Newsjacking

How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage

David Meerman Scott

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781118251577
• eBook ISBN: 9781118252314
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

IN A 24/7/365, SECOND-BY-SECOND NEWS ENVIRONMENT, SAVVY OPERATERS REALIZE THERE ARE NEW WAYS TO GENERATE MEDIA ATTENTION.

The rules have changed. The traditional PR model—sticking closely to a preset script and campaign timeline—no longer works the way it used to. Public discourse now moves so fast and so dynamically that all it takes is a single afternoon to blast the wheels off someone's laboriously crafted narrative.

Enter newsjacking: the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business. It creates a level playing field—literally anyone can newsjack—but, that new level favors players who are observant, quick to react, and skilled at communicating. It's a powerful tool that can be used to throw an opponent or simply draft off the news momentum to further your own ends.

In Newsjacking, marketing and PR expert and bestselling author David Meerman Scott offers a quick and punchy read that prepares you to launch your business ahead of the competition and attract the attention of highly-engaged audiences by taking advantage of breaking news.

Newsjacking will provide you with:

• Tools that you can use to monitor the news
• Case studies and examples that demonstrate how to strike at the right time
• Information on how to make your content available online for journalists to find
• The potential risks of newsjacking
• Keys to developing the real-time mindset required to succeed with the strategies presented in the book

Newsjacking is powerful, but only when executed in real-time. It is about taking advantage of opportunities that pop up for a fleeting moment then disappear. In that instant, if you are clever enough to add a new dimension to the story in real-time, the news media will write about you.

From Random Occurrences a Method Emerges

Rick Perry steals the Straw Poll spotlight. Wynn Resorts reaps a windfall from Paris Hilton's arrest. Oakley gets a $41 million benefit from giving away 33 pairs of sunglasses. To most people these might seem like random, unconnected events. But to a few of us who watch communications trends closely, a clear pattern is emerging. Almost every passing month brings new evidence of newsjacking.

Why haven't you heard of newsjacking before?

Because it is only since the emergence of the real-time web that newsjacking has become possible in a methodical, systematic fashion.

Sure, going back decades you can point to brilliantly opportunistic publicists who were able to elbow their way into the news with one phone call to their contacts in the press. But those opportunities were few and far between, and available only to media insiders.

What's new is that today almost anyone can newsjack if—and only if—they are able to follow the news in real time and react in real time.

Newsjacking can work for all sorts of outfits and people—it doesn't matter if you are large and well known or tiny and obscure. This technique can be used by nonprofits, political campaigns, business-to-business marketers, and even individuals. It can work for you, too.

This book aims to teach you how to newsjack. It's a guide to gaining attention by harnessing the wind. It's a how-to manual for would-be Davids seeking to take a shot at Goliath (and a self-defense wake-up call to Goliath).

Even if you never have occasion to newsjack, you should be alive to the possibility that someone may just do it to you.

This is an opportunity to learn by example from real-life, real-time stories of newsjacking success that illustrate fundamental principles and pitfalls. You will meet the masters of modern newsjacking—a surprising group rife with colorful characters.

Start by considering a key question …

What has made newsjacking possible?

Why Real-Time Journalism Needs Newsjackers

What happens when a news story breaks?

Way back when, it used to be that newsroom reporters would rush over to a card catalog of known sources. If the story was an early report of an accident at a nuclear power plant, they might look under “N” for nuclear to find experts on radiation or antinuke environmental groups. That plus the phone number of the power company's PR department. Meanwhile, another reporter might scan wire-service printouts to see what competitors had gleaned. The essential point is that news gathering was a closed circuit that involved only the “usual suspects.”

What happens today is that reporters immediately begin to scan online news and social media for keywords relating to the story. The pay dirt this search yields might be a tweet from someone fishing across the river from the stricken plant: “OMG I can see flames leaping into the air from Three Mile Island.” Within seconds, reporters are in direct contact with the eyewitness.

Today, news gathering happens in real time, and it can encompass anyone who steps forward quickly with credible input.

