The practice of taking advantage of current events or news stories in such a way as to promote or advertise one’s product or brand.
Oxford Living Dictionaries
PLR is great in many circumstances. It’s an easy button for research. It’s also a quick way to start creating content. The downside is that other people have the same starting point which can result in a saturated market. (Highly unlikely, most people buy PLR but don’t use it. Look for a future post on that.)
Newsjacking still relies on some external content, but not nearly as much. The external content is news, the more well-known the better. When IHOP temporarily changed its name to IHOb the response from other burger joints was classic newsjacking. They used the IHOP announcement to advertise their product, often in funny and snarky ways.
You don’t need to be a nationally recognized brand to participate in newsjacking either. That said, there are some important things to keep in mind.
Timing is everything
The modern news cycle is fast. Here today and gone tomorrow is almost an understatement. Taking advantage of the news cycle requires quick decisions. You’ll either need to respond within minutes, hours at most, or within a week or two.
If your response is going to add to the conversation or continue it then you need to be quick. Commentary on a proper response when the local mall is hit with a meteorite for instance. Your insight and perspective are going to be in near-real-time as the people involved are working on the problem. You’ll add to the conversation, or continue it based on what is happening and what you know.
A different response is one where the situation is looked at in more depth and expanded on. This can happen a few days later, maybe a week or two. In rare or extreme circumstances more time might be available, but even big things fade from the news cycle surprisingly fast, and something bigger could always push stuff out prematurely. This type of response is going to be a deeper dive and cover ancillary topics. Revisiting our local mall catastrophe you might cover topics such as how best to survive in a building collapse or construction methods that localize damage during natural disasters.
Your Voice and Content Matter
Responding to news can be tricky. You need to make sure you aren’t setting yourself up to be the center of a negative spotlight when you do. This is influenced by how you respond as much as by what you respond with.
Snarkiness has a place. I often use sarcasm for instance, but it’s not good in all situations. If the meteorite that hit the mall hit a school field trip the response needs a much softer and compassionate voice than if all it did was smash a car being given away in a drawing. There are a plethora of one-liners that could come from the second situation, even a snarky little Twitter account for an enterprising person. However, responding to the first situation with jokes would likely draw much-unwanted attention.
Likewise, the content shared can make or break a response. Making a short video of a meteor’s journey to meteorite would land much better in the second situation than the first. Make content that is hard to misconstrue and avoids offending anyone directly. One tip for that is to not take advantage of someone’s misfortune. A cleaning company pushing a quick jingle about cleaning space junk is only a good plan in one of those situations.
Quick Tips
Use software to stay on top of the news. Alerts for anything relevant to products you sell is a good place to start. Scan daily headlines for items on that topic list too.
Always make a clear connection between the news and either a product or your overall brand. Ultimately the point here is to get people one step closer to being customers.
Do not rely on newsjacking alone. It is one piece of a marketing plan – not the piece you start with.
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