Take a look to this amazing content strategy: newsjacking
Newsjacking. It's fairly new at the time. It was kind of a hot idea, and it's one though that stood the test of time. And it's really something you might want to consider when building an engagement strategy. And so newsjacking is basically engaging your audiences using breaking news. For a definition, this is a good one. Newsjacking is the process of injecting your brand into the day's news, creating a twist that grabs eyes when they're open widest. And so what you going to do is basically, if there's a breaking of piece of news and you can relate it to your product in a clever way, you're going to put that out while that news is hot. While people are searching for the hashtags related to the story, or the individuals related to the story that gets you injected into that topic of conversation with your bit of newsjacking content, if you will. But there's also another type, for example, if a major star is going to have a baby, you can pre-prepare all of your content, so that when the baby comes into the world, you're ready to go.
So there's two types, you can basically be reacting to current news that's happening right now. Or you can be looking for things that you could prepare content, so that you can react to them when they happen.
-WHY SHOULD I DO THIS?
Well first off, it boosts your SEO because you're using hashtags and keywords that are related to a breaking topic. It gives a whole lot of search, which improves the SEO of your entire organization. Second, it engages the readers in ultra-timely commentary. If you do it really cleverly, it really gets them going, and it goes viral. It's sharing a new angle for branded content. In other words, it's not the traditional advertising. It's using a news story to do something that's clever. And it's leading your market in thought leadership. The key though is that you're walking a fine line between being relevant and being intrusive. And so, you don't want to do that. Here I will show you some great examples. And also some epic fails, so you'll see where that fine line is between being that relevant or being intrusive to the individual.
So here's some tips. First, keep a close eye on the news. What you do, or what most experts recommend, is that you set up Google Alerts to notify you of any news stories that are relevant to your business. Now you can actually set it up very broadly to give you all the breaking news if you will, or you can put in some key terms, key words if you will, to really restrict it down a little bit. But one of the things they recommend is to cast a broad net. In other words, don't be too restrictive on your searches, as you might miss an opportunity to do something that's really fun. Third, be very discerning. Don't attempt to engage with extremely tragic events. And I'm going to show you some examples of those here in a bit.
Newsjacking requires enhanced sensitivity, and so one of the things you want to do is to not be too wrong in an extremely tragic event that's happening. And so some care brands really don't do that, and that's been to their detriment. Fourth, take a constructive approach. Don't go negative on an event or the individuals who are involved in the event. The key is you're trying to become a part of the conversation, not going negative on the situation. Include key words to enhance your ability to engage your high value markets. And so when you're putting out your content, be sure to put the key words in there, so that it'll help your SEO activity around the entire topic area. And finally, be creative. Make your message focus on the event, and soft sell your products and services. So you're not trying to make this a sales call, you're trying to have some fun with a news event and position your brand as something that the individual might want to purchase in the future.
-SUCCESSFULL EXAMPLES
So here is some great examples of newsjacking. One of the classics is Oreo in the 2011 Super Bowl. If you recall during that time, the power went out, and so they actually then immediately sent out an Oreo cookie thing, saying power out? No problem, you can still eat, still dunk in the dark, and it went viral. I mean there were 15,000 plus retweets and 6,200 favorites that went on. Also when Kate Middleton gave birth, they had the royal towel with the bottle and the Oreo cookie, and long live the cream, okay, was their message. And that, too, had a huge impact.
A second one was the Lincoln Fire Brigade. When the Lincoln Fire Brigade learned that Kate Winslet was actually helping some people, they used that as a way of getting the information out, the Lincoln Fire Bridage and Kate Winslet's offer firefighting training after a daring island escape. So they kind of use that escape as a way to talk about the training that they did, and bringing in Kate Winslet, who's a major star, had it go viral. A third one was KitKat. KitKat jumped on the fact that the newer iPhone tended to break in the pockets of users, and so they had the things, we don't bend, we break. And it actually showed the angle where a KitKat actually breaks, and again, that went viral. So the key is you pick up a piece of breaking news, figure out a good way to relate to that in a very positive way. And then you put that out there along with key words and so forth. And if it gets picked up by people, it will tend to improve your SEO, and it will tend to go viral.
-EPIC FAILS
Some examples are bad examples of newsjacking.
The first one is never try to put together a newsjacking with something that's a tragedy. And so there was a whole series of conflicts in 2011 in Cairo. And Kenneth Cole said, boots on the ground are not, let's not forget about sandals, pumps, and other loafers. And then, the other one was millions are in an uproar in Cairo, rumor is they heard about our new spring collection. It is now available online at whatever. The key is this had major impact, that this was a very negative event in Cairo, and to try to make light of it or make fun of was not picked up well by the social world.
EpiCurious used the Boston Marathon bombing, and they say in honor of Boston and New England, may we suggest whole grain cranberry scones. Boston, our hearts are with you. Here's a bowl of breakfast energy. And the key is that people reacted very badly to that. They eventually had to apologize for doing it. But there was a whole series of these. So it was kind of making light of something that wasn't very funny. And therefore, it had a negative impact.
Another one was AT&T using 9/11. They went out and they used it to kind of advertise their phone, using some Photoshop stuff. And the key is, because it was 9/11, it was still pretty hot in the minds of people, they reacted very badly to it.
-What do we learned?
So in summary, newsjacking is a very effective way to get across and become part of a news story that gives you a whole lot broader appeal, if you do it correctly. The key is to be sensitive, the key is not to try to get on to a negative sort of a story that's going on, but find the positive stories. Get the good relationship, and it can work very well. And so, newsjacking is something that ought to be in your repertoire of strategies, and where it's appropriate, use it. It's a great way to get your business known when you don't have a lot of money, and you want to make a quick impact.
I hope you enjoyed this article and leraned something new, this time i took this article from a class of Randy Hlavac, i recommend a lot his book cause he explain a lot of real cases of social media estrategies with a lot of examples.
Ladies and gentlemen my name is Jose Sanchez but you can call me chicho I am a social media expert and if you need help,an advice or some tips feel free to ask me.
Or if you want to discuss about how to increase your traffic or create a social media strategy for your bsuiness feel free to send me an email: joosesanches@gmail
Thank you guys and in the comment what do you want me to talk about in the next article or what do you think about this strategy.
Bye Bye
Recent Comments
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Interesting blog about a different kind of content strategy -- thanks so much for sharing ... all the best, cheerio... :)
yes, it's very interesting & hope you'll stick around here at WA for awhile with us ... seems like you've got something really good things to contribute ... all the best, cheerio.. 😊
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Thanks, I must say I do agree. Just one strategy that works. I also use this type of strategy. My product is surrounded by some negative incidents, but due to my product, it can help with a solution.
Thanks, Cyn