What Is Newsjacking? Market Smarter, Not Harder

If you follow my blog posts, my videos, or you just know me - you're familiar with the fact that I've always been a massive advocate for businesses staying up to date from a marketing standpoint in every way they can. Especially in a field as volatile as marketing, staying in the loop with current trends, strategies and basic insights is mandatory for those wanting to stay competitive. Newjacking, the process of monitoring current popular or trending topics and then incorporating them into business strategy, takes this to an entirely new level. The word 'newsjacking' - a combination of 'news' and 'hijacking' - refers to businesses taking advantage of certain happenings out in the world, and even spinning those events to pertain to a certain industry or product. Ultimately - especially in the age of social media and real-time updates - trends move like waves. Businesses that learn to surf the waves of change and use them to their advantage will have a much better ride than those that don't. Together, let's break it down.

Especially for businesses on the seacoast, newsjacking is something done intuitively on a very basic level. Take a surf shop, for instance. If there are good conditions for surfing, they'll almost certainly post about them on social media. When hurricane season rolls around, you'll see videos about swells, projected storms, empty beaches during the week, and even products. This is a simple, effective way of accomplishing newsjacking. When something in the world has happened that holds relevance to your business, incorporate it into your strategy. If we were to stay with the surf shop example, chances are that if someone interested in surfing were to see a video about optimal surfing conditions or big waves in the future, they would be far more likely to buy a board. If you understand this, you have a very solid foundation for understanding how newsjacking works.

The challenge comes in finding ways to get creative when material isn't easily visible. Let's stick with the surf shop example I illustrated above. It's easy to post an Instagram story showing a picture with giant waves, but what about during flat periods? What if it's winter, and your New England shop doesn't have a huge market for board sales so you want to focus your outbound & inbound marketing strategies on clothing?

Google Trends is a fantastic place to start. The first step is seeing what's actually out there for you to work with. Not everything is going to be relevant for your business though, and that's okay. The key is consistently finding topics that you can speak on, elaborate on, or capitalize on because they somehow relate to your business. Exploring other methods of staying up to date and in the know is an excellent move as well, and believe me - there are many out there. The age of social media has brought about an unprecedented level of connection. Society moves fast now, and staying on pace, being informed, and not being afraid to offer opinions have become essential pillars for every business to uphold. At YBMK, this is certainly a part of how we help clients - and if your business could use assistance with this, we strongly encourage you to reach out.

So for my business owners out there, I propose the following question: how can you creatively use events in the world to draw attention, recognition and hopefully traffic for your organization?