I Coined "Newsjacking": How YOU Can Earn Media Visibility in Real-Time

Full Transcript

0:00If you want to begin implementing this idea of newsjacking, um, you should Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Jolly SEO's TL;DR. And this week, I am grateful we have David Meerman Scott, newsjacking.com. You can check him out or David Meerman Scott. Uh, David, you have an amazing background. You've not only been a model, a theater actor, but you have this incredible history going from Japan to PR to pretty much when the internet was in its infancy figuring out how to attract people through newsjacking. And so today, I'm on the tail end of it all. We do earned media outreach or SEO. Yep.

0:52all finally heard this term newsjacking in the last couple years which you coined since before I worked in SEO. So, thank you for taking the time to explain what it is and I'd love to dive into it. Sure. And and newsjacking is just one of the things I do. I've written um I've let written 13 books. Newsjacking is one of them. Um and um I started my career in a bond trading desk. I got really deep into how information works back in the early 2000s and um started writing and speaking about how information um is a great way to generate attention for all kinds of businesses um when I started my own business back in 2002.

1:33So I've been going strong now for well more than 20 years. And um and when the web went real time about 15 years ago, a little bit more than 15 years ago, um the web went real time. Prior to that, if you updated a website, it took um weeks or months for Google and the other search engines to index the website and be able to surface the change you made to the website. But Google went real time uh about 15 years or so ago and that allowed for what I call newsjing which I'll talk about in a second. The other thing that happened is the real time social networks got started around that same time uh especially Twitter.

2:20And so these were ways that you could generate attention by creating realtime instant content. So um I um have pioneered this idea of newsjacking. Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story. So what that means in practice is all of us who are trying to generate attention through search engine optimization through our websites through um social media every one of us um has some expertise. we're experts in some um aspect of um of business or of of life or whatever it might be. In your case, you're you're an expert in search engine optimization and SEO.

3:09In my case, um I look at myself as an expert in how to generate fans of a business, how to generate attention without spending any money. Um, and there when there's a breaking news story happening right now, me the media, meaning reporters and editors are looking for experts to quote. And if it's something that potentially could be purchased, people are looking for a company to provide those ideas um those those products and services to be sold. Um, so let me give you an example of that.

3:57Imagine that there's a um imagine that there's a new um cyber security attack going on and that cyber attack has a name like for example couple years ago there was one called the wan to cry ransom attacks. Now, if you're an expert in cyber security or you're an expert in understanding that particular ransom attack, bang, you have an opportunity right now to create instant content on your website in the form of a webinar perhaps um a blog post uh it could be a YouTube video, it could be um sharing on social media you if there's a recognized hashtag for that particular rule. somewhere attack, you should use that hashtag.

4:43Put that information out right now and then that might generate attention because people are like, "Oh my gosh, there's this new ransom attack. What the heck do I do? How do I protect myself?" And your content is out there. And this is true of any kind of business. We put that content out instantly. It gets indexed in the search engines because the search engines are real time as we just talked about. you push that out on social networks. If you if you if there's a recognized hashtag, you push that out and maybe the media um magazine, radio, television, newspaper reporters will reach out to you to uh quote you in the stories as they're beginning to write them. Or let's say you provide cyber security software.

5:22Bingo. People are looking to uh subscribe to your services to protect themselves from this new attack. Uh, so that's the way it works. That's what newsjacking is. Um, it it needs speed. You need to do it quickly. Hey, hope you're enjoying the show. We're going to get right back to it. Real quick, if you're not sure how you're showing up in AI tools like Chat, GPT, Perplexity, and the like, click on that first link in the description. If you fill that out for us, we'll send you your own AI visibility report and see how we can help you boost your results.

5:54All right, without further ado, remember that link and enjoy the rest of the show. Yeah, think thinking about speed, a lot of our clients, for example, are very concerned with the accuracy of the statements that we put out. And yep, obviously they have in-house subject matter experts to lean on, but if we're trying to be fast, how concerned are we with an evolving situation, not knowing the total picture and making a statement that may later be revealed to have not aligned with reality? Well, it is really important if you're going to use this technique called newsjacking. And by the way, the technique has become super popular around the world.

