What is Newsjacking in PR?
This blog comes with a warning!!
You will never read the news in the same way once you’ve learned about this style of PR. I’d even go as far as to say that you are viewing newsjacking at the very least once a day if you read the news daily.
We think your news reading will change forever once you’ve read this, and you may find that you are influenced less by what you read on popular news sites.
Intrigued? We thought you might be!
Keep reading to find out more about newsjacking and how you can use it to gain more exposure across news outlets and media. These tips are GOLD.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR is a way for businesses to increase their online presence across various platforms and news outlets. Ultimately, digital PR is how companies get more exposure by working with journalists and influencers to gain mentions across social media and backlinks to their site.
Online media is rapidly overtaking the traditional forms of PR (magazines & newspapers).
If you don’t currently have a strategy for PR and you are looking to grow your business, we recommend that you start. After reading this blog, you’ll feel ready and more confident to start creating elements of your PR strategy today.
What is NewsJacking?
Newsjacking is where you hop on to trending news pieces and topics and put your spin on them! For example, over the last year, the Netflix show Bridgerton has been popular, and we’ve seen increasing articles and content based on the hit series.
If you can comment on something in the news or trend and make it relevant for your brand, this is newsjacking!
To achieve success with newsjacking, you need to pay attention to trends in the news and your industry. Get creative and extend the news story with your angle on it!
We can break trending news topics into two areas, macro and micro trends:
Microtrends
Microtrends can be trending memes, videos, GIFs, popular songs, TikTok dances, and so much more! An example of a recent microtrend was the debacle between M&S and Aldi about Colin the Caterpillar and Cuthbert the Caterpillar. Other brands were quick to jump on this, and it became HUGE for social shares.
If you time it right and your newsjack grabs attention, this can get you a HUGE amount of exposure.
Macro trend
A macro trend is something that many people are aware of, for example, a royal wedding or working from home, staycations, the new Apple iPhone, or an awards ceremony such as the Brit Awards or Grammys.
By getting involved in a macrotrend, your reach could be massive as so many people are aware of the trend! Get in there first and be original, but remember that you may have a lot of competition.
Should you NewsJack?
Most probably! Newsjacking can be beneficial for so many brands but needs to be executed with caution.
When you newsjack, the critical thing to remember is that you need to be FAST, but you also need to be sensitive and think, ‘is it appropriate for us to talk about this?’. Whilst there is no such thing as bad PR, it’s essential to avoid being insensitive as this might upset your current customers and potential customers. Remain tasteful, informative, and with an element of humor to ensure you don’t offend.
What types of news can you ‘jack’?
We would suggest giving it a go! Why not start with a Netflix series or a trending tv show? Recently, Line of Duty has been talked about EVERYWHERE, and many brands have been quick to jump on the bandwagon; we’ve seen so many articles and social posts newsjacking this.
Avoid any newsjacking of controversial topics or sensitive topics to avoid backlash and offense.
Who can NewsJack?
To be successful in newsjacking, you need to be QUICK to react, and in the case of microtrends, you need to be INSTANT. I’d recommend having meme templates ready to respond to micro trends fast or have a dedicated team member that is witty and on-trend.
We have a feeling that the Aldi social team is young and witty with the banter that they come out with on Twitter!
If you are going to ‘newsjack’ on socials, I’d recommend Twitter and Facebook for maximum virality, but always be sensitive and appropriate about the topics you jump onto.
How can you tell if an article is newsjacked?
It’s not always obvious (unlike data outreach which we will cover soon!). But a great example is continuing with the Line of Duty theme (it’s a hot topic!); below you can see an example of the text in the article. This was released to coincide with the week of the show’s finale and is now one of the top news results. As you can see, the trend was Line of Duty and this brand ‘Pro-Aktiv Events’ jumped on the trend by decorating the main stars garden and releasing a press release which was picked up by local news.
Nottingham Post
Examples of some other recent newsjacking examples.
Another example of the line of duty effect...
Daily Record
With travel restrictions still in place, staycations are huge for 2021!
Refinery29
One of our favourites recently…
The Weetabix and Baked Beans debate, Frank PR were behind this excellently crafted campaign and did it ruffle some feathers! This PR agency are all about getting a reaction, and after posting a recipe with cornflakes last year and getting a reaction, they thought they’d go one step further and make it a bit weird.
As such a bizarre food combination, this had people all over social media going, ‘what the hell’?! And it picked up so much traction from all over, to the point where it even was featured on Good Morning Britain with Piers Morgan trying the combination!
Check out the below screenshots of the best ‘newsjacking’ from other accounts on Twitter.
The original tweet:
The (hilarious) responses:
We hope you enjoyed those tweets as much as we enjoyed finding them!
A task for you...
It’s time to put what you’ve learned from this blog into practice. We want YOU to do some research, check out what’s going on in the news and make some notes on the kind of articles you can newsjack!
Go to your news site of choice and simply take a relevant headline and list out four key points that you can put a spin on in this article.
Then start to write your own press release surrounding this topic.
Our Top Tips for News Jacking
Keep up to date with what is trending on Twitter and local, national, and global news.
Avoid any subjects that are sensitive or inappropriate.
Be QUICK. You need to react quickly to trending topics.
Ask yourself before you post, is this tasteful or informative?
Ensure your team understands the guidelines and, most notably, seek approval from the management/owner of the business.
We are here to help!
As you can see, there are SO many ways to put a spin on trending topics and news and put your perspective on it.
Remember, there are so many opportunities out there, but they won’t come to you; you need to be quick to react, be witty and take risks!
We hope that this blog has helped you learn about this exciting side of Digital PR, we actually LOVE this angle, and brands can have some fun with it.
The Firebelly team is always here to help and answer any questions you may have about working with us to increase your exposure online through digital marketing.
Click here to contact us and find out more about our services and how we can help you.
Good luck with your newsjacking journey, and stay tuned for more insightful blogs written by the Firebelly team. We love all things digital and marketing!
If you liked this you might also like our blog post about the best resources for PR campaign inspiration. You can check it out here.
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