Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage [Kindle Edition]

David Meerman Scott (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 559 KB
• Publisher: Wiley (November 7, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0065MKMMS
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,273 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Newsjacking Is Now Critical to Content Marketing, November 12, 2011

By 

Joe Pulizzi "Content Marketing Institute" (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage (Kindle Edition)

First off, this is a two hour (at most) read. Short, actionable chapters packed full of case studies.

I think what I like the best about this book is that most marketers will think that newsjacking is not possible. David Meerman Scott explains that it is completely possible, if you have a real-time mindset within your organization or business. I enjoyed the read and took 3-4 tangible action items away from the book that we are looking to execute now in our business.

For small businesses...this is a critical read and can show you how to get a leg up on the competition with your online content creation and content marketing strategies. For larger brands...watch out. Newsjacking will disrupt your business. You better make sure you ditch the long-term communication processes you have so that you can keep up with the little guys. Time to market with your content makes all the difference for newsjacking to work.

All in all, another helpful DMS book...possibly his best.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 7 Reasons To Study Newsjacking by David Meerman Scott, December 17, 2011

By 

Anthony Faustino "Tony Faustino: Inbound Mark... (Overland Park, KS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage (Kindle Edition)

Bottom Line: I highly recommend studying Newsjacking. It's informative, quick-to-read, and filled with insightful how-to-examples. In fact, Newsjacking and Real-Time Marketing and PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Noware required reading for any marketing/PR executive, business owner, or brand manager who wants to capitalize on media opportunities generated by the real-time Web.

1. Clever Newsjacking Generates Media Bonanza Opportunities

And, We All Can Do It! David defines "newsjacking" as publishing your personal angle, ideas, or perspective into a breaking news story / event to earn media coverage for your company, brand, or products / services.

Help Journalists Write Their Second Paragraphs. When hot news strikes, journalists scour the Internet via search engines (i.e., Google) and social media (i.e., Twitter, blogs, etc.). Why? They're seeking additional content (e.g., details, opinions, etc.) that can differentiate the point-of-view in their individual news stories.

That differentiating point-of-view or compelling content is the "second paragraph." Journalists seek second paragraph material that:

* Delivers credible, authoritative, and valuable information / perspective

* Describes "why" something happened

* Interprets the event's impact and future implications

Credible Second Paragraphs Can Earn Massive Media Attention. Be fast, use targeted keywords, and provide valuable context in your Tweets and blog posts so journalists can find your contribution to a story with Google searches. Quickly writing an informative blog post and shrewdly publicizing it with Twitter may take an hour or less.

2. Newsjacking Favors Faster, Smaller Players

Real-Time Speed is a Newsjacker's Bread and Butter. Speed, decisiveness, and execution drive successful newsjacking. And, you must respond within the hour of a breaking news story. That's why fast movers are great newsjackers.

David Can Trump Goliath. Plus, smaller firms can outplay their larger competitors. The Fortune 500 has the same opportunity to successfully newsjack as any other organization or individual. But, their corporate hierarchies and approval processes are handicaps.

Newsjacking Lives and Dies by Speed. A graphic in the book describes the newsjacking process. Notice how speed drives the entire newsjacking process:

* Tracking and staying on top of breaking news

* Deciding quickly on your response

* Publishing / Publicizing the response instantly

3. Chapter 6 - Ka-Ching: CEO Bags a Cool Million with a Single Blog Post

A Classic, Must-Read Newsjacking Blog Post. Joe Payne is the CEO of Eloqua, a company specializing in marketing-automation. When he learned and verified Oracle entered his industry space, he quickly wrote this blog post: Oracle Joins The Party.

There are multiple reasons why this blog post and the surrounding circumstances make it a classic, newsjacking case study:

* The post provides a valuable and quotable industry perspective

* Payne crafted and posted this blog post quickly

* The blog post contains verifiable details and statistics

* Oracle buried this news story in their website

* He outflanked a larger competitor (e.g., Oracle) using new media tools

Payne's Blog Post Earned Major Media Attention, Credibility, and $1 Million. When industry analysts and journalists searched Google for news about Oracle, they found Payne's content-rich blog post. And, they quoted it verbatim.

The aforementioned media coverage (and other coverage) increased Eloqua's credibility. In addition, Payne and his team combined the blog post's media coverage with immediate, next-morning business development follow-up. These combined activities brought Eloqua software deals worth $1 million in new revenue among six (6) new clients.

That's a great outcome especially without the luxury of a multiple phase PR campaign or massive advertising budget.

