How to measure reputation: 5 metrics that matter

Reputation is a measurable thing. But agencies and in-house teams often use the wrong metrics — or read them incorrectly. In this breakdown: the five key measurements we use in our work.

1. Share of voice

The brand’s share of total industry mentions. This is the foundation. The main mistake: counting mentions without quality control — spam, freshly created bots, repeat posts.

2. Sentiment

The tonal portion of a mention — positive, negative, neutral. Standard approach: automated NLP tools, then manual validation for each aggregated sentiment.

3. Media value (AVE)

Some agencies dismiss this metric, but it matters: how much your appearance in media costs in advertising-equivalent terms. Needed to calculate PR ROI.