{"id":1917,"date":"2012-09-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/conducting-a-5-minute-brand-reputation-audit\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T02:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T02:17:18","slug":"conducting-a-5-minute-brand-reputation-audit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/conducting-a-5-minute-brand-reputation-audit\/","title":{"rendered":"Conducting a 5 Minute Brand Reputation Audit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Traditional marketing and PR are dead.\u00a0 Instead of the one-way \u201cmarketer to prospect\u201d street that existed in the past, consumers are now able to communicate directly with one another on the internet \u2013 making online brand reputation management an absolute must.<\/p>\n<p>If you haven\u2019t ever conducted an online brand reputation audit before, don\u2019t worry \u2013 the process isn\u2019t nearly as intimidating as it sounds.\u00a0 There are a few tasks you\u2019ll want to complete before beginning, but once you\u2019ve laid the groundwork for this type of activity, you\u2019ll find that the entire process can be completed in just a few minutes.<\/p>\n<p>So without further ado, here\u2019s how to conduct a quick brand reputation audit to ensure that the online conversation about your brand is in line with the goals you\u2019ve set\u2026<\/p>\n<h2>Stage #1 \u2013 Prep Work<\/h2>\n<p>Before you conduct your first brand reputation audit, you\u2019ll want to start by establishing goals for your brand management campaign.\u00a0 To do this, ask yourself the following questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How do you want your brand to be viewed?<\/li>\n<li>What characteristics do you want your audience to associate with your brand?<\/li>\n<li>What types of customers do you want to reach?<\/li>\n<li>What specific online actions do you want these customers to take?<\/li>\n<li>Where would you like to find mentions of your brand online?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As an example, if your company sells a physical product to young adults, you might hope to see positive mentions on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as good reviews on product rating sites like Amazon or Google Shopping.\u00a0 Alternatively, if you market a service to the elderly population, indications that your brand isn\u2019t being perceived well might come in the form of negative press releases or website reviews.<\/p>\n<p>By understanding who it is that you\u2019re trying to reach with your brand management campaign, as well as where you expect any brand mentions to occur, you\u2019ll be able to conduct your online reputation audit much more quickly and efficiently.<\/p>\n<h2>Stage #2 \u2013 Conducting the Audit<\/h2>\n<p>Now that you know what you\u2019re trying to accomplish with your brand management campaign, it\u2019s time to get started!\u00a0 Check out the following minute-by-minute breakdown for the specific steps you\u2019ll want to take:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Minute #1 \u2013 Check review sites that are relevant to your business<\/em>.\u00a0 If your company sells physical products, check Amazon, Google Shopping and any other popular retailers where your wares are sold (specifically, target those whose results appear on the first page of the Google SERPs for your company\u2019s keywords.\u00a0 If you\u2019re an offline business, look for ratings on sites like Google Places or Yelp. \u00a0If you see any negative reviews, respond to them immediately with either clarifications or offers to make things right.<\/li>\n<li><em>Minute #2 \u2013 Monitor your social media presence using <\/em><em>sentiment analysis tools<\/em>.\u00a0 Combing through a popular social networking search results for your company name or other branded keywords can be time-consuming.\u00a0 Instead, use one of the free or paid sentiment analysis tools listed at the link above in order to quickly get a feel for how your brand is being discussed online.<\/li>\n<li><em>Minute #3 \u2013 Analyze your perceived authority using Klout, PeerIndex and other <\/em><em>similar sites<\/em>.\u00a0 No matter what industry you\u2019re in, being taken seriously as an authority figure or thought leader can be a powerful way to grow your business.\u00a0 Using websites like Klout or PeerIndex \u2013 which attempt to quantify public sentiment for industry figures \u2013 will show you exactly where you stand in relation to your peers, as well as help uncover potential areas of branding opportunity.<\/li>\n<li><em>Minute #4 \u2013 Google your company name, brand name and the names of all your executives to identify bad press<\/em>.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t already have Google Alerts set up for these specific keywords (which you really should!), take a minute to Google these phrases to determine whether any negative mentions that are ranking well in the SERPs could be unintentionally influencing the public perception of your brand.