4. Chapter 7: Become the Go-To Gal (or Guy) in Your Industry

Blogs Are Powerful Newsjacking Assets. Long form content achieves four (4) things:

* Provides keyword rich content for search engines to index

* Increases the probability journalists will find your blog post when searching Google

* Delivers context rich details (hard to do in Twitter and Facebook)

* Positions newsjackers as reputable and credible reputable industry authorities

Knowing Your Issues / Topics Cold Leads to Long Term Credibility. Newsjack the issues and topics in which you are well-informed. That knowledge will make your newsjacking perspective valuable, credible, and authoritative.

Long term credibility is vital in building an authoritative reputation and relationships with journalists. Even more importantly, that credibility and reputation dictates why journalists may or may not seek your input in future news stories.

5. Learn from Newsjacking Mistakes: The Golden Rules

The Kenneth Cole Twitter Blunder. Google "Kenneth Cole Twitter Mistake." And, you'll see how this organization could have benefited from David's advice. Unfortunately, Cole used poor taste and judgment when he tried to newsjack this news event. And, massive public relations backlash resulted.

To prevent a social media blunder like this occurring at your organization, David provides these newsjacking objectives and guidelines:

The Golden Rule Objective (Direct Quote). "When intervening in a news story you should add value - information or insight that contributes to the public's understanding of the situation."

The Four (4) Golden Rules. Kenneth Cole didn't have the benefit of David's advice before sending out that tweet. We now have that luxury:

* Be dignified and statesmanlike. See the Joe Payne / Eloqua Case Study Above (#3)

* Be positive and upbeat, never mean or vindictive. Again, see the Joe Payne / Eloqua Case Study Above (#3)

* Write articulate text in full sentences without chatty slang, industry jargon, corporate-speak (i.e., mission-critical or cutting-edge) or social media shorthand (e.g., IMHO)

* Don't get too cute or clever -- especially where human suffering is involved. See aforementioned Kenneth Cole tweet

6. Newsjackers Monitor News 24/7 Via RSS Feeds

RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Feeds Are a Newsjacker's BFF. David describes how setting up RSS feeds to your favorite news sources, analysts, industry publications, and blogs enables real-time news monitoring. And, staying abreast of leading news events gives you the competitive advantage to respond fast. David mentions these RSS services in his book:

* Google Reader
* Newsfire

7. Learn How to Maximize Twitter's Real-Time Capabilities

A Newsjacker' Must-Have Weapon For Monitoring News Flow. Twitter's real-time capabilities make it the ultimate rapid response, news monitoring tool. You can find great second paragraph content and breaking news stories by:

* Catching key phrases by creating columns in Tweetdeck and HootSuite

* Using Twitter's search function

* Setting up a "news" column in Tweetdeck or HootSuite (i.e., a dedicated news column focusing on all the news sources you follow)

A Powerful Fast Response Distribution Channel. When it comes to publicizing and "pushing out" newsjacking blog posts quickly, Twitter rules. Remember, journalists search Twitter to find differentiating second paragraph content.

Use Twitter Hashtags (#). Therfore, include hashtags (the pound key - #) in your tweets to mark them with the unique identifier about a particular subject (i.e., #Cairo). Remember, the hashtag, makes it easier for journalists to instantly locate in Twitter all references to a particular topic. Plus, tweets with hashtags are curated in reverse chronological order (i.e., most recent first).

Twitter Can Help You Directly Contact a Journalist. Most journalists provide or publish their Twitter ID (i.e.@firstnamelastname). Verify their Twitter ID with a quick Google search. Then, include his/her Twitter ID in your tweet so you can directly point him/her to your blog post.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What I learned from Newsjacking, December 11, 2011

By 

Roger C. Parker "Roger shows authors how to d... (Dover, NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage (Kindle Edition)

I didn't realize how much I learned from David Meerman Scott's Newsjacking until I picked-up a local newspaper and saw a front page, above-the-fold article about an architect spearheading a citizen protest about the redesign of a landmark bridge.

For almost 100 years, the bridge, that connected New Hampshire and Maine, was a Portsmouth icon that was recently closed because of its advanced age.

The proposed replacement bridge was "strictly business," with little aesthetic or civic branding appeal.

Reading the article about the architect and the activist group, I suddenly realized this was an excellent example of what David Meerman Scott describes in Newsjacking.

More important, reading media stories with Newsjacking in mind helped me "see beyond the obvious" and recognize other examples of Newsjacking at work. (Of course, it also inspired me to look for opportunities to do the same.) Thank you, David! You always deliver.