Creating a strong executive brand that sets you apart and promotes growth is challenging and time-consuming.
Luckily, there are a few tactics you can master to improve your outlook. One of which is newsjacking.
What is newsjacking, and why is important?
In this article, we answer these questions and more, so you can consistently influence media trends and make the right impression on your audience.
If you want to build a powerful executive brand, you need to separate yourself from your business and show that you’re a real person with real interests, views, and ambitions.
Newsjacking allows you to do so by showing that you’re constantly dialled into the needs of your community by injecting your thoughts and ideas into trending debates to generate media attention and brand exposure.
You can even veer away from technical topics and towards social ones to connect with audiences on an even deeper level.
For instance, if several firms have come under fire for unfair hiring practices, you can newsjack to express your views about moral HR policies and the benefits of diversity to show solidarity with your employees.
Over time, as you build a rapport with your audiences, they’ll expect you to provide counsel whenever a story that’s relevant to them breaks and you'll slowly grow your following.
Essentially, newsjacking should be seamless. Journalists and their readers shouldn’t question your place within a story but engage with your messaging.
You want your audiences to take value from your ideas. Then, perhaps, Google your name, connect with you on LinkedIn, and follow the activities of your business.
The first thing to do is search for a prominent story to comment on that you and your audiences are closely following. It could be a trend as macro as inflation or as niche as web-3.
After you’ve made sure that you’re to qualified to speak about the topic, make sure that have a fresh perspective to move the story forward.
Audiences love predictions, hot takes and contrarian views that spark a frenzy. So, don’t be too pedestrian.
You’ll now need to approach a journalist who’s been writing about the story you want to newsjack with a pitch. This will package up any information about you and your company, the topics you want to address, and why your views are relevant.
After all, if you can’t convince a journalist, you’re not going to have an opportunity to convince their readers.
What’s key here is that you do your research to understand where the current debate is at and how you might progress it.
In the case of rising inflation, you might have led research for a new model that predicts the impact of inflationary trends on consumer behaviour, pricing strategies, and purchasing power.
This could be of huge value to fellow business leaders, economists, and policymakers in the lead-up to a government budget, giving a journalist good reason to interview you.
Depending on the life cycle of the story, you need to act as quickly as you can, or others will steal your thunder.
If this happens, you’ll struggle to stand out among a sea of others vying for the spotlight, which increases daily as more companies turn to newsjacking as a marketing tactic.
Before you think about newsjacking, assess the situation first to avoid making a miscalculated mistake.
Are you exploiting a tragedy?
Are you connecting yourself to an unrelated topic?
Are you deliberately or inadvertently mudslinging?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you risk sparking a backlash.
Making these mistakes are hard for a company to come back from. But for an individual it’s even tougher.
Just think about cancel culture and how easy it is for one irresponsible tweet to stain a public figure’s image.
You want to build your executive brand to improve your career prospects, not push people away from you.
There are several tools you can use, including BuzzSumo, Twitter hashtags, Google Trends, and more. But the best of all is arguably a simple keyword scan on any search engine.
This is the easiest way you can deep dive across different topics and find all the information you need to make an informed decision about whether you should newsjack.
Otherwise, you risk making incorrect claims that won’t do your executive brand any good.
Although you’ll need to act quickly depending on the story, the more time you commit to surfing relevant keywords, the better.
You need to focus on building strong relationships with journalists. This will improve your pitch response time and give you a favourable advantage over others.
When you have strong relationships with journalists, there's a good chance they will proactively approach you whenever a new story breaks.
But before this can happen, you need to network.
Attend conferences and events that you expect journalists to be at and consider inviting them for a coffee to break the ice.
You also need to bear in mind that journalists won’t trust you unless they can rely on you to deliver relevant insights on time.
Any poorly written, past deadline pitches will only impact your reputation in their eyes. So, don't let journalists down if they've agreed to work with you.
Lastly, you need to be patient. Journalists aren’t robots, they face time constraints, get ill, and have other considerations to think about before you. So, respect their time.
The best newsjacking campaigns are led by executives with an already strong executive brand that easily attracts the media.
Across their LinkedIn, websites, and prior media coverage, they have clearly signposted the issues they care about and what their business stands for, which helps journalists instantly recognise whether they are relevant to their work.
Sometimes when an executive's brand is exceptionally strong, they will have tangible influence within their industries, shaping trends, driving innovation, and causing others to follow in their footsteps.
For journalists working with these figures, they know their readers will be drawn to coverage that features them.
On the flip side, this can mean that executives who don't work for a recognisable business can struggle to attract the spotlight and thereby, successfully newsjack, particularly the founder of a new start-up.
In this case, these executives will usually have to resort to other communications channels where they can go viral.
