We all know that getting mentioned in the Press is free marketing, and helps build your brand. As Brad Paisley says in his song Celebrity “the more they run my name down the more my price goes up”. But how to you make sure it’s working for you and not against you? We can’t control if the media wants to report our mistakes, so how do we make that positive? One word – Engage.
There are two ways I want to talk about Engaging regarding handling what the media says, responding to press about ourselves, and that of our competitors.
For ourselves, we all have times where there’s a disagreement with a customer/client, but what do you do if they decide to start commenting on twitter, or if it makes it into your local paper perhaps? Ignoring it does not make it go away, and can make you look like you don’t care; bad idea. You need to address it. If you can fix the problem that’s often the best solution, but if you can’t ensure that you do a public (of the same nature/medium) apology and if you can give examples of good that you’ve done that relates to the situation that can help as well. Make sure that you engage in the situation, not just throw your hands up and do nothing.
For our competitors, see if you can make the situation work for you, especially if they decide to not deal with it! A great example of this I heard once at a seminar. A man had his flight cancelled, problems with the airline, etc, cannot entirely recall the situation, but what happened is the important part. He started tweeting about it from the airport and the airlines’ competitor, who intentionally follows and keeps track of competitors’ mentions, saw the complaint, offered the man a good deal and better treatment and got him flying to his destination – within minutes! And I can imagine gained very favourable tweets from that man as well! Now, we can’t all be on top of things by the minute, but that type of response to your competitors “oops” can gain you new, and very loyal, clients!
Overall we just need to remember to engage, take a front seat and be in charge of the situation. Don’t just sit by and say oh well, make sure you’re actively part of the press that your company receives!
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