Newsjacking and Timing

What is Newsjacking?

David Meerman Scott, the author of "Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage", introduces the idea of promoting your brand by linking it to breaking news. In an article on Sparksheet Scott said "Journalists need original content and brands need attention". He explains that a company can give out information in a blog, tweet, or contacting journalists right after a breaking news event. The information about the brand should be related to the news event and if the information is clever enough it will be included in the stories about the news event. 

In the Sparksheet article and in the above video from the SXSW festival, Scott gives an example about Kate Winslet. Sir Richard Branson had a party on his private island in 2011 when lightning started a fire in one of the buildings. Winslet helped save Branson's 90 year old mother. This was a big news story but there was not a lot of information and every story about the fire included the part about Winslet. A couple hours later the London Fire Brigade (LFB) offered Winslet a chance to train with the fire fighters. They put the offer on their website and also contacted reporters. Then every story about the fire that came after included Winslet but it also included the offer by the LFB. By acting quickly the LFB got a huge amount of free media exposure. 

This is an example from the BBC News website. The newsjacking by the LFB was so good that the "house on fire" part of the story is not even in the headline or first paragraph. The headline only mentions Kate Winslet and the London Fire Brigade. 

Scott said that the most important part of newsjacking is the timing. The LFB was good with their timing because they made the offer within a couple hours after the event. The newsjacking should happen around when journalists are looking for more information but before the news reaches the peak.

When Newsjacking Can Hurt your Brand!

Newsjacking can also give your brand negative exposure. A recent example is this tweet by Adweek.

This was tweeted only a few hours after the tragedy in Boston. it linked to an article in Adweek with a title "Boston Marathon Tragedy Shows Why Brands Need Human Touch on Twitter. Scheduled Tweets Make Brands Link Insensitive". 

The tweet and the article have been removed. Adweek said that scheduled tweets made some brands look insensitive but Adweek did exactly that. They could have at least waited a couple days to post this article but doing it only a couple hours after so much heart break was a terrible idea. And it made it worse when they advertised the article on Twitter. Many people on twitter commented that the tweet was very insensitive and I think @Cousincole was totally right when he tweeted:

Maybe you could understand if a company that is new to social media made a mistake like this but Adweek is an expert in branding and the internet. I think that Scott Monty, global head of social media at Ford Motor Company, gave good advice on the day of the tragedy:

Newsjacking is good if used right!

Scott showed some great examples of newsjacking and Adweek showed us the wrong way to use it. Newsjacking can be very helpful when used at the right time but can really hurt a brand if used at the wrong time. I think a good rule would be not to ever try newsjacking if the breaking news story involves people losing their life or being seriously hurt. If the breaking news is about something positive then this is the best story to link your brand to.