What is newsjacking? Newsjacking is another creative way to syndicate content and earn links to your website. Newsjacking springs from content marketing but it is not quite the same. To newsjack, you ride the high of breaking news, focus on those keywords and the content that people are currently searching when finding information on the breaking news, and write something about it that is relevant to you and your business. The biggest difference between content marketing and newsjacking is that when newsjacking a story you have to be super speedy and write while it's hot!
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Hello. Welcome to our video on newsjacking today. I'm Chad Hill, and I have Adam Stetzer here with me.
Good afternoon, Chad. People in search engine optimization are always looking for creative ways to syndicate content, get backlinks. I thought we'd talk to our viewers today about this interesting concept about newsjacking, and maybe try to address if they want to newsjack a story, how to newsjack, what is newsjacking, and where do they get started on seo newsjacking?
Yeah. Well, the first thing to make sure people understand is that newsjacking is really a subset or a sub-discipline of content marketing, which we spent a lot of time talking about.
I don't think negative turn. Is it bad?
It's interesting. I don't think it really is. And I think that goes with what we're about to talk about. Really, what you're doing is just finding a way to insert yourself in the news cycle. So you're looking for relevant information that's happening and your breaking news that's happening in your industry and finding a way to participate in that news.
Right. And that would be the same thing we would say about content marketing, except usually, in content marketing, we're not focused on news. We're focused more on how to's or technical information. So newsjacking, if you want to newsjack a story, is a subset of content marketing.
But that's still pretty vague. How do you actually newsjack a story for SEO purposes?
Now, I think there's three ways that, often, you can do that. One is that you add to the story. So someone breaks a story but you have something to add to it.
Another way to newsjack a story is to interpret it. So maybe there's some news breaks, but you're bringing a specific set of information from your experience and you're able to interpret that news in a way that makes it more useful for people. And I think those are two important ways. Adam, are there any other newsjacking ideas you can think of?
I think you can add opinion. You could try to link it to other controversy. Some of the same things you may have used in generic content marketing would probably apply here to newsjacking.
But what's most interesting in what you said, Chad, is you talked about the news cycle and as it's breaking. So the concept of newsjacking is different than content marketing, because it's very, very time sensitive. And so you're talking about a demand for a news story that will probably be fleeting. And you need to catch it on the upswing to have any impact, right?
Absolutely. And I think that one of the things that's really important, then, is that if you can catch it on the upswing and you can either insert or add opinion or add information, then you're able to actually become a primary news source, which is really, then, when you have gone from participating in a news break to actually becoming the news, which is really the goal of newsjacking.
Right. And that segues nicely into, OK, I'm starting to understand what you guys mean by this term newsjacking, but how in the world does it have any benefit for PR or SEO for syndication or creating buzz? So maybe we can talk through that.
So if you did what you were talking about, you got in early on demand for a news story. And then you did some aggregation. You inserted some opinion. Maybe you did some research and actually added value, got that out there still early enough in the cycle that other people were finding you. I still don't see the connection in how that may help you or a client you're working for marketing.
Yeah. Well, this is when it becomes-- really, the trick here is figuring out how to insert your brand or your link into that story that you are participating in. So and that's why it has to be relevant. It can't just be you pick any news about something that's going on in Afghanistan. If you're in the SEO industry, you need to have something that's relevant so that you can add your content and then you can basically point people, in some way, back to some information that you have on your website or mention you name so that you build a little awareness of who you are.
And there's the trick. And so let's blow everybody's mind right now. So right now, Chad, you and I are newsjacking the demand for the term newsjacking, because there's demand out there right now. People are searching, trying to understand what this is.
And we're going to catch that. We know it's there. It's early. No everyone knows what this term is. So there are people looking for primary sources. We didn't invent this. So we're not the first source.
So what are we going to do? Well, we've gone out and researched it. I wrote a very long article on Search Engine Watch about this topic which got 60 plus comments. So we have something valuable to say, help interpret what this thing is.
And then we're going to syndicate it. And my guess is we will be pointed to as, then, another source and continue to ride that wave. So there's a great example in our industry. Can people do that in, say, other industries, like plumbing or automotive or medical?
Yeah. I think absolutely. There's always new things in every industry. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't change a lot. But there's always new trends, new techniques that you can participate in and talk about how to apply those techniques, whether it's to other people in your industry or whether it's to end customers. And you can get involved in that news and make it your own.
And I think another great way to do it is insert a quote from a business owner in that space. People in print media have done this for decades. As they're covering a breaking story and they're talking about it, as they start to filter it out and interpret for the readers, they'll say, for an opinion on this, we asked so and so, an owner of a firm in this space. And he said the following.
So you can include a quote, who might be one of your clients, which is a legitimate way to bring them into that news discussion and get them a citation or maybe even a back link. And if you've done that, you have successfully newsjacked the story.