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Newsjacking leads people directly into the buying process

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

Case Studies  |  Newsjacking  |  Brand Journalism  |  Best Practices

The idea of newsjacking is quite simple: it is the art and science of injecting your ideas into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage and social attention for yourself or your business.

Thousands of people have used the technique to get their take into news stories.

Frequently people push back and say that newsjacking is frivolous. So what if you get into the news, they say, we’re interested in making sales. Well there is no question: Newsjacking drives new business.

Real-time content creation

MultiCare TwitterMany companies now use newsjacking not just as a PR technique but also as a tool to generate B2B sales leads and drive new business for consumer brands. It works even in highly regulated industries like healthcare and finance.

Last week after my keynote at the Healthcare Internet Conference, Jeremy Harrison of MultiCare Health System shared a cool newsjacking example.

MultiCare is an integrated health organization made up of hospitals, primary care and urgent care clinics, multi-specialty centers, Hospice, Home Health, and other services, located in Washington state.

MultiCare FacebookJeremy says that they sprung to action, publishing real-time content to become a part of a conversation happening online after an emotional episode of the popular TV drama Downton Abbey dealing with eclampsia.

The team wrote a blog post right away and shared it on Facebook and Twitter. The post Doctor Q&A: Downton Abbey Highlights Dangers Of Eclampsia that was available the day after the episode aired in January 2013 right when people were discussing eclampsia. Within the blog post were links where interested people could learn more or book an appointment with a physician.

Cole Cosgrove wrote the story. He's one of four former journalists on the MultiCare Health digital content team and a talented writer. I love how MultiCare Health brings the newsroom mindset to content creation.

Driving people into the buying process

The blog post quickly generated well over 1,000 pageviews, with people spending an average of five minutes on the page.

Jeremy can directly trace about 30 clicks through to the MultiCare Find a Physician page in their Women’s & Children’s careline, the place where they can book appointments.

As Jeremy’s story of how Newsjacking helped drive people into MultiCare’s buying process shows, being a part of the conversations around breaking news stories can drive business.