Newsjacking can be one of the most effective ways to get your message in front of the right people without having to invest a lot of money. It has been used by brands, politicians, and even charities to make a big impact. The premise being that you don’t need to be the news—you just need to be related to it. It is a term that refers to the process of using current news to generate interest, including media interest, and reach a wide audience. In this episode, I’ll share some of the tips and tricks you can use to undertake newsjacking and some examples of newsjacking campaigns from other organisations so you can get an idea of the impact that this form of public relations can have. Keep in mind that newsjacking should be a strategic part of your overall public relations plan, not a standalone tactic you use when the timing is right.

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Full transcript (unedited)

Newsjaking is a PR tool that allows you to position your brand or organization in a relevant, topical, and newsworthy context. How? By being quick to identify a news story and then leveraging that story as an opportunity to frame your messaging, you can generate buzz and build your brand awareness. It’s an excellent strategy to inject yourself into the conversation and generate awareness for your brand.

The term “newsjacking” became extremely popular, thanks to David Meerman Scott a marketing and sales strategist who He published a popular book called “Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage.”

https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/2011/11/newsjacking.html

In this episode, I’ll share some of the tips and tricks you can use to undertake newsjacking and some examples of newsjacking campaigns from other organisations so you can get an idea of the impact that this form of public relations can have. Keep in mind that newsjacking should be a strategic part of your overall public relations plan, not a standalone tactic you use when the timing is right.

And this process is not just exclusive to the media or news stories, It’s also used by content marketers as well.

But how do you get started with newsjacking? Here are a few tips to get you started:

To successfully newsjack, you’ll need to identify a newsworthy event that’s happening right now. For example, a royal baby being born in England.

The next step is to determine if the story that you’re interested in newsjacking supports your company’s mission or brand. If the idea is to sell more toilet paper, then newsjacking would be a terrible idea. However, if the purpose of the story is to support an important policy that your company supports such as paterntity leave, or you produce post-natal products or baby products then newsjacking this story could be a helpful way to increase your brand awareness and generate support.

The next step is to figure out how to get the word out.

Firstly prepare your overarching message, and some interesting content around your product or service that supports the story with laser sharp key points. Taking the baby products idea a bit further for this example, this might be a quiz on baby names, or a download or a voucher for money off if people take part in a baby-namnig competition for example sponsored by your brand.

Now this isn’t something you can always plan, so if you have ready-baked research on new mothers and the percentage of new mothers that breastfeed or bottle feed then this is the time to make that report newsworthy! Create that news release and get it out there!

If you are trying to engage people in signing a petition to change paternity leave thresholds, then you can use social media to drive traffic to your website or blog.

You can use also then back this up with your other channels like newsletters and email lists to promote your message.

The important thing is to;

  • Respond quickly
  • Do your research – so confirm the topic has a high search volume
  • Be tactful
  • Don’t seem overly promotional, unless this is part of your goal
  • Don’t try to benefit from bad situations or disasters, or seem like you do

On that last point, there was a lot of fire saftey companies newsjacking after a story with tragedy such as Grenfell Towers here in London England, and also with Covid for that matter, with buysinesses using it as a caremongering tactic around buienss insurance etc. you have to be careful and it has to be tastefully done, and timing is everything,

Gilette has a good example where they newjacked the raging search around the hastag MeToo movement and changes thier straline to the best a man can be, from the best a man can get.

This showed thier support for a topical issue which is clever and also that they wanted to be associated with progesive men.

Another popular newsjacking strategy is to use something popular in media or entertainment and connect it to your brand or messaging and can work well for content marketing. This commonly involves TV shows or movies and is a really fun way to engage a new audience.

if there is a term that is trending, for example here #GOT then you can jump on the popularity of it and generally spekaing it will get seen by people interested in that topic. For example ‘7 PR strategies from ‘Game of Thrones’

Newsjacking can also be a means of improving your search rankings and rankings within your target market. One of the ways that this is done is by using a news-related keyword within your content that is then followed up with links to your target page(s) on other high-quality authority sites. This is called backlink building, and it’s an essential part of any SEO strategy. But building links is a long-term strategy..

So in summary done well, in a timely and appropriate way it can be really good strategy to;

  • Boost your brand reputation
  • Boost your brand authority and credibility
  • Show your company is always up-to-date
  • Provide a new angle
  • Reach new audiences
  • Drive traffic that is highly targeted
  • Increase SEO
  • Increase conversions
  • Generate organic links
  • Boost social media engagement

A couple of caveats here:

ONE: Remember it will not work if the story has already been covered, or is a repeat of an existing story that has generated coverage. It has to be breaking news.

TWO: For news media, you have to be lightening quick as you can bet your boots that others will be thinking of newsjacking if you are and journalists woudl be inundated with stories around the same topic that day.

So thanks for listening, you have learned today that Newsjacking is more than just a strategy for generating media coverage. It’s a form of PR and content marketing that helps to shape your company’s overall message by leveraging the news as a jumping-off point to position your organization or brand in a new and exciting way.

I’d love to know if you are going to give this a go? or if you did, how did it go?

Leave me a message on speakpipe page or DM me on social media.