Reputation Management Seminar: The (Ideal?) Reputation Manager

Qualifications for a good reputation manager are the following:


1. He or she should be a good observer and be constantly aware of ongoing actions on the web to be aware of current strategies of other firms, consumer trends, and technological developments. Data collection and interpretation are amongst key skills. To monitor, analyze, and respond the reputation manager should have an ongoing link with social media marketing management departments.

2. The employee should be able to analyse the needs of the market and what appeals to people as well as how these are changing, in the aim of finding the right communication channels.

3. A reputation manager should be creative in developing "innovative" forms of SOMOLO- based communication strategies. For this purpose he/she should be aware of what is popular on a local basis first, to manage its company image.

4. The person should be highly reactive and know through which channels information travel the fastest in order to solve a crisis situation if it should occur, or exploit those channels for marketing purposes of the company image. The link with the social media marketing management department is also critical here (they cultivate brand image through those same channels). The difference with a classical manager is probably the speed at which communication travels on the net which is exponential on and the direction these can take. A faster response is needed by a reputation manager because news about a crisis will create a buzz on the web.

5. A reputation manager should be open-minded, think outside the box, not just refer to traditional marketing or management theory, and think ahead, by planning future technological and social changes and be able to use all types of vectors of communication. He or she should plan for any crisis response to offer a professional solution when this occurs using some support and channels used for marketing by the social media marketing managers.


Measuring the performance of a reputation manager is challenging, but can be envisaged in the following ways and by answering the following questions:


- Assessing how professionally the reputation manager maintains company (not brand) image, and responds to a crisis. Are the media used by the manager adapted to the public involved?
- In the case of a crisis, did the manager have several scenarios and plan B's? Were these transmitted through the right channels?
- Monitoring general comments about the manager's response to a situation (in the press, on the internet....)
- Assessing how the manager successfully motivates company staff to convey a good company image.
- Does the manager maintain daily contact with the social media department.

Because these types of jobs are evolving rapidly, these benchmarks will also be rapidly changing. A hotel should stimulate employees to keep an eye on what is happening globally and be analytical.