What is newsjacking and how can my business use it?

I OFTEN bring up the concept of newsjacking with my clients. It’s a valuable tactic in a PR strategy.

Its introduction leads to questions like, ‘What is newsjacking?” and “How can my company use newsjacking to generate publicity?” and “Which topics and trends should my business newsjack?”

Newsjacking is a relatively simple process to complete, once it is understood and attempted a couple of times.

So, in this post I answer the above queries and explain the newsjacking process.

I hope the advice here will help you to secure the media coverage you need.

NEWSJACKING is the highly reactive act of hijacking breaking news, trending topics, current affairs or live events with clever, thematic brand or product promotion.

It’s a responsive PR tactic that places brands deftly in the middle of news cycles and big conversations being played out and recorded in the media.

And it gives businesses a chance to be seen and heard by large audiences that are already engaged with the story, trend or event.

Newsjacking is time-sensitive. It requires agile thinking, swift action and bold brand moves to piggyback fast moving topics with a clever publicity angle.

It saves businesses the time and effort involved in creating totally original PR campaigns or present storylines. But it takes a keen eye for relevancy and an inspired idea to generate media coverage for brands.

When done well, newsjacking presents brands as relevant, intelligent and agile.

The most successful newsjacking activities pull off an outlandish publicity stunt, screaming parody or witty rebuttal in some form.

Case studies, comments and statistics submitted to media offer more staid newsjacking strategies.

But newsjacking can be as simple as a savvy social media post of just a few clever words.

TO NEWSJACK EFFECTIVELY:

1. FOLLOW THE NEWS

Monitor mainstream and social media. Track topics and trends. Use Google Trends, Google Alerts, social listening tools like Hootsuite and news aggregation platforms like Feedly.

2. SPOT YOUR STORY

Choose a news story or trending topic that interests your target market. Or one that connects to your products. Be relevant to the topic or trend you choose. Or you’ll seem random.

3. GET UP TO SPEED

Quickly research and get up to speed with the story that you’ll newsjack. Know all of its detail so you feel completely confident when preparing and taking your newsjacking actions.

4. PREP YOUR PLAY

Prepare your newsjacking content, whether startling statistics, engaging expert insight, a compelling case study, a cheeky social media post or a larger publicity stunt.

5. MAKE YOUR MOVE

Strike at the start of a story or trend’s cycle. Timing is everything in newsjacking. Pitch or post promptly. Late entries make brands appear slow, thoughtless and uninspired.

6. REAP YOUR REWARDS

Sit back and enjoy your media coverage as your brand lands plum in front of a relevant audience that is already engaged with the topic or trend.

If you’d like to know how to secure media coverage for your brand, get in touch for a 20 minute consultation.

At no cost.

Telephone 07460 644844 or use this contact page.