Imagine you are the Director of Public Relations in a company and the reporter you have been pitching for a long time to write a story finally decides to publish about your company. Upon hearing the news, you alert the spokesperson and the rest of the team to be prepared and share the necessary photos and information with the reporter. But to your surprise, you find out that your company is featured alongside your competitors and they share more prominence than your company.
How do you handle such a situation?
Here are a few tips to manage it right.
Never Consider It A Loss:
Sharing the spotlight with your competitor is never a loss as your company’s name will still be visible to the reader. As long as the coverage talks about the positives of your company, it is to be considered a win even though your competitors share most of the space. If the article mentions a negative comment, work on it.
Preparing Your Team:
By going through the story, you as a PR professional can understand how the reporter has penned the story. Before you arrange for a press meet or an interview, ask the necessary questions to the reporter so that you can prepare your spokesperson for the interview and also to set the right amount of expectation internally.
Understanding Quality Coverage for Your Company:
Good reporting usually consumes a lot of time, research and also involves multiple sources. A reporter’s job is to dive deep on matters before publishing. Such reporters consistently make use of multiple sources. As this is a time-consuming process and might not guarantee the coverage you expected, you can look for other coverage options as well. For instance, you can publish your company\’s name on blogs with thousands of subscribers than featuring in a story that guarantees less exposure.
Knowing the Readers:
In the coverage that features your company and your competitors, your job as a PR professional is more important. Receiving useful and speedy responses from your team along with well-prepared interviews with executives will be best practices to make your company stand out from competitors in an article. This provokes readers to know more about your company.
