Scaling Up Magazine Scaling Up Magazine April 2018 | Page 9

SPRING 2018
WHEN A couple of high-profile stars—
the Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies of the
world—get divorced, how does a lawyer
who’s never met them or had any such
famous clients leverage the news of the
divorce to put him and his company front
and center in top celebrity publications?
According to David Meerman Scott,
the answer for attorney Mitch Jackson
of Laguna Hills, California, is to figure
out an angle that is unique to a story
about the divorce. That way, Jackson can
become a resource to reporters covering
the story—and potentially get quoted in
it. In this case, perhaps he might provide
relevant legal information, such as the way
the couple’s assets would likely be split
under California divorce law or the laws
that would govern child custody rights
and visitation. Such a media mention
would raise his profile among readers
who might someday need his services.
The strategy proposed for Jackson is
known as newsjacking. It made the short
list of Oxford Dictionary 2017 Word of
the Year—a testament to the influence of
Scaleup Summit speaker and sales and
marketing strategist David Meerman Scott,
who popularized the term in his 2011
book Newsjacking: How to Inject Your
Ideas into a Breaking News Story and
Generate Tons of Media Coverage. Scott
is the author or co-author of ten books,
including The New Rules of Marketing
& PR, an international bestseller now in
its sixth edition, with more than 375,000
copies sold in English and available in 29.
languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese.
Now commonly found in the toolbox of
many marketers, newsjacking can be used
by businesses across the board to gain
greater exposure and business for their
companies. So what exactly is it, and how
can you put it to work for your company?
As defined by Scott—and now the
Oxford English Dictionary—newsjacking
is the practice of taking advantage
of current events or news stories in
DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT
9
"NOW COMMONLY FOUND IN THE TOOLBOX OF
MANY MARKETERS, NEWSJACKING CAN BE USED BY
BUSINESSES ACROSS THE BOARD TO GAIN GREATER
EXPOSURE AND BUSINESS FOR THEIR COMPANIES."
such a way as to promote or advertise
one's own product or brand. Here’s an
excerpt from the Oxford listing:
In the space of a few short years,
newsjacking has gone from an
experimental technique to a staple
in every social[-]media-savvy
marketing department’s arsenal.
Brands from across industry sectors
fully embraced the strategy this year
[2017], increasingly taking advantage
of current events to not only push their
brand into the public consciousness,
but to align themselves with certain
ethical or moral positions.
Scott has published a graphic entitled
“Life of a News Story” that illustrates
newsjacking. Resembling a standard
bell curve, it shows how interest in
a news story accelerates fairly early
in the cycle before quickly peaking
and then becoming “old news” that is
past its prime. The point at which the
graph depicts “journalists scramble for
additional information” is where the
opportunity for newsjacking arises.
As Scott sees it, journalists sometimes
need help in formulating that all-important
“second paragraph” of the news story,
where they give a unique spin that
differentiates their story from the hundreds
of other articles that may be written about
that very same topic. If you approach
the newsjacking angle creatively and
systematically, says Scott, your social
media post could be the one that breaks
through the clutter to viral dissemination
and much greater exposure for your firm.
Those hoping to score with a newsjacking
item may have to spend months or even
years perfecting various pitches before
a particular one takes holds in the
media. “It’s a combination of luck and
perseverance,” says Scott, who compares
the process to what an investor goes
through to find a winning start-up or what
a production studio goes through to hit
on a commercially successful movie.
The key to success, in Scott’s view, is to
select a nich e topic in which you have a
particular expertise that most others do not
have. He cites the example of a high-end
hair studio specializing in formal styles
that is able to newsjack Oscar coverage
with critiques of celebrity hairdos.
The best way to gain traction, advises Scott,
is to think carefully about keywords—those
particular words or phrases that serve to
summarize the contents of a web page.
If a reporter is searching for content and
happens to type search terms that are
contained in your article or blog post, he or
she may just happen upon your news and
choose to incorporate aspects of it into a
larger story. In the blink of an eye, your idea
A part
DRY
can IT'S
change ONLY
from being
of a blog post
seen by your company’s small community
PIECE
OF
BREAD
of perhaps
a few
thousand
to a key element
of national or international news headlines.
YET TO SOME IT
If you run a local business—like a
MEANS
SO for
MUCH.
landscaping
company,
example—you
will want to focus your efforts locally,
which is not only easier to accomplish
but better achieves your end goal of
generating new business. Consumer
product companies that market to
everyone, on the other hand, should feel
free to cast a bigger net and try for more
widespread coverage, Scott advises.
In this day and age, practically every
business should have an integrated social
media strategy, where it is leveraging