PR Diaries: How News-Jacking Will Lead You to Impressive Results in PR

What sounds like something that should be illegal is actually the one thing that will keep you on top of your PR game. Newsjacking is not what you think it is…or at least what I think you might be thinking it is. Newsjacking is not stealing someone else’s work and pretending it’s yours. Newsjacking should never be confused with plagiarism, which is a real darn crime if you ask me. Here’s how to news-jack and the ‘why’ will easily explain itself.

 

News-Jacking: The Art

Newsjacking in the game of public relations is simply staying on top of the ball. Being the first one to the fire and report your angle, find the trends and capture it for your brand. As a midwestern agency where everything gets to us last, keeping on top of trends is a challenge, but here’s how we can keep up our efforts to do our darn best.

PRTip: Newsjacking in the game of public relations is simply staying on top of the ball. Learn more: Share on X

 

Get Out Your Binoculars

Opportunities are all around us if you’re clever enough. The Super Bowl of 2014 is a winning example of PR teams trying to surface their brands in clever ways. JCPenny’s approach didn’t quite win over the crowd:

 

This led lots of followers to believe JCPenney was being swallowed by competitors and scraping for ways to get noticed, opening the door for Kohl’s to jump in for sneaky PR:

 

 

I’m not saying you need to bash competitors to get ahead, especially since this could burn bridges with your audience depending on the demographic, but being on top of what your competitors are saying and saying it better is one news-jack hack to keep in mind.

Take Action: Follow competitors and news aggregators in your field. Follow anything that could possibly be relevant to your clients on social media. Get involved with Chrome extensions that can help keep you at the top of the bean stock so you can come out with your messaging first. But don’t be too quick, you don’t want to end up like these people.

 

Jump On It…Carefully

The first rule I learned in the ethics of advertising is to use celebrities and big names at risk. Let’s say an influencer or big name in your client’s field just made a breakthrough and you want to jump on the news or use them in your messaging frame to get your foot in the mainstream. Yes, this can be an easy opportunity to slip through the cracks and get your brand out there, but be weary. Celebrities and big names are under a watchful eye in the public. One thing goes wrong and that entire image is on them and everyone who associates themselves with them (that means you, big guy). These easy opportunities come with heavy-weight. Your best bet is to play it safe and grow organically.

Take Action: Talk about general trends in your space instead of reacting to big movements. Trends are just as hot in the news as blunders and breakthroughs and can still win you some killer PR. You can still follow the big names you’re interested in and follow trends they’re following without attaching your brand name to theirs in case of a fallout.

 

Speedy Pitching Machine

When you pitch to editors and reporters, you should always be personal, considerate, thorough, accurate, relevant and most importantly, fast, real fast. The best way to do this is to build a general outline for your pitches.

Take Action: Here’s the format I find to be useful:

 

Hi there [Editor’s name if possible],

I just read [title of article on their site/query you submitted] and I love [this, this and that] about what [author’s name] had to say about [trendy topic you definitely should be knowledgeable about].  

[client name] with [company name and title linked to website and LinkedIn account] just wrote a follow-up that would align great with your audience [because it would help them do such and such in their industry, including stats if you’re fancy like that]. I’d love to send you the copy for review.

I’ve included recent work by [client name] below:

• Linked article

• Linked article

• Linked article

Please reach out to me by phone [give work number] or email at your earliest convenience.

If this topic isn’t quite what you’re looking for, please reach out to us and we will gladly write something according to your content funnel.

Thanks for your time. Cheers,

[Your name]

This is where you drop the mic and do a happy dance because that took a lot of brow wrinkling followed by the waiting game… only 7 days, though, which is when you should either call or email (depending on their preference) to follow-up with your pitch. Rule of thumb: Only follow-up once, or more simply put, don’t be creepy.

 

Things you should also do to keep face as a PR practitioner.

 

Set up a Mixmax account so you can build out this template and fill in the blanks when a media opportunity runs across your desk. The template will give you the time you need to link and research without sounding rushed, panicked and careless. Take these easy steps to get your brand a little closer to the mainstream. Once you’ve made a few connections, the rest will seem a little less painful. Be quick, be witty and be mindful.

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