Newsjacking isn’t limited to media relations.
It can also take place across social media, company blogs, and advertising, where it’s often used more creatively to incite humour or sadness to make a brand or individual memorable.
For instance, following a power outage at Super Bowl XLVII, the cookie company Oreo tweeted “you can still dunk in the dark” to turn a blackout into a marketing opportunity.
Similarly, during the COVID-19 lockdown, when gyms were closed, Ben Francis, founder of Gymshark, launched a workout-at-home campaign, partnering with influencers to keep his business front of mind for fitness fanatics.
The trick to performing well on social platforms lies in how entrepreneurs like Ben tap into trending keywords, which LinkedIn's algorithms prioritise.
That said, make sure that you stick to topics you are qualified to speak about since LinkedIn will also judge whether the keywords you use align with your profile information before giving your post a boost.
Whether you planned to or not, newsjacking can lead to you becoming the centre of a story.
This is particularly common when you already have a well established executive brand, and sometimes, not every reaction to your ideas will be positive.
The first thing to do is brush up on your media training since you may face interviews where journalists ask testing questions, especially as the story evolves.
They might do this if they disagree with your views or simply want additional sound bites for a new piece of coverage.
In this instance, media training from a comms professional will ensure that your statements and actions are always backed by credible information and align with the story.
You should also maintain consistency with your brand voice and values, while continuing to add value to the conversation.
If some audiences have reacted badly to your input, you must clarify your position promptly to avoid reputational damage.
However, most importantly, learn from the experience, such as how different publications operate, the angles journalists are interested in, and what views audiences disagree with.
The greatest drawback to newsjacking content is that it isn’t evergreen content. So, as interest in the topic that you newsjack declines, so will traffic to your website and profile.
Case-in-point, newsjacking should never be solely relied upon to build your executive brand. Instead, use it occasionally to help keep yourself relevant alongside original, timeless, and value-driven thought leadership content.
If you hedge all your bets on newsjacking, you risk leaving your brand vulnerable when the buzz fades. You’ll also seem desperate if you look to newsjack too often.
Though executives within any industry can newsjack, naturally those commenting on finance, politics, and sustainability trends tend to perform well.
Finance executive’s benefit from an industry with lots of fluctuations and regular reporting, which brings constant windows for commentary.
Politics is similarly ever evolving and highly relevant to a range of different industries with publications always looking for industry insight.
Leaders commenting on sustainability trends back up their ideas with genuine action, lending to greater engagement and the avoidance of greenwashing accusations.
Whatever the case, though, as long as you’re semi-credible with something bold and thought-provoking to say, you have a good chance at positively impacting a trending discussion and improving the visibility of your executive brand.
Once you’ve secured numerous pieces of coverage, make sure that you’re extracting maximum value out of each story to support your executive brand in the best way possible.
Firstly, share the very best pieces on your LinkedIn and other social accounts, where you can reiterate your central argument and improve your visibility and engagement.
Coverage shared to your website can also boost your conversion rates and sales by improving your credibility.
Consider bringing coverage to any important meetings you attend too. This might include an important lobbying meeting where you aim to influence policy within your industry.
Additionally, when pitching new ideas to journalists, consider sharing links to previous articles to improve the prospect of them working with you.
Quite often, when an executive and their company features in a news story, media outlets will include relevant website links so their readers can learn more.
When building your executive brand, this can be considerably valuable since the more backlinks you have, the better your website will rank on search engines.
This has a snowball effect, whereas the better your content ranks, the more audiences discover it, such as investors, customers, or potential partners, which can directly boost your bottom line in the long run.
Newsjacking in 2025 and beyond is expected to become much tougher to execute than it was in the past.
On one hand, with AI-powered news generation, real-time analytics, and social media platforms driving constant updates, the window for seizing and capitalising on trending stories will become even shorter.
On the other, audiences are increasingly growing more discerning, often questioning the authenticity or intentions behind individuals leveraging news for visibility.
With this in mind, you’ll need to work much harder to stand out in what has become an oversaturated landscape.
Short-form video content remains popular across LinkedIn, TikTok and other social media platforms, giving you a direct means to reach large audiences with your media interventions almost instantaneously.
Niche media platforms continue to rapidly grow. So, when you’re pitching your ideas to media outlets, don’t forget to include them. You’ll achieve far more media hits, enhancing your credibility and optics.
Data-driven stories are in-demand, especially amid the threat of misinformation. So, when pitching to a journalist, don’t forget to leverage data to not only strengthen your argument but legitimise it.
Broadcast media remains the most trusted platform. When building your media network, focus on building relationships with producers and guest bookers who can secure you a slot on a news show.
With these tips, you can improve the effectiveness of your newsjacking and strengthen your executive brand.