5 steps to online reputation management

As we enter the final five days of our 28 day look at organisations in crisis and issues management mode, it’s clear that online and social media has made a huge difference to the escalation, spread and management of incidents. So what do you need if you want to be geared up for successful reputation managment in an online world? Here are five key elements:

1) Established online relationships and reputation

Just like conventional crisis communication, it’s a massive headstart to have built up relationships and reputation beforehand. It emans that you’re not coming from a standing start in the event of an incident and you will be attuned to the way that social media works.

2) Pre-prepared platforms and channels

Make sure you have defined and created your online crisis communication hub (maybe your existing corporate blog or a darksite) ahead of time. And ensure that other channels such as Twitter are set up and ready to go.

3) Online monitoring

When Dominos was hit by a YouTube crisis last year, one of its main problems was that it failed to identify that a crisis was playing out online until almost too late. Make sure your own early warning systems are working effectively in the online space.

4) Pre-agreed approval processes

The beauty of social media is that it enables you to get messages out quickly to your stakeholders. But only if you have agreed a clear and swift approval process beforehand.

5) Pre-identifed, pre-trained resource

Social media demands frequent and inter-active communication. So make sure you’ve identifed and trained the people who will be responsible for manning these channels before the crisis breaks.

Social media presents both opportunity and threat in crisis management: make sure you’re geared up to minimise the downside and maximise the upside.

Organisations managing on and off line crises and issues today include:

Eurostar: transport; industrial action in Belgium

Dolce & Gabbana: fashion; tax investigation

Pingyu Coal & Electric Company: mining; underground accident