The media's news-gathering eye is now global—but it's still human, which means it needs sleep. So if a major story breaks at 3 a.m. in Pennsylvania when local newsrooms are down to a skeleton staff, reporters in London may well get to it first.

But even when news breaks locally at 3 p.m., writing it up still usually falls on the shoulders of one overstressed and underpaid human reporter, likely the sole survivor of multiple staff reductions. If the story has been broken by a competitor, this poor soul may be under terrible pressure to quickly file a piece that does more than copycat what's already online.

This creates a fierce and desperate hunger for newsjacking.

Searching Google, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, and whatever else comes to mind, the reporter scans for any plausible nugget to differentiate her story.

Corporate PR departments frequently make reporters' lives even tougher.

“The company revealed the bad news late this afternoon in a terse, one-paragraph statement on its website.” Next time you read a line like this you should mentally add, “… begging competitors and newsjackers around the world to kick its butt.”

Corporate PR people, listen up: When you feed important news to reporters without providing the kind of supporting information needed to quickly write a plausible story, you not only invite it, you actively compel even your friendliest media contacts to run with whatever newsjack comes to hand.

Many businesses, particularly large ones, frequently leave themselves wide open to newsjacking by nimble competitors and opponents.

Still, this is only one facet of an emerging phenomenon with the potential to radically reorder the balance of power in communications. Where massive size used to confer a decisive advantage, from here on speed has the edge. That edge will belong to those who can match speed with new skills.

The Newsjacker's Goal: Own the Second Paragraph

As journalists scramble to cover breaking news, the basic facts—who/what/when/where—are often fairly easy to find, either on a corporate website or in competitors' copy. That's what goes in the first paragraph of any news story.

The challenge for reporters is to get the “why” and the implications of the event. Why is the company closing its plant? The corporate website may offer some bogus excuse like “because it wants to spend more time with its family.” Competitors may quote some expert's speculation on the real reason, but a reporter can't cite that without adding something self-demeaning like “according to an expert quoted in the New York Times.” Journalists need original content—and fast.

All this is what goes in the second paragraph and subsequent paragraphs. That's why the newsjacker's goal is to own the second paragraph.

If you are clever enough to react to breaking news very quickly, providing credible second-paragraph content in a blog post, tweet, or media alert that features the keyword of the moment, you may be rewarded with a bonanza of media attention.

If there is one organization we all count on for a quick reaction, it's the fire department. So it is encouraging to find that the London Fire Brigade (LFB) is able to newsjack at lightning speed.

Sir Richard Branson was hosting actress Kate Winslet and 20 other guests at his private Necker Island retreat in the British Virgin Islands on August 22, 2011, when lightning struck the wooden building and set it ablaze. Winslet helped rescue Branson's 90-year-old mother from the inferno.

News of the rescue, along with photos of the dramatic fire, quickly became the lead story in media worldwide. But the story was thin, few outlets had an original angle on it, and no one had reporters in the British Virgin Islands. For editors in the ferociously competitive UK media, situations like this are hideously stressful. So imagine their collective relief when the local fire brigade showed up to the rescue.

Within hours of the initial reports on the fire and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• The Rules Have Changed
• Chapter 1: From Random Occurrences a Method Emerges
• Chapter 2: Why Real-Time Journalism Needs Newsjackers
• Chapter 3: The Newsjacker's Goal: Own the Second Paragraph
• Chapter 4: How to Find Your Own News, Jack
• Chapter 5: Then Again, It May Just Fall into Your Lap
• Chapter 6: Ka-Ching: CEO Bags a Cool Million with a Single Blog Post
• Chapter 7: Become the Go-To Gal (or Guy) in Your Industry
• Chapter 8: Getting the Mandate to Communicate
• Chapter 9: How to Board the Media Bus in Real Time
• Chapter 10: Be Careful Out There
• Chapter 11: Meet the Master Newsjacker: Larry Flynt
• Chapter 12: Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick
• Chapter 13: Now It's Your Turn
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Have David Meerman Scott Speak at Your Next Event
• Also by David Meerman Scott