Have you ever heard of the term “newsjacking?” It’s a fairly new term that has been buzzing around the web lately, and if you’re not familiar with it, you’re in for a treat! Newsjacking is the art of injecting your company or brand into a current news story to generate publicity. It can be a great way to get your company in front of a large audience quickly, but it’s important to do it correctly, so you don’t damage your reputation.
Enter the realm of newsjacking, where savvy companies leverage current events to get their brand in front of new audiences. This blog post will give you a comprehensive definition of newsjacking and show you how to use it for your business. Stay tuned!
What is Newsjacking?
According to David Meerman Scott, Newsjacking is “the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story and generating tons of media coverage and social media engagement”. Newsjacking is the act of hijacking a current news story to promote your company or brand. It involves taking advantage of the right timing and wit to generate media attention for your brand by capitalizing on trending topics.
This can be done in various ways, such as creating content that is relevant to the news story, tweeting about the story, or even holding a contest related to the story. The key is to be relevant and timely to take advantage of the large audience already interested in the story. At Growth Hackers, we helped one of our B2B SaaS client react quickly to a trending industry story (Latest AI advancements) with a clever content piece, and within 72 hours their brand mentions surged by 52%, proving that timing and creativity drive results.
As the breaking news story unfolds, you want to be there to provide your company’s unique perspective on the situation. Your marketing strategy should be focused on creating a memorable brand experience that will leave a lasting impression on the people who see it.
It’s a marketing technique where brands try to capitalize on the popularity of an existing story or trend to draw attention and engagement to their content. You can gain visibility, followers, and customers by linking your brand’s message, product, or service with a timely topic people are already interested in. It’s great to stand out and get your message across quickly.
Like the breaking news stories that they piggyback off, newsjacks need to be timely. The goal is to get your company’s name out there while the story is still fresh in people’s minds. This means that you need to have a team that can quickly create content or come up with ideas and execute them quickly. It’s also important to be aware of the story’s tone so that your company doesn’t come across as insensitive or tone-deaf. It’s important to know that newsjacking doesn’t always have to involve explicitly sharing news stories though.
What Are the 4 Benefits of Newsjacking
Before you start newsjacking, you must understand the benefits of creating a strategy focused on generating the most publicity for your company. Here are some of the benefits of newsjacking:
1. Reach a large audience quickly
When you newsjack a popular story, you have the potential to reach a large audience very quickly. This is because you are piggybacking off a story already getting much attention. Suppose a major news story breaks, and you are the first company to develop a related product or service. If you can get your message in front of the people already talking about the story, you could see a surge in sales or website traffic. Like a news story, your message can go viral if it resonates with people.
We see newsjacking like jumping onto a moving train: at Growth Hackers we help B2B and B2C clients get onboard at the right moment to reach massive audiences already in motion. If you can create timely, relevant, and informative content, you can boost your brand’s visibility, engagement, and website traffic. In a best-case scenario, you may even go viral!
2. Generate free publicity
Newsjacking can be a great way to generate free publicity for your company. If you launch a successful newsjacking campaign, news websites and industry publications will likely want to link to it. These websites tend to have high domain authority , so their links will carry more weight with search engine algorithms. At Growth Hackers, we’ve helped one of our tech clients earn high-authority media backlinks through strategic newsjacking, significantly boosting their brand visibility and SEO performance.
If you can get your story picked up by the media, you can reach a large audience without spending any money on advertising. This is the power of earned media. As the media coverage of your story grows, so does the awareness of your brand. You may have seen that any news event can be a potential opportunity for newsjacking.
The media always look for new angles and perspectives when they report on a breaking story. If you can provide them with a fresh take on the story, you stand a good chance of getting your company mentioned in the coverage. For example, during the 2014 World Cup, Nike newsjacked the event by releasing a series of ads featuring some of the world’s top soccer players. The ads were a huge success and generated a lot of free publicity for Nike.
3. Create content that is timely and relevant
If you want to be successful at newsjacking, you need to create content that is both timely and relevant to the current news cycle. This means that you need to be aware of what is happening in the world and be able to create content that ties into it. In the inbound brand marketing world, we call this content marketing. Your content should be designed to attract, engage, and convert your target audience.
Newsjacking can become a game changer for getting your brand noticed, sparking engagement, and driving SEO. By mastering the art of newsjacking, you’re not just following trends, you have the opportunity to set them. Before working with Growth Hackers, one of our web3 clients published generic content that struggled to gain traction; after adopting news-driven content strategies, they experienced higher visibility, stronger engagement, and improved SEO performance by creating content around the latest blockchain and crypto news.
4. Position your brand as an expert
When you newsjack, you have the opportunity to position your brand as an expert on the topic at hand. This can help you build credibility and trust with your target audience. Suppose there is a major news story about a relevant topic to your industry. If you can provide the media with valuable insights into the story, you will be seen as an expert on the topic.
Sharing insightful perspectives on current events can position your brand as a thought leader in your industry. This can help you attract more customers and grow your business. The media attention can also help you build relationships with influencers who can help promote your brand.
If current events are not related to your industry, you can still use newsjacking as an opportunity to position your brand as an expert. For example, if there is a major news story about a natural disaster, you could offer your expertise on the topic of disaster relief.
At Growth Hackers, we helped one of our sustainable fashion clients share expert commentary on a breaking industry story (The garbage island), and within less than a week, their insights were referenced by several blogs, boosting their credibility and inbound leads by 47%.
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How to Newsjack for Your Business | Top 7 Tips
Creating a successful newsjacking strategy can yield significant benefits for any brand. Now that you understand the benefits of newsjacking let’s look at how you can do it for your business.
1. Monitor the news
Good newsjacking requires a thorough understanding of breaking information and trending topics. As stories begin to trend, search traffic for keywords in that story starts to accelerate. Google often features articles about trending stories at the top of the search results. You can’t newsjack if you don’t know what’s happening worldwide.
At Growth Hackers, we track trending hashtags on X/Twitter and other social platforms on a daily basis to identify breaking stories early, ensuring our clients’ content goes viral when the moment is right.
If a particular story or trending topic is gaining traction, people will be Googling it. This means with a little keyword research, you can position your newsjack to acquire a lot of that search traffic. Check Google Trends on a regular basis to monitor trending stories and set up Google Alerts for key terms related to your industry, and make a habit of checking the news every day.
You could also check trending hashtags on social media channels like Twitter/X as social media users are usually the first one sharing breaking news stories. By combining news articles with relevant content, brands can make a tweet go viral in minutes! With newsjacking, brands can capitalize on stories that people already care about and apply their unique angle to the news. This can help drive more engagement and build a stronger relationship with customers.
This will help you identify opportunities to newsjack as they arise. Suppose, for example, that you sell eco-friendly cleaning products. If there’s a news story about a new environmental regulation, you could newsjack it by writing a blog post about how your products comply with the new regulation. The relevant news doesn’t have to be big news, either. If there’s a new trend in your industry, that could also be an opportunity for you to newsjack.
2. Be timely
To be successful at newsjacking, you need to act fast when you see trending stories popping up. Make sure that you’re timing your newsjacking efforts for when there’s already a lot of buzz around the story. If you try to jump on a story that’s already died down, you’ll likely be met with little success. By definition, newsjacking requires you to have a fast response. This lets your brand connect with audiences in real time and remain relevant to current events.
Once you’ve identified an opportunity, you must get your content out quickly before the news story dies. This means having a content creation process in place so that you can quickly produce high-quality content when the opportunity arises. At Growth Hackers, we know timing is everything. To maximize impact, we jump on trending stories the moment they start generating buzz.
Many businesses make the mistake of thinking they can just wing it regarding newsjacking. But if you don’t have a process in place, you’re likely to miss out on opportunities or produce sub-par content that doesn’t capitalize on the news story.
3. Be relevant
Of course, I recommend properly researching a news story before trying to make a marketing campaign out of it to be safe. In many cases, it will require a lot of resources to act on a news story quickly and effectively, which may not be realistic for many brands. When one of our clients in the skincare sector leveraged a trending story the way we recommended at Growth Hackers, we saw their blog traffic double overnight and their newsletter sign-ups jump by 34%.
It’s not enough to simply be timely, you also need to ensure that your content is relevant to the news story. For example, if there’s a news story about a new trend in fashion, but your business sells electronics, you’re not going to be able to newsjack it effectively. But if you sell clothing or accessories, you could write a blog post about how to incorporate the new trend into your wardrobe.
By being mindful of the stories you choose to newsjack, you can ensure that you’re always putting your best foot forward. Not only will this help to protect your brand’s reputation, but it will also ensure that you are leveraging the news in the most effective way possible.
4. Be creative
To stand out, you need to be creative with your content. This means thinking outside the box and coming up with fresh angles that will grab people’s attention. For example, if there’s a news story about a new law impacting businesses, you could write an article about how this will affect your industry.
This type of creativity will help you stand out from the rest. For your brand marketing to take off, you must think about how you can newsjack daily. You can also use newsjacking to come up with new content ideas. If you’re stuck for ideas, look to the news for inspiration. As in digital content practices, always be sure to create original content and never plagiarize.
We at Growth Hackers treat creativity like a spark in dry kindling: by guiding our clients to connect news with fresh angles, we ignite campaigns that catch fire across social media in minutes. To do this effectively, newsjacking efforts must be tailored to match the story’s sentiment and be keyword rich, so it is searchable on social media. By combining news articles with relevant content, brands can make a tweet go viral in minutes!
5. Promote your post
Once you’ve created your content, it’s time to promote it. The best way to do this is to share it on social media platforms. Use hashtags, tagging, and other strategies to get your post in front of as many people as possible. You can also use paid advertising to give your post a boost.
