In-House or Agency? Who Should Manage Your Online Reputation?

Yesterday Revinate moderated a Webinar that aimed to help answer the question, "Is it OK to outsource online reputation management?" The panel included Greg Gillard and Kim Zebor from Thin Pig Media, Rachel Freeman from Anvil Media, Inc and Kristin Helms from Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego.

The panelists all agree that, resources not being an issue, there is value in manging online reputation at the property or brand level. Clearly, the most authentic voice for management responses and social media engagement would be someone in-house who engages with guests on a day to day basis. That said, the majority of hotels aren't as lucky as Manchester Grand Hyatt and don't yet have the man power to staff for the role so finding an agency that will take the time to sit on site and really understand your hotel's voice and personality works well. Revinate has many clients that use full-service agencies to respond to reviews and engage on Twitter and Facebook and if I didn't know, I would swear that the responses were coming from someone on site.

All agencies are different. Anvil Media, Inc, for example, helps clients strategize on responses as needed but the actual response is done by someone on property. Thin Pig Media does respond to reviews on behalf of their clients, but only after fully understanding their operations, personality and their voice. But everyone agreed that personalized and timely responses are critical to ensure that your guests feel appreciated.

Finally, it was great to hear how Revinate helps facilitate workflows and reporting between agency and client. Revinate's Scorecard, Trend Analysis, Sentiment Analysis and GS2 Reports were all lauded as critical tools to help track success and share results with key stakeholders. In addition, Revinate's Tickets feature helps agencies manage the handing off of reviews for review and considertion.

To watch the webinar at your convenience, please click here.

Comments

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I read your article while I was at work, so I had to come back to it when I got home. I reread it I learned more the second time.