When is it OK for your brand to weigh in on breaking news?

Digital PRs and link builders know there’s nothing like newsjacking to help get a content campaign off the ground, especially amid a tough news cycle. We’ve all used the tactic of piggybacking off a trending topic of interest to earn coverage for our brand or client’s brand.

You can’t go about newsjacking the same way in 2020 as you may have in years past. The significant events of 2020 in the U.S., namely the global coronavirus pandemic and the murder of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests across the country, are serious topics. You can’t throw something together last minute.

If you do it wrong, at best you won’t receive any press mentions. At worst, you will create a tone-deaf campaign that damages your brand reputation and hurts readers.

Here’s a short guide on how to do newsjacking right in 2020, if you must:

Contribute to the conversation (positively). 

Marketers often try to keep content lighthearted and playful to earn press.

I’ve personally noticed that the heavier the topic, the harder it is to earn coverage. This particularly holds true if the methodology for the project is unsubstantiated (i.e., the data you use hasn’t been tested for statistical significance). Serious journalists cover serious topics that merit serious methodologies.