How COVID-19 is changing reputation management for digital marketers

COVID-19 has changed and reshaped the world as we know it. No kidding, right?

Business leaders and marketers like you have had to come up with new and innovative ways to bring in revenue. Families have had to get creative at home to keep their members active and sane. Even the entire education system has had to restructure and re-invent itself, with parents still struggling to know what this upcoming school year will bring.

Marketers are not immune to these effects. COVID-19 has single-handedly reshaped reputation and reputation management for marketers seemingly overnight. 

What is reputation management... and how does it work? 

Online reputation management is the act of monitoring and reacting accordingly to reviews, ratings, and customer questions across different online platforms. 

There are many different ways that you can help shape your reputation. Some of these include user reviews and referrals, customer support, client surveys and SEO best practices. 

If you want to get more advanced, you can use a service like reputation.com to incorporate data science to automate certain parts of the process. They use artificial intelligence and machine learning to track and calculate a reputation score by taking things like web traffic, rankings, maps, reviews and more all into consideration .  

🔎 Related: Everything you need to know about reputation management

How has COVID-19 changed reputation for marketers?

As you might remember, Google turned off reviews temporarily for many industries at the start of the global pandemic. 

This was due to an abundance of negative reviews when businesses were closed or could not service customers as they normally would. Google saw this as “unfair” to the businesses who did not have a choice in the matter and did not want the negative reviews to damage their reputation. 

While Google’s intention was good, having the down time also decreased the amount of positive reviews. That means a lot of marketers and business leaders like you have had to work even harder to get those critical reputation-based numbers back up.

🔎 Related: Google makes it easier during COVID-19 to show hours are current

For example, businesses like Chatmeter tried to stay on top of this by adding banner notices to alert users that reviews had been disabled. Instead, the Chatmeter team provided visitors with an opportunity to submit a review that could be added back in once they were enabled again.  

Businesses that go above and beyond during unprecedented times will stand out to their users and help build up that reputation. It shows that you are living in the solution and trying to provide your customers the best alternative options available. 

What does this mean for you?

As a marketer during the COVID-19 era, you know that maintaining a positive reputation for your brand to the public is more imperative than ever before to your short- and long-term success.

Rebecca Biestman, CMO of reputation.com says:

“A company’s reputation is more important, and accessible, to consumers than ever before. The growing importance of reputation has been driven by the pervasiveness of social media and other digital communication channels.”

You need to keep your business top of mind for your loyal consumers and have your best foot forward to reel in potential new business.

Remember, the reputation of your company is one of the most important factors your ideal buyers consider before spending their money with you — or, if you're not careful, a bad reputation can send them running into the arms of your competitors.