5 Ways Newsjacking Can Promote Your Business

Margot Suydam
2 min readOct 12, 2020

The Internet continues to change the way people communicate and interact with each other, and if you’re struggling to keep up with what′s trending in social media, online videos, apps, blogs, etc. your firm’s message is bound to get lost in the ether.

Newsjacking is one tactic a business can add to its content marketing arsenal to cut through the digital marketing din and standout in its geographic market(s) and/or area(s) of expertise.

Newsjacking, according to David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, is the process of injecting your brand into the day’s news and creating a twist that grabs eyes when they’re open widest, i.e. just before the story gains momentum and journalists start searching for more information (see chart below).

And then if your analysis or take on the topic is compelling enough, this could position you as a local expert on the subject.

Not only is timeliness key to success, but is also important to choose a story that not only makes sense with your brand, but, like any content marketing, is appropriate for and of particular interest to your target audience.

To get started, Meerman Scott suggests monitoring Google Alerts, then putting one of five approaches to work to promote your firm via a blog, PDF document, or video, and then sharing it widely on social media.

  1. Valuable Information. Based on your expertise, provide analysis that positions you as a local expert.
  2. Humor. A take on a local news story or event that is funny enough for people to take notice.
  3. Celebrity. Ride on famous coattails and inject your brand into a celebrity story.
  4. Event You Know is Coming. Apply your expertise to help clients prepare/deal with what may be coming.
  5. Politics. Need to be careful here, but use your expertise to provide analysis on a political development or candidate.

Taking a story that was once a hot topic in the news as an example, your firm could write a blog post or do a social media campaign on why your city would be the best location for Amazon’s new national headquarters.

Originally published at http://mtseditorialservices.wordpress.com on October 12, 2020.

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Margot Suydam

Editor/writer trying to find balance between art and commerce: prose and poetry — right brain vs left brain — the utilitarian vs the aesthetic. All good