Every professional services firm is competing for the attention of the same relatively small business and government audience. If you want your firm to be noticed and recognised for its expertise, start newsjacking.
Last weekend (16 July 2022), ABC News published a story about how a Melbourne woman felt patronised, dehumanised, and “like clickbait” after she was filmed without her consent for a TikTok video which has now been viewed more than 57 million times and garnered over 12 million likes.
In the video, the woman was duped into accepting a bunch of flowers from a “self-styled Insta-Samaritan”. When she asked if she was being filmed, the aspiring influencer’s associates told her no.
The story, which was broken by respected journalist, Virginia Trioli, has subsequently been picked up by scores of other Australian and international media outlets including The Guardian, News.com.au, Mashable, New York Post, Herald Sun, The Australian, and BBC.
Because our professional services firm clients include a number of commercial law firms, what struck us was that no law firm has seized on the opportunity to add a legal spin to the conversation. Yet, the story is immensely newsjack-able. Is it legal to film someone without them knowing? Is it legal to publish that content without the person’s consent? Is there any law in place to protect someone who has been lied to about being filmed? Could a ‘victim’ demand the content be taken down? Does a ‘victim’ have any other legal rights?
Having shared the story in a relevant LinkedIn group, it became evident to us that there were numerous legal considerations (there was mention of defamation, passing off, consumer and competition, privacy, and criminal laws).
It was also clear that no one engaged in the group discussion could offer a comprehensive point of view.
We’re huge advocates of newsjacking which is the practice of taking inspiration from the news and current affairs in such a way as to promote your own business or brand.
Newsjacking is a gift for professional services firms as it gives you a hook that will capture your target audience’s attention.
Generate Earned Media by Newsjacking
If we were responsible for communications at a commercial law firm, we would have attempted to newsjack this story. To do that, first thing Monday we would have assembled a SWAT team of subject matter experts and asked them to workshop the issues.
- What laws are relevant to this situation?
- Were any laws broken?
- What, if any, recourse might the ‘victim’ have?
- What advice might we offer to other others who have been caught in a similar situation?
If we worked for a global law firm, we might have proposed that our counterparts in other jurisdictions do the same so we could issue a country-by-country comparison. Had this occurred in the UK or US or Japan or France, how might it have played out?
Then, we would have gone on the attack: developing a by-line article or op-ed (for a publication such as Lawyers Weekly), a media pitch (to entice general news and legal writers and producers to interview our spokespeople), a client alert (to be blasted out to our corporate and commercial mailing list), a blog post (for our firm’s website and social media assets), and an internal communication (for continuous legal education purposes).
Though the example presented here relates to the legal sector, there are newsjacking opportunities for the other categories of professional services every other day.
Newsjacking is one of the easiest ways to generate earned media which makes us wonder why more professional services firms aren’t doing it.
TikTok.
If you like what we have to say, and how we say it, join our B2B services marketing commmunity.