<\/li>\n<li><em>Minute #5 \u2013 Check your top-level <\/em><em>web metrics<\/em>.\u00a0 Specifically, take a look at your total website visitors, total social shares, total Youtube views and any other metrics that are important to your business.\u00a0 If your branding efforts have been successful, these numbers should be steadily increasing.\u00a0 Any blips in your data could indicate negative brand mentions that are affecting the way your company is perceived in the marketplace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Stage #3 \u2013 Post-Audit Follow Up<\/h2>\n<p>As a result of this quick analysis, you should now have a comprehensive overview of how well your brand is perceived within your industry and across your target consumer base.<\/p>\n<p>If the results of your brand reputation audit are good, that\u2019s great!\u00a0 Set up a recurring calendar appointment to conduct this audit again at least every 1-2 weeks, as bad press can pop up quickly and ruin a company\u2019s reputation overnight if it isn\u2019t addressed immediately.<\/p>\n<p>However, if you uncover any weak areas, take corrective action right away.\u00a0 As mentioned previously, the first element you\u2019ll want to address are negative reviews on popular ratings portal websites.\u00a0 Unfortunately, most of these services prohibit business owner from removing negative feedback, unless fraudulent intent can be proven.\u00a0 If it was a mistake on your end that resulted in a bad review, your odds of getting it pulled from the site are slim.<\/p>\n<p>But while you can\u2019t erase the impact of negative feedback, you can go a long towards improving your brand\u2019s reputation by responding politely and offering immediate resolution to the offended party.\u00a0 Future consumers will see your efforts as remediation as evidence of a company that cares about its customer experience \u2013 turning the occasional bad review into a blessing in disguise.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, not even the best apologies can overcome a string of negative reviews.\u00a0 If your brand reputation audit turns up significant, pervasive issues that go beyond a handful of uncharacteristic bad reviews, you\u2019ll need to do some major damage control by reevaluating your company\u2019s policies and priorities to overcome the problems you\u2019ve uncovered.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond bad reviews, it\u2019s possible that your brand management audit could uncover a web review article or press release that positions your company in a bad light \u2013 whether due to a legitimate concern or as a result of your competitors\u2019 own branding efforts.<\/p>\n<p>If you see these negative press mentions appearing in the search engine results pages, the type of corrective action you\u2019ll want to take involves carrying out off-page SEO activities that promote your own web pages or sites with positive brand mentions in the SERPs.\u00a0 For specific instructions on how to do this, check out Single Grain\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/blogging\/\">blog post<\/a> on a process we like to call \u201cLinkception.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Realistically, managing your online brand can be a full-time job, given the increasing scope of consumer behavior on the internet.\u00a0 By making ongoing brand management work a part of your company\u2019s promotional strategy, you\u2019ll be able to build your online presence to the point that any future bumps in the road will likely be eclipsed by the overall, total value you\u2019ve built.<\/p>\n<h2>FREE Coaching from Miss Money Maker<\/h2>\n<p>Click this banner and you will gain immediate access to my personal Bootcamp course and 45 day traffic lead generation PDF completely free of charge to ramp up your traffic, leads and sales.<\/p>\n<h2>Still Haven\u2019t Signed Up For Success?<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Traditional marketing and PR are dead.\u00a0 Instead of the one-way \u201cmarketer to prospect\u201d street that existed in the past, consumers are now able to communicate directly with one another on the internet \u2013 making online brand reputation management an absolute must. If you haven\u2019t ever conducted an online brand reputation audit before, don\u2019t worry \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4,5],"tags":[497],"class_list":["post-1917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging-seo","category-empower-network","category-personal-development","category-work-at-home","tag-conducting-a-5-minute-brand-reputation-audit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1987,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions\/1987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/clurra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}