What is 'newsjacking,' other than a term that we’ve started to hear tossed around lately? For starters, it is a natural extension of content marketing and it is NOT a bad thing. It’s really just another smart way to do SEO right. To newsjack is to contribute to the conversation on highly visible breaking news relevant to one’s own industry.
Newsjacking Done Right:
1) Pay attention to breaking news – For example over the last couple of weeks there was a high profile bombing in Boston. Needless to say, people wanted information and they wanted it fast. With the fastest way to get information to the masses being social media, several memes were made in rapid fashion. As long as these were done in good taste, almost any type of industry could use them, for example take a look at this meme that popped up almost seconds after the second suspect was captured. It caught on like wild fire and was viral within minutes.
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2) Identify the keywords being searched for related to the breaking news - Newsjacking in this fashion works best when writing a blog post and then sharing it with the world. Once you have done your homework on the keywords you can identify the hot keywords. If there is a hot topic and people are searching for it online, or even searching for the hashtag on Twitter, it's a great idea to get ahead of the curve, write good unique content about the keywords and get it out there as fast as possible.
3) Syndicate content quickly so that it can be found by other media outlets - In a situation where you are news hijacking, you want to be very fast. The content is only going to be fresh for a short period of time and the window to get it out is within an hour or two. It's especially important if the news is ongoing and changing. Making a great meme and sharing it on Facebook is a perfect way to news hijack and link back to either your Facebook Page or blog. Remember even though it's news hijacking, whatever you are syndicating still needs to be unique and relevant enough so it will be shared.
For instance, if breaking news is 'President Obama Releases Budget', you can write about how the new budget may affect your specific industry using the keywords you’ve carefully researched. Then people who are searching for the news might see your content and become interested in your business!
Newsjacking leverages breaking news and the search demand on the corresponding keywords to gain visibility in the search rankings. Give it a try!
