A link to this arrived in my inbox not too long ago. Of course Factiva is in the business of selling reputation management/social & other media measurement services, so it’s in their best interest to explain how important these services are to every company. As it happens, however, I think they’re right – and I’m not alone. Here’s a snippet of research from the The Hill & Knowlton “Reputation Watch”:

More than 90 percent of analysts agree that if a company fails to look after reputational aspects of its performance,it will ultimately suffer financially too:98 percent of surveyed analysts say this contributes to their assessment,while 93 percent cite transparent disclosure and consistent communications with key stakeholders as key contributors.According to the survey report,“This clearly demonstrates the absolute central importance of stakeholder management and communications to the modern company. It shows without equivocation that good communications add value and poor communications destroy value.”

Here’s a link to the pdf of the full Factiva document, titled Best Practices in Media Measurement: Technology’s Emerging Role. Enjoy!