6:41Um, I pioneered it maybe 15 years ago. It's now listed in the Oxford English dictionary. Um, and my name is attached to it, which is super cool. Um, there's um, hundreds of thousands of hits on the search engines um, about newsjacking. So it is mainstream now but it does require speed because the pe the reporters and editors are looking for an expert now not two hours from now not tomorrow not next week now. So it's very important to get that information out there when the moment is right.

7:32So, what I recommend that people do is um is to get pre-approval to be able to do an instant blog post or an instant social media post um or do an instant video or whatever it might be as your technique to get those ideas into the marketplace. So what that means in uh a practical sense is if you want to begin implementing this idea of newsjacking um you should call a meeting that would include whoever the right um constituents are. Maybe it's if it's a smaller company maybe it even includes the CEO. Um if it's a larger company your department head or whatever it is. But maybe you need to bring in people from the legal side. Maybe you bring need to bring in people from the public relations side. Maybe you need to bring in marketers.

8:10Uh it depends on your organization, but bring the right people into a room or a virtual room and discuss this idea of newsjacking and how the idea is um that if you get your information out there quickly, you can generate attention right now. And it can be it can be mind-blowingly um popular uh as a way to generate attention in such a way that um that you could have a 100 new clients tomorrow because people are looking for somebody that has what you offer. So get that pre-approval now.

9:01Or if your company is unwilling to give a blanket pre-approval, have a list of two or three people that you can reach day or night to get an approval in real time because you never know when a news story is going to break. It could be breaking right now. It could be breaking at midnight. It could be breaking on a Sunday. It could be breaking on a holiday. It could be breaking on New Year's Eve. You just never know when that story is going to happen. And if you wait till people are back in their comfortable office, it's probably too late. Yep. Yeah. We t we're talking about the art and the science going a little deeper into the science and the timing. Organically, we're plugged into our niche.

9:45we're we're consuming media and we're generally aware, but what are some monitoring systems or that you've developed over the years that someone could construct on our end to really stay tuned in to what's happening in the moment? So, it's it's interesting because you never really know what this what a potential story is going to be that you can comment on that might generate attention. So, what I always recommend is that you set up a couple of different ways to monitor the news. One way is as you just described it, set set up um very specific keywords for the kinds of things that you're an expert in.

10:34Um and so again going back to this example I shared, if you're an expert in cyber security and ransomware uh attacks and how to protect people from ransomware attacks, um you probably want to have um uh search strings set up that you're monitoring on a real-time basis. um things like ransomware attacks and and and and probably dozens or even hundreds of other keywords. However, however, there are um opportunities when a news story pops up that you never saw coming that you never expected would happen. So, I also recommend besides setting up all of those uh keyword searches that can that can alert you in real time also to look at a general um news service.

11:23So, I like Google News, but there's other services that you can use without having any personalization attached to it because what you're looking for are are general stories that you might be able to attach yourself to. So, I'll give you an example of that. A couple of years ago, um I was just scrolling through Google News. Um um I don't remember if it was on my computer or on my mobile phone, but I have Google News set up on both places. And it doesn't need to be Google News, but a a good news source that looks at different types of news um outlets.

12:08And I noticed that Donald Trump um reinstated his Twitter account and did his first tweet after having been kicked off Twitter um uh uh several years earlier um because he was violating Twitter's terms of service. Oh my gosh, Donald Trump just tweeted again for the first time in something like three years. That's interesting. That's not something I ever would have guessed or I ever would have had a search result set up for um u on a news service. I never would have had a a a Google News um alert set up for Donald Trump retw um finally doing a tweet again. But so when he did tweet for the first time in years because he was reinstated onto Twitter, that was interesting and that was interesting news.

