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 Now
are 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.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2011
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2013
Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2011
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2011
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2014
Top reviews from other countries
Brian Callahan
Good to know, could be more simply presented
Reviewed in Canada on September 5, 2019
agrebnev
great book; fun to read, succinct (compared to lots of marketing books)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 29, 2016
richard dunkerley
real time marketing here to stay
Reviewed in Australia on April 21, 2014Edward
Even the ordering was completed in a funny way. I was first told there was an ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2016