How to Find Your Online Reputation Score

As a prudent business owner, you’ve likely taken the time and necessary measures to build your credit rating as you understand that a high credit score provides your company with certain advantages such as better terms with your suppliers and a lower cost to borrow money. Well, there is another critical score that business owners need to pay attention to, and that is known as an online reputation score.

With more consumers than ever turning to the Internet to research products and services before making a purchase, your company’s online reputation can either help or hurt the opportunity to earn more business. For this reason, several online reputation management tools have evolved to not only help businesses build their image online, but also to maintain it in a positive light and recover any issues that may occur. In the past, online reputation management was something that only larger companies had the budgets to accommodate; however, since it has become increasingly affordable, many small businesses are also now monitoring how public perceives their brands on the internet.

There are several great resources out there that your business can take advantage of to determine its online reputation score and learn about areas that it could improve upon. Business Insider recently highlighted a few of these resources, and I recommend that you check them out to see how your own business matches up:

• Klout: This score uses a scale of 1 to 100 and is primarily based off of how influential your business is on the internet. The more influential you are and the more online reach you have, the higher your Klout score will be. For example, a public figure like President Barack Obama has a Klout score of 99, and this score was determined based off of his active Facebook and Twitter accounts (and the number of fans and followers that he has on these sites) as well as having the most important Wikipedia page online. According to Klout, the average score is 40.
• PeerIndex: For many businesses, their primary goal of using social media is to define themselves as an authority figure in their industry. If this is your objective, knowing your PeerIndex online reputation score is important. This score, too, is based on a scale of 1 to 100 and essentially measures your online authority by determining how your audience values the content that you share.
• PeerREACH: This tool is unique from other online reputation management resources in that it rates your business based on the quality of followers that you have on various social media channels.

To truly manage your online reputation, business owners should take a proactive approach and actively monitor the online discussions taking place online.  Whether it’s social media, review sites, or blogging, being on top of the online discussion can help turn negative conversations into positive customers.

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