04 Aug 5 Reputation Management Lessons from Kim Kardashian
It’s ok to admit that you have been keeping up with the Kardashians. Between the magazine covers, the reality TV show and their social media activity, it can be pretty hard not to. Ever since Kim brought the Kardashian name back into the spotlight, all eyes have been on the entire family. But what does all of this have to do with reputation management?
Believe it or not, Kim is pretty darn good at reputation management. If you watch closely, you will see how well she manages her reputation in the dog eat dog world of Hollywood. Don’t believe me? Here are five lessons you can learn from Kim Kardashian herself.
1. Monitor Your Reputation
Monitoring your reputation is more than important. How can you possibly expect to manage your reputation when you don’t know what it is? It is important to use tools, both online and offline, to monitor sentiment and conversations about your brand. What do people really think of you?
Kim is an expert at monitoring her reputation. Unlike many celebrities who are put off by the stories they read about themselves in magazines, she keeps a close eye on the media. She admits to frequently reading gossip magazines, fan forums and random tweets to get a better idea of how people see her.
2. Address the Bad Stuff
Everyone has an opinion. Mass media, especially online, gives the entire world a way to voice their opinions. Unfortunately, more than one of those opinions are going to be negative. If someone is saying something bad about your brand, it feels logical to be negative right back or ignore the feedback altogether. Instead, turn naysayers into advocates by rationally addressing the comment publically.
As a Kardashian, it is Kim’s duty to do everything over the top. That’s why she let her sisters convince her that it was a good idea to get a butt x-ray. Why would she even consider doing that? She wanted to address the rumour that she had implants. So, she marched to the doctor’s office and exposed the truth in a funny, light-hearted way that won a lot of naysayers over.
3. Promote the Good Stuff
Addressing the bad stuff is important, but so is highlighting the good stuff. Your brand is doing awesome things, so show off a bit! Figure out what rocks about your brand and tell everyone who will listen. Shout it from the rooftops, tweet about it, make a YouTube video about it, blog about it, post it on Facebook, let an email fly – anything and everything!
Being famous means that Kim has more than one way to show off her best qualities. In magazines, we see her physical beauty and strong fashion sense. On Twitter, we see her humour and authentic personality. On TV, we see her strong family ties. Her life is an open book and she’s making the best of it with killer reputation management skills.
4. Maintain Your Reputation… Well
Building a reputation is one thing, but maintaining it is a whole other story. Maintaining your reputation means consistent effort and constant management. It’s not enough to keep your reputation steady. The goal is to be continuously improving it and building upon it. Know what your current reputation is and what you want it to be in a year from now. Then, use social marketing to make it happen for you!
Kim put someone she truly trusts in charge of her day-to-day reputation management. Her mom, Kris Jenner, is the woman behind Kim’s reputation. She chose someone that she knew would understand her vision and her brand completely. Kim uses her knowledge from her own personal monitoring to collaborate with her mom on the careful maintenance and management of her reputation.
5. Have a Vision
Having a vision is absolutely vital. While you will likely pass the day-to-day reputation management responsibilities to someone else, it is important that you develop a clear vision. Decide what your ideal is and share it with the person who will be working with you to manage your reputation. Make sure you’re checking in regularly to see that your vision is still in mind and being referenced daily.
While Kim usually trusts her mom with her reputation, they have their fair share of disputes. In fact, most episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians involve Kim and Kris fighting about something or other. More often than not, they are fighting because they disagree on the direction of Kim’s career and/or reputation. When it comes to the big reputation decisions, Kim ensures she is very actively involved.
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