What is newsjacking and how can brands get national media exposure from it?

How does newsjacking work?

Newsjacking can be simple, but it’s important you get it right.

The coronavirus pandemic has been incredibly disruptive for everyone – including national media news desks – but it has also created unique opportunities for newsjacking. Never before have we seen so many breaking news stories in such a short period of time and this meant there is a real need for the kind of advice our clients can provide.

Let’s take the legal teams we work with as an example…

From new government support schemes, to constantly changing legislation, employer responsibilities and developing health measures, we’ve been presented with huge amounts of unfamiliar information.

Through all this, we’ve worked with our legal clients to highlight opportunities to join the conversation and provide expert advice to help make sense of the barrage of information we’ve all been faced with and continue to be.

For us, this meant establishing key topic areas and identifying the go-to spokespeople within the law firm. Timing is critical with newsjacking and so having topics and spokespeople ready to go is key. The more proactive you are, the more reactive you can be.

For newsjacking to be truly effective, you have to remain on top of the news agenda. As things continue evolving on a daily basis, constant news monitoring is even more important. We monitor all the topics and themes relating to our clients daily, so we’re ready to react to any breaking stories quickly and be on the front foot to provide exclusive commentary.

The result? Well, we placed comments in a range of national and trade media titles discussing key topics such as furlough, self-employed workers rights, managing remote workers and custody arrangements during lockdown.

Is newsjacking effective?

 It’s fair to say that newsjacking can be challenging, and coverage is never guaranteed. However, having the opportunity to be part of the nation’s biggest news stories and to be positioned as an industry expert brings with it so many positives for your brand, including awareness, enhanced search engine visibility and leads.

Effective measurement proves newsjacking has a value way beyond the warm fuzzy feeling people get when they see their name in lights in the pages of a national paper, radio or TV broadcast. The outcomes can be fantastic, and we know from working closely with our clients that our efforts have directly resulted in new instructions.

The great news is that this type of coverage can also assist with your SEO strategy as a means of link building too.

If you want to find out more about how we’re working with brands on newsjacking as part of their integrated marketing strategies, then drop us an email. We’d love a chat over a virtual coffee!