12:58So I did I I saw it happen um on my Google News search. I uh uh not search but my my Google News um uh just looking through the headlines of what was going on that day and I immediately did a blog post about it. Like right then I dropped everything and did a blog post about it. push the button, push the blog post out, and within about 20 minutes, I got an email from the BBC. And the BBC wanted to interview me live on television right away um and asked me if we could set up a Zoom right then. I mean, that was like instant right then to talk about Donald Trump now um re getting reinstated in Twitter.

13:39And because I've written a number of books about social media and about real-time marketing and about newsjacking and about other things, um they decided I was a a good person to interview for the story. So I sure I said sure, happy to do that. Um I have this great home studio here in my house. Uh I have a vacation house where I also have a home studio where I happen to be at the time. So, I did a a live hookup with BBC, got on BBC um news all over the world um with this little story about Donald Trump getting back onto Twitter, but it was because I was fast. And in this case, it was a story I never saw coming. Never saw coming.

14:17Um and and that's the idea of how this can work. That's amazing. Uh I want to also talk about the art, but we only have a few more minutes together. So, we specialize in ghost writing here. We do the outreach for our clients uh a little even beyond maybe what a PR agency would do where we try to make it fully hands-off. Just curious your take. Everyone philosophically or ethically has a different take on ghostriting. Where do you stand in terms of, you know, we want to do it fast so we we make it hands-off for our clients. How do you feel about that?

15:01Um, I think that if the if content is created and it has tremendous value, um, and, um, and it's accurate and it reflects the brand of the company that's pushing it out, I think that having um, help to create that content is valid. whether that's a human like in your case ghostwriting something um or the use of artificial intelligence to do a first draft of something but I do think it's also very important that the organization is aware of how this content is being created and that it has true value and it's not just AI slop that's being thrown out there. um there's there's way too much junk out there. So, putting out more junk is not going to be helpful.

15:53In fact, can be very harmful to a brand. So, um I'm fine with having the writing outsourced. I don't see an issue with having the writing itself out outsourced, but I do think it's very very important that the organization that does that outsourcing either to humans or machines um makes absolutely sure that what's being created is of is of value. Now, I mentioned earlier that it's really important to get that content out quickly and I I also recommended having uh a meeting with the right constituents in the room or the virtual room to talk about that.

16:41So perhaps what that means is that um in your case um if your firm is helping a company or another person listening in on there is is also um being able to help someone that you're included in that meeting and and then maybe they can sign off the company or your client can sign off and say sure um I'm happy to have you ghostright put something out there as long as you understand our brand and our guidelines and our um uh our voice and whatnot. It is okay for you to do that in real time when the moment's right because we're able to do the newsjacking of a story. Um, I have one more comment on this idea of newsjacking.

17:19We've got a couple more minutes if you have a couple more questions. My my favorite question is always what did I not ask? Uh, I whenever I meet someone like you with a wealth of expertise, I don't assume I've got the best questions. So, I'd love to close comment on you Jacking, please. Sure. So, so the question that you could have asked is okay, so now um search engine optimization is being disrupted because of the AI search engines, you know, whether it's perplexity or the new ways that you can find things through uh chatbt or Google, whatever. Um they're pulling up um uh often pulling up um artificial intelligence generated results.

17:57Well, here's what's really cool about newsjacking is because when a news story breaks and people are doing a search on it, um, the AI engines don't have the history to go back on because it's a brand new story. So, if you're getting your stuff out there right now and it's being found on your website or it's being found because you just got quoted in the media on a brand new breaking news story, you can get tons of attention through those AI search engines. So, this is a really cool technique newsjacking to get found in the new AI focused search engines. That's awesome. David, thank you so much for your time today.

18:44Again, can look for you. davidmeermanscott.com, newsjacking.com. Anywhere else you want people to look for you? Um, uh, on social media. I'm easil easy to be found because, um, and you would appreciate this because you're an SEO guy. Um, my name, my full name, David Meerman Scott. I'm the only one in the world. There are thousands of David Scott. So that's why I use my middle my middle name, David Meerman Scott. Google me, you'll find me. Personal branding expert. That is awesome. Thank you so much for your time, David. My pleasure, Greg. Thanks for having me on.