Effective this week, HootSuite can now monitor reviews on all major review sites.  The review feed in HootSuite will be powered by a new app called Reputology.

Built by a startup run by MIT grads, the Reputology app not only monitors reviews on all the major business directories, but it will also track industry specific review sites in hospitality, restaurants, retail, health/medicine, auto dealers, weddings and career/workplace.

If you represent a multi-location organization, Reputology lets you monitor activity for all your locations.  The economy hotel Red Roof Inn, for example, monitors about 350 locations nationwide using Reputology.

The reason businesses should monitor their reviews is that they impact sales and even SEO.  Studies at Harvard and UC Berkeley have shown that reviews can impact sales by as much as 9%.  And just a couple weeks ago, a new study found that Google’s search algorithm weighs review volume and rating over other factors.  In other words, reviews play a significant role in how high a business will rank when someone does a Google search.

But by monitoring reviews, businesses have the chance to respond quickly and even reverse a reviewer’s opinion.  Reputology users have said they can get unhappy reviewers to change their mind about 70% of the time.

Let us know what you think of the new app once you try it!