What is Newsjacking?

Newsjacking is an ever-growing content creation method that is used, sometimes, by content writers. It can be used to create articles, infographics, videos and even podcasts. No matter what spin you want to put on it, newsjacking can be a highly-effective way of spreading the word about your business whilst also reporting on something that is both relevant and interesting. In turn, this will increase your traffic and help to boost a loyal customer base. So what is newsjacking and what else do you need to know about it? Let’s take a look.

What is newsjacking?

Newsjacking is a term coined by David Meerman Scott. Essentially, it involves piggybacking off of breaking news stories. It means taking an existing news story and putting your own spin on it in order to make it relevant to your business and/or industry. It’s not a technique that’s widely used throughout the digital marketing sector, but it’s definitely being done in order to make a splash. But it must sound interesting to you if you’re here and reading this article. With this in mind, let’s delve deeper into newsjacking, together with how you can start doing it and why you should bother in the first place.

How can I start newsjacking?

Newsjacking is a straightforward process that every content creator can master. The first thing you need to do is find the right stories to get behind and make a fuss over. In this digital age, which is also fast-moving, you’ll never be short of opportunities to grab hold of. Identify terms that are trending as well as popular hashtags to find a story that is both relevant to your business and interesting. Things you need to do if you want to start newsjacking are as follows:

• Use Google Trends as a way of monitoring stories that are trending
• Use Google Alerts to monitor keywords and phrases closely
• Use specific tools to monitor social media accounts
• Keep a close eye on trending hashtags on X, what used to be Twitter
• Follow relevant bloggers and journalists who regularly report on stories and events that are linked to your business and/or industry

Why bother newsjacking?

I know what you might be thinking; “why should I bother newsjacking when there are plenty of other, more straightforward, content strategies that I can use?”, and that would be a worthwhile question to ask. With this in mind, let me answer those questions for you below in the form of a list of newsjacking benefits:

It draws attention to your brand

If your company is doing something innovative and exciting, then that makes it automatically newsworthy. This is the first step in the newsjacking process. You need something great to write about and then assign to your company. Make it relevant to what you do and what you publish. This is an effective way of advertising your goods and/or services, thus drawing attention to your brand seamlessly.

It can improve social reach

You should look at newsjacking as a great excuse for promoting content on your social media accounts. You want to make sure that as many people as possible will read your content and be interested in it at the same time. Newsjacking is a sure way of grabbing people’s attention and keeping it as well. This brings in brand new readers but also entices your existing ones to keep coming back. You’ll also likely notice an increase in followers, engagements, impressions and ‘likes’ on your social networking sites. In turn, this helps to improve brand reputation and trustworthiness.

It adds variety to your content strategy

When it comes to creating content for your audience, it can become repetitive strategy-wise. By adding newsjacking to your techniques, it helps to make things more interesting for you, as a content creator. As well as this, you’ll be able to add it to your CV and use it as leverage for another position elsewhere, or if you’re looking for a more advanced position or promotion. It’s a very worthwhile tactic that many content writers will use to make their content as exciting as possible, both for existing audiences and prospective ones.

It helps to build your online reputation

Publishing what you believe to be a breaking news story about your business helps to improve your reputation online. You could write about anything that your company is doing, from charity fundraisers to new product launches. This gives your audience a way of determining exactly what you’re about before they delve any deeper into your website. It sets up a great foundation and develops a fantastic first impression for your customers.

Kumo is a highly-experienced digital marketing industry with over two decades of knowledge and expertise to draw upon. With a variety of different digital marketing services available, you’ll be in good hands with us here at Kumo. We are able to deliver and seamlessly execute SEO, PPC, content writing and website design services, to name just a few of things we’re proud to do here. For more information about how we can set your business apart from the crowd, get in touch with a member of our specialist team today – we’re pleased to serve clients throughout the UK.