Promoting your content is essential to make the most of newsjacking. If no one sees your post, it won’t matter how good it is. Before you generate media attention, you must promote your content across social media platforms and other channels. As the news alerts people of developing stories, you should promote your content to make people aware of it.
Before partnering with Growth Hackers, one of our beauty clients created strong content that barely reached their audience. After implementing our promotion strategies, their posts consistently achieved 3X more engagement and visibility.
6. Monitor the conversation
After you’ve promoted your content, it’s important to monitor the conversation that’s taking place around it. This will help you see what people say about your brand and industry. It will also allow you to engage with your audience and build relationships. To do this, you must be active on social media and other channels where the conversation takes place. You can also use tools like Google Alerts to help you keep track of the conversation.
Tracking engagement and responses can also help you identify any potential legal issues with your newsjacking efforts and ensure that you abide by applicable laws. By staying up to date on these topics, you can ensure that your newsjacking attempts are successful and compliant.
Overall, tracking engagement and responses when newsjacking is a crucial step to ensure your success. By tracking key metrics, media coverage, and legal issues, you can get an accurate picture of how effective your attempts are so don’t forget to track them!
7. Respond to feedback
Once you’ve monitored the conversation, it’s time to respond to any feedback you’ve received. This is an important step in the process because it shows that you’re listening to your audience and that you care about what they have to say. It’s also a chance to build relationships with your customers and followers. When responding to feedback, always be professional and courteous.
Newsjacking can be an extremely effective way to get more exposure for your business. However, it’s important to do it right. Follow these tips, and you’ll be on your way to success.
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5 Things to Avoid When Newsjacking
Nowadays, everyone is trying to jump on the newsjacking bandwagon. However, not everyone is doing it right. If you want to be successful at newsjacking, you should avoid a few things.
1. Don’t be too salesy
When creating content for your newsjacking campaign, it’s important to avoid being too salesy. Don’t be too obvious when you create content around your brand by leveraging news stories. You need to be subtle and relevant. This will turn people off and make them less likely to engage with your brand.
We at Growth Hackers view salesy content like a loud alarm: too much noise drives people away. By helping our clients stay subtle and helpful, their posts now attract attention like a magnet rather than a warning bell.
Instead, focus on creating content that is informative and useful. Suppose you are newsjacking a story about a new product launch. In that case, you could create a blog post that compares the new product to similar products on the market.
2. Don’t be controversial for the sake of being controversial
When choosing a trending news story for successful newsjacking, it’s important to avoid being controversial for the sake of being controversial. This will only alienate potential customers and damage your brand’s reputation. Instead, focus on stories relevant to your brand that will appeal to your target audience. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that any publicity is good publicity. However, this is not always the case. All the benefits of newsjacking can be quickly undone if you’re not careful.
3. Don’t be too late to the party
To be successful at newsjacking, you need to be quick. This means that you can’t afford to wait around before creating your content. By the time you’re ready to launch your campaign, the story you’re trying to newsjack might already be old news. To avoid this, you need to have a system in place for monitoring the news and identifying potential stories to newsjack. The leverage news cycle is always changing, so you need to be prepared to newsjack at a moment’s notice.
4. Don’t forget about SEO
When creating content for your newsjacking campaign, don’t forget about SEO. This is important because it will help ensure that as many people see your content as possible. Make sure to include relevant keywords and phrases in your content to appear higher in search engine results. The Google trends tool can be very helpful for this.
At Growth Hackers, we helped over 70 clients optimize newsjacked content for SEO, and more than half of them ranked on the first page of Google for trending keywords within 2 weeks. This is how fast newsjacking SEO can go: you don’t need to wait for 6 months to get organic visitors.
By taking advantage of current events and trends, you can create content that resonates with your target audience and gives them something to discuss. This will help to increase brand recognition and drive more traffic to your website or social media accounts. With this approach, you can also use current events positively by contributing your perspective and generating conversations around topics that people are already discussing.
5. Don’t overdo it
Newsjacking is primarily about attaching your brand to an existing story, not making yourself the story. It’s important to avoid overdoing it with newsjacking. This means you should only create content for a few stories relevant to your brand. If you try to newsjack every story, you’ll quickly become known as a spammer. This will damage your reputation and make people less likely to engage with your brand.
By avoiding these five things, you’ll be well on your way to successfully newsjacking for your business.
Final Words on Newsjacking Definition
Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story to generate tons of media coverage, get noticed by influencers, and grow your business.
When done right, newsjacking can be an extremely effective way to grow your business. However, it’s not something that you can do haphazardly. You need to have a clear understanding of what newsjacking is, how it works, and how to do it in a way that’s ethical and beneficial for all parties involved.
At last, we want to underline that newsjacking should be used carefully. As we have seen from the definition above, it can quickly become a very unethical way of getting publicity. With great power comes great responsibility, so use newsjacking for good and not evil!
Do you have any questions about newsjacking? Let us know in the comments below!
Growth Hackers is an experienced content marketing agency helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs and business owners take full advantage of newsjacking, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales.
We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
