Essential newsjacking tips for PR pros
When attempting to capture a cultural zeitgeist, communicators should take care to be quick, thoughtful—and above all, inoffensive. Consider these insights before jumping in.
Newsjacking can be defined as “injecting your ideas into breaking news.”
Although most PR pros know about the practice and attempt it frequently, many of their efforts fail or get slammed online. Here are some tips on how to take advantage of the news of the moment—as well as ways to avoid offending your audience with tasteless offerings.
What you must do
1. Be timely.
When trying to jump on a story, you must do so before everyone else does. When people are trying to research and learn more about a story, you want your content to reach them first.
No one is trying to get more information on a story that has already passed. News moves quickly, and if you post too late, your audience will have moved on to something else by then. An example of good timing is this tweet by Aldi, a European supermarket that previewed the World Cup match up between Denmark and Australia:
Will you be saying skål to the Danes or cheers mate to the Aussies in today’s game? pic.twitter.com/fh3NKl41Fi
— Aldi Stores UK (@AldiUK) June 21, 2018
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