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

By David Meerman Scott

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Nov 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781118252314

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Copyright © 2012 by David Meerman Scott. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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ISBN 978-1-118-25230-7 (eMobi)

ISBN 978-1-118-25231-4 (ePub)

The Rules Have Changed

The eyes of the U.S. national news media were focused on America's heartland on the afternoon of August 13, 2011. They were drawn by Iowa's Ames Straw Poll, the first chance for Republican presidential contenders to test voter sentiment.

Meanwhile, a thousand miles east in South Carolina, another story was unfolding—one that quickly overshadowed the Straw Poll. Texas Governor Rick Perry officially announced that he, too, was running for the Republican nomination.

Rick Perry newsjacked the Iowa Straw Poll.

Eight candidates had barnstormed Iowa for weeks, spending buckets of money and time on a state with few electoral votes just because this was the first opportunity in the marathon of primaries to post a score. The media, eager to spot a Republican frontrunner in the 2012 U.S. presidential race, turned out in force.

In the end, it hardly mattered that Michele Bachmann came in first with 28.6 percent or that Ron Paul was runner-up. Who was in the TV news spotlight that night? Rick Perry. Who were all the online news sites and bloggers talking