As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, you as a marketer are of course looking for appropriate ways to augment your brand's visibility and profits. One strategy to try is newsjacking. The term was invented by author David Meerman Scott, who defines newsjacking as implementing your brand's content or opinion into news stories that are breaking online through blog posts, tweets, or social media posts.

According to Sprout Social, a brand can accomplish this most easily by jumping onto trending news stories. Newsjacking can inject new life into your brand's SEO easily, because as you monitor trending news, you're able to tap into a goldmine of fresh keywords and