputation Management Companies and Software for SMBs
Top Reputation Management Companies and Software for Enterprise
How to Choose the Best Online Reputation Management Service
Why You Need Reputation Management Companies
"My reputation is flawless," you say. "People love our business. Sales are up. Word-of-mouth feedback is consistently positive. No search engine shows anything negative about us." So why would you need reputation management?
If your business has built a positive image, we know you’d like to keep it that way. If you encounter negative conversations online, you can nip them in the bud with reputation management.
Reputation management is a piece of the larger brand management and social media marketing puzzle. The goal is to help companies know at all times what consumers are saying about the brand and how they feel about it. Then, you can take advantage of opportunities to put the brand in a positive light.
Purpose-built tools provided by online reputation management companies monitor social media and other sources for brand mentions. They track:
- Number of mentions
- Negative and positive reviews
- Customer sentiments
- Other data
These online reputation management tools also provide you with real-time alerts. Take quick action before a person’s opinion (or worse, a large news media outlet) deals damage to your brand image.
Brands can do all these things manually. But it’s a costly effort that requires focused resources. Making software or online reputation management companies part of your strategy leads to better results.
Tip: Learn more about brand tracking, brand monitoring, and brand tracking software.
Should You Choose a Reputation Management Company or Software?
Deciding you need reputation management is the first step. Your next priority is to explore your options for the right companies and tools.
Firm or software? There’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer.
Reputation management software allows you to manage the process yourself. It becomes part of your in-house operations.
For instance, Meltwater’s social listening and media monitoring platforms keep track of your reputation online. The platform sends you real-time alerts about negative content so you can act immediately and prevent a social media crisis from bubbling up. You gain full control over the process and can manage your brand reputation in the way you see fit.
Pros & cons of reputation management software
Pros
- In-house management and oversight
- Real-time alerts
- Ability to follow spikes and conversations on-the-go
Cons
- Strong governance needed
- High learning curve
- Could stretch employee bandwidth thin
Other companies prefer to outsource their reputation management to specialist companies. These companies use many tools and team members to create comprehensive reputation monitoring. A reputation management firm offers the added value of experience, meaning your rand won’t have to figure out a strategy from scratch.
Pros and cons of using a reputation management firm
Pros
- Professional knowledge & experience
- Ease the burden on employee time
- Trustworthy expertise
Cons
- Less familiarity with company nuances
- Multiple clients could mean longer lead time for alerts
How you approach reputation management services is up to you. In either case, here are some companies and software to explore.
Top Reputation Management Companies and Software for SMBs
Smaller businesses and brands often have smaller budgets. They need to get as much value from their investment as possible. Here are our top picks for SMB reputation management companies.
NetReputation
Best For: Comprehensive reputation management services
NetReputation is a cutting-edge online reputation management company for small businesses. NetReputation suppresses negative chatter by creating more positive, high-ranking content.
For businesses and individuals, the company takes a five-step approach to fix reputations quickly. Once that's done, the company continues to use best practices to maintain your reputation.
Services offered
- Free consultation
- Reputation analysis
- Asset development
- Content creation
- Publishing
- Promotion
Cost
$1,000 minimum for projects. $100-$149 average hourly rate. (Source: Clutch.co)
BrandYourself
Best For: Online privacy protection for individuals
Tailored for small brands and high-profile individuals, BrandYourself focuses on online brand optimization. BrandYourself takes a privacy-first approach to reputation management. It cleans up any negative chatter or feedback that might appear in search results.
Job seekers trying to put their best foot forward and consumers that suffered from identity theft most commonly use this tool. BrandYourself scans the internet for reputational risk factors. Then, it creates a custom action plan to address things like unflattering social media posts and images.
Services offered
- Risk factors scan
- Protect personal information online
- Personal branding — help building an air-tight and impressive online presence
- SEO optimization
- Review management
- Employee branding
Cost
Not provided
Gadook
Best For: Creating favorable online research results
Gadook turns reputation management into reputation marketing. It goes beyond the self-service approach. Its expert insights remove much of the guesswork. Gadook supports brand building with services that include:
- Custom brand management strategies
- Social media optimization
- Brand protection
- Reputation management
The company also provides website design and content refurbishing for company rebrands.
Cost
Between $500 for a personal account - $2,500 for corporate services
Igniyte
Best For: Combating current reputational crises
Igniyte works with global brands and individuals to improve their online reputation management. Igniyte works on both preventative strategies as well as current reputational crises. Examples of its services include:
- Removing content from Google
- Reputation repair
- Online review management
- Preparing for a future public relations (PR) crisis
Cost
Not provided
Yoono
Best for: Conducting online background checks for employers
Yoono is an automated intelligence service enabling organizations to conduct in-depth background checks of an individual. Yoono creates on-demand reporting and on-going monitoring for real-time insight into individual’s digital footprint.
Examples of Yoono’s services include:
- Using machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to search an individual’s publicly available digital data, databases, registries, and social networks
- Conducts verification checks, KYC, and customer due diligence checks
- Provides a detailed report outlining an individual’s online reputation.
Cost
5 free reports offered, Pay-as-you-go model
Top Reputation Management Companies and Software for Enterprise
Larger organizations often have more needs when it comes to managing their reputations. They have:
- More social media channels and other outlets to track
- More team members getting involved
- More narratives to handle
- More customers writing about them online.
We chose these reputation management companies and tools based on their full-service offerings:
Meltwater
Best For: Comprehensive reputation monitoring
The Meltwater Suite gives companies a self-guided approach to online reputation management. Our social listening and media intelligence solutions provide user-friendly experiences. You get the same insights you’d expect from an outsourced company.
Plus, our suite enable brands to track brand mentions and keywords across many outlets, including:
- Blogs
- Social media
- Podcasts
- Television broadcasts
- Print content
- Online forums
- Review websites
Our platform captures more content than other social listening or media monitoring platforms, so if you want to be 100% certain you haven't missed a potential negative comment, Meltwater offers that peace of mind. Then, after analyzing over 1 billion pieces of content daily, the platform aggregates the results in a format that’s ready for action.
That means you stay in the loop. Get real-time alerts so you can tailor a response before a comment can evolve into a full-blown crisis. When your company is mentioned, you’ll know about it.
To support your online reputation monitoring, Meltwater also offers press distribution services. These help you spread positive publicity and tune out the negative. Tap into our network of thousands of press outlets to ensure your content connects with the right audience at the right time.
Cost
Custom plans available to suit your needs.
WebiMax
Best For: Online reputation repair
Prevention is the best medicine — for health and for your company’s reputation. If you already have negative reviews or publicity, WebiMax can help you turn things around.
This reputation management company takes a two-prong approach. It removes negative feedback and promotes high-quality, positive content. The company works closely with clients to understand the nuances of a specific crisis. They flesh out long-term reputational goals. It’s almost like having an entire outsourced department to monitor your reputation and adjust when needed.
Services provided
- SEO
- PPC marketing
- Social marketing
- Collecting reviews on your behalf
- Local marketing optimization. Ensure your "Google my business" information is accurate
- Web design
- Lead generation
- Online PR
Cost
Not provided
Birdeye
Best For: Earning positive online reviews
True to its name, Birdeye delivers a bird’s eye view of your online review landscape. The company offers solutions for small businesses and enterprises. The enterprise package offers transparency across all a company’s locations. Users can gain a holistic view of the company’s online reputation performance. They can also dial into specific locations for additional insights.
Locations can deploy customer experience surveys and sentiment analysis. Then, results are delivered to a single dashboard in real-time. This allows brands to engage with their customers in the moment. It reduces some of the corporate barriers that appear when businesses have multiple locations.
Services
- Multiple industries covered, including: automotive, real estate, and healthcare
- App integration
- AI for review monitoring, social media, local search optimization, competitive analysis, insights, and surveys
Cost
Enterprise and small business plans available. Price calculation provided on the website.
Glassdoor
Best For: Managing a company’s internal reputation
Glassdoor.com is a popular website that offers insights into a company’s salary ranges and employee satisfaction. But these insights can also be useful when managing your internal reputation. Reviews, ratings, and other details on Glassdoor come straight from your employees.
Company leaders can read what their employees have to say about their job roles, pay, and satisfaction. When you suffer internal reputational damage, it can lead to high turnover and struggles to attract new talent. You can create a better work environment when you know about potential dissatisfaction and low morale.
As an added bonus, Glassdoor offers employer branding tools to help shape your internal reputation. Ask for more reviews from employees and get powerful insights that will help you remain competitive in the hiring arena.
Services
- Company reviews and ratings
- Branding tools
- Comprehensive profile to provide salary ranges, and employee satisfaction on a number of topics
- Brand analytics
Cost
Free and premium accounts available
How to Choose the Best Online Reputation Management Service
When choosing the right online reputation management service for your business, you should take a few key things into account:
1) Decide if a firm or a software makes the most sense
As we illustrated, there are pros and cons to each reputation management service. Determine which one nest meets your needs and budgetary requirements.
2) Make sure your selection covers the appropriate scope
An important question you need to answer is the scope that you want to be able to monitor. Is it important for you to gather review content? What about podcasts? Is there a social media source your service must be able to monitor?
3) Understand the reporting and analytics included
Online reputation management services have varying degrees of reporting and analytics that they offer. Analysis helps you derive important insights from tracking your reputation — insights that you can use to better approach maintaining your positive reputation or deal with crises.
4) Consider scalability
Do you expect your business to grow quickly? Make sure your service has the ability to scale as you increase team size, product offerings, etc. As your business becomes more complex, so do the issues that may arise impacting your online reputation. It's a good idea to asses whether your reputation management service will be able to adapt to different needs as you grow.
5) Ability to respond
Some reputation management software gives you the ability to respond directly to comments or reviews. If this is important to your workflow and your reputation management goals, be sure your service offers this feature.
Conclusion
Whether you are thinking about outsourcing online reputation management services or considering a self-managed DIY strategy, leaving your reputation to chance is not an option. People are talking about your products, brands and executives online, and it isn't something your business can afford to ignore. According to the World Economic Forum, a quarter of a company’s market value can be directly related to its reputation.
Ready to fight off reputational risk? Learn more about how Meltwater supports positive reputation growth by booking a call below!
