In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, staying relevant is more challenging than ever. News breaks, trends shift, and public attention is fleeting. Enter newsjacking, a powerful technique that allows brands to capitalise on current events to stay in the spotlight.
According to a recent study, follower growth on X (formally known as twitter) ranges from 0.9 percent to 18.9 percent when a brand actively participates in newsjacking techniques.
What is Newsjacking?
Newsjacking, a term popularised by marketing strategist David Meerman Scott, involves injecting your brand into the day’s news stories to generate media coverage and social media engagement.
This powerful technique allows brands to leverage current events to stay relevant and capture public attention. By aligning your content with trending news, you can increase visibility, drive engagement, and potentially make your content go viral. Successful newsjacking hinges on timely, relevant, and sensitive integration of your brand into the evolving news landscape.
Understanding the basics of newsjacking is the first step; now let’s explore the top 5 tips for implementing effective newsjacking techniques to boost your brand’s visibility and engagement.
Monitor Trends Diligently for Effective Newsjacking Techniques
Staying on top of trending news is the first step in effective newsjacking techniques. Utilise tools like Google Trends, Twitter, and news aggregators to monitor what’s happening. Setting up alerts and custom feeds ensures you never miss a beat. Consistently tracking these sources will help you identify opportunities for newsjacking as they arise.
Choose the Right Stories for Successful Newsjacking
Not every news story is worth hijacking. Focus on stories that are relevant to your brand and audience. Consider the potential reach and engagement of the story, as well as its alignment with your brand values and message. Aligning your brand with the right stories ensures your newsjack will resonate and not backfire. Successful newsjacking depends on selecting stories that have the right mix of relevance and impact.
React Quickly: The Importance of Timing in Newsjacking Techniques
In newsjacking techniques, speed is crucial. The quicker you can react, the more likely you are to capture the public’s interest. Look at successful examples like Oreo’s “You can still dunk in the dark” tweet during the Super Bowl blackout. Their swift reaction turned a power outage into a marketing win. Timing is everything—acting fast can make the difference between being a trendsetter or a latecomer in newsjacking techniques.
Craft a Compelling Message for Effective Newsjacking
Once you’ve identified a story, craft your message carefully. It should align with the news while also promoting your brand. Strike a balance between being relevant and not overly promotional. Your content should add value to the conversation. Enhance your newsjacking techniques with multimedia elements like images, videos, and infographics to increase engagement.
Maintain Authenticity and Sensitivity in Your Newsjacking Efforts
Ensure your newsjack is genuine and appropriate. Avoid exploiting serious or tragic events. Your audience will appreciate authenticity and can easily spot opportunism. Incorporate SEO best practices to increase the visibility of your content, and engage with your audience to build a community around your newsjack. Effective newsjacking techniques always prioritise authenticity and sensitivity.
For more information on leveraging media, check out our Media Relations and Coverage page.
Our Lessons Learned in Newsjacking Techniques
Trading and wealth management infrastructure fintech, OMG (Openmarkets Group), aimed to achieve market-leading positioning alongside industry giants like CommSec, nabtrade, and CMC Markets in tier-1 financial press. This goal was particularly critical as OMG was preparing for an IPO on the ASX. However, Ivan Tchourilov, the CEO, who had recently taken over the company, was not well-known by the media or the capital market.
We employed newsjacking techniques to elevate OMG’s profile. We secured an opportunity for OMG to provide daily trading performance insights and market commentary to Australia’s largest-reaching news platform, News Limited, for its daily finance Markets Wrap coverage.
By injecting OMG into the day’s financial news, they leveraged trending market stories to boost OMG’s visibility and engagement.
This newsjacking generated unprecedented volume, reach, and brand awareness for OMG. Ivan Tchourilov became recognised as a markets expert, and OMG was positioned prominently alongside top-tier financial firms. The continuous media presence in the Markets Wrap, a direct result of effective newsjacking, significantly enhanced OMG’s credibility and visibility.
We also achieved key milestone announcements and strategic coverage across major publications like the AFR, SMH/The Age, The Australian, and key trade publications. This comprehensive media strategy, rooted in newsjacking techniques, positioned OMG strongly for its IPO.
In total, OMG received 192 pieces of coverage from publications with almost 1.74 billion in estimated online readership. This case study illustrates the power of newsjacking techniques in elevating a brand’s visibility and authority in a competitive market. By aligning with current financial news and trends, OMG successfully captured the attention of both the media and potential investors.
Conclusion
Staying relevant in a fast-moving news cycle requires agility, creativity, and strategic thinking. By mastering newsjacking techniques, you can tap into current events to boost your brand’s visibility and engagement. Remember to act quickly, choose stories wisely, and always be authentic and sensitive in your approach.
FAQs about Newsjacking Techniques
- What is newsjacking?
– Newsjacking is the practice of leveraging current news stories to promote your brand and engage with your audience.
- How can newsjacking benefit my brand?
– It can increase visibility, drive engagement, and potentially make your content go viral.
- What are some common mistakes in newsjacking?
– Exploiting serious or sensitive events and not aligning the newsjacking content with your brand values.
- How quickly should I act on a trending news story?
– The sooner, the better. Timing is critical in newsjacking techniques to capture the public’s interest.
- Can small businesses benefit from newsjacking?
– Absolutely. Newsjacking can level the playing field, allowing small businesses to reach larger audiences.
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