Big brands like to use: newsjacking. But what exactly is newsjacking exactly, and how can you use it as a blogger to attract more visitors to your blog?
What is newsjacking?
Newsjacking is hooking on current events in real time media. The phenomenon of newsjacking only came into being when real-time media became available. In the pre-internet era, newsjacking was therefore virtually impossible because it was not possible to let certain content go viral in a short time.
Not all creations came from the brands themselves – there were also a number of creations that were created on individual initiative – but this did not detract from the effect that the contributors had on the audience. #Elfstedentocht was trending topic. The images were massively shared via social media, and blogs such as Versereclame and Advertising Blog attracted thousands of extra visitors by collecting and compiling the handlers.
Newsjacking for bloggers
Big brands use newsjacking to increase brand awareness among the general public. But newsjacking is also a very interesting way for bloggers to attract more visitors to a blog and thus expand the readership.
As a blogger, you can profit from the leverage created by content that has been specially designed to respond to current events. As a blogger, you can use existing content, but of course, you can also create content yourself and publish it via your blog. The chance that these contributors are taken over by other bloggers and other online channels is much larger than with regular content.
Planned vs. unplanned
Newsjacking can take place both planned and unscheduled. Planned newsjacking can be done as a blogger utilizing an hook-up calendar, which allows you to select certain days in advance. You then deliberately predetermined time to put out content from your blog on specific themes of a particular day. That can be a day like King’s Day, Prinsjesdag or Secreteressedag, but a little less known can also provide a lot of possibilities.
“The consequence of early publishing of contributors is that you will be quickly taken over as a source by other media, which will make you rise above in search engines and get more traffic through other media. “
The advantage of planned newsjacking is that you can do your work as a blogger. This way you can compose an overview of content that responds to the current affairs in question, or you can devise and develop creative content yourself. This allows you to do most of the work when it suits you, and it is not much work on the day itself to get the content online.
Unplanned newsjacking occurs when suddenly something happens that is picked up by the media and is widely discussed by the general public. That can be different events such as scandals, statements, disasters, sports scores; you name it. As a blogger, you have the advantage that you can switch quickly. You can shoot a blog post into the online world within a very short time and in some cases are faster than other media.
If you want to do unscheduled newsjacking, make sure that you can let other activities take a rest, and focus fully on the event that is going on.
Be quick
Easier said than done, but very important in newsjacking: be the first, or if that is not possible one of the first.
The closer you get to a news source, the sooner you can be aware of certain events. Being the first one as a blogger will often be difficult, but you can actively work on building contacts in your blog niche that can provide you with scoops.
The consequence of early publishing of contributors is that you will be quickly taken over as a source by other media, which will cause you to rise above in search engines and get more traffic through other media.
Keep in mind the search engines.
If you have managed to put your hand on local content with a high potential as a backer, it is good to take into account the fact that the general public will search through mass search engines for content about the event in question.
So move in the head of this group of people, and incorporate these keywords into the title and the rest of your blog post. Do not overdo it here and write the text in the first instance for the visitor, but realize that omitting these keywords can make a lot of visitors.
Turn content off via selected channels.
To receive a maximum number of visitors, it is recommended to turn off the content via multiple channels. To begin with, everyone has access to “regular channels” that you use more often for publishing blog content, such as various social media and social bookmarking websites.
It also helps when you have an overview of influential people and channels within your niche. They can be bloggers and journalists, or other individuals and organizations that have a large constituency.
It is often worth investing in these contacts, as warmer connections are more inclined to mention your blog as a source in their message. A personal mail, tweet or comment via a blog can sometimes be enough to increase the number of visitors to your article.
Monitor!
Keep an eye on your visitor numbers (Google real-time analytics) and monitor what is happening on your blog. This way you can precisely check through which channels most visitors enter. This is very important because you can identify where necessary (for example in the form of comments on other blogs or social media channels) and gain valuable insights on what works well and what does not work as well, so you can put these lessons on a apply next time.
Permanent effect
Newsjacking can cause a massive, temporary increase in your visitor numbers, but that does not necessarily stop. Successful piggyback content can really put your blog on the map, and ensure that people regularly return to your blog.
For maximum effect, it is therefore important that you post many new entries on your blog quickly after your successful newsjacking, to actually keep these new followers.
Have you ever applied newsjacking to your blog, or do you know good examples of other bloggers who have done this? We look forward to seeing your examples in the comment section under this article!