Tools used in reputation management campaigns
There are four types of tools used for reputation management. They are:
The vast majority of reputation-related tools can be categorized as monitoring/listening tools. Monitoring and listening tools are different than the tools that actually help you improve your reputation – all they do is allow you to watch what's happening, not do anything about it. That leaves a giant gap because most severe reputation problems are not just review-related but search and social-related.
The fact is, there are no tools that actually improve reputation other than reviews.
Truly improving or repairing an online reputation takes a set of skills no software can match, although it may happen at some time in the future. Still, even though the software cannot solve reputation problems by itself, it does help a skilled team to improve the way people and companies are seen online. We've broken down monitoring, outreach, and publishing tools below:
Reputation monitoring
This is software that monitors brand mentions online. This can range from scanning search results and review pages to looking for mentions in articles or other websites. These tools streamline the process of monitoring your online presence, notifying you when your name pops up.
- TalkWalker: We use TalkWalker and love it. It finds a lot of stuff and there's a free version, too!
- Google Alerts: Google's free service allows you to set up alerts for any term you want, but it's far inferior to TalkWalker.
- Brandseye: Get notifications on mentions, track data, and seamlessly make comparisons with your own internal data.
- Yext: Worried about inaccurate information? Yext enables you to easily monitor and manage your mentions on sites like Yelp and local directories.
Social media monitoring
Also called “listening” tools, this type of software acts as your eyes and ears, monitoring social media pages (as opposed to search results) for mentions of you or your company’s name.
- Naymz: The built-in RepScore tool closely tracks your social influence across various social media platforms to help you enhance your reach and supervise your mentions.
- Trackur: Receive instant notifications when you’re mentioned on a social media page. Integrated analytics allow you to track and analyze trends for maximum benefit.
- Hootsuite: This tool allows you to track mentions across social media platforms, as well as post and schedule content from your own pages.
- SocialMention: A free service that allows you to type in a name or keyword and scan all relevant social media mentions.
SEO analytics tools
SEO tools are necessary when engaging in a reputation-building or repair project. Moz, SEM Rush, Screaming Frog, and Majestic are all well-known tools for optimizing websites for increased SEO functionality.
- Moz
- SEMRush
- Screaming Frog
- Majestic
- Ahrefs
Outreach tools
Quality reputation improvement projects always include outreach. Publishers are hungry for content, but finding and contacting the right publishers can be challenging. Tools like Meltwater and Cision remove the guesswork and make the entire process easier. Here is a list of outreach tools:
- BuzzSumo
- Pitchbox
- ContentMarketer
- Ninja Outreach
Publishing tools
Most publishers place content on their own, but some control many websites covering different topics. Some sites push content out to much larger networks via syndication. Outbrain is a good example of this type of publishing tool that pushes content out to many sites.
- Cision is a tool that will allow you to reach out to bloggers and journalists.
- Your own website
- Your own social media
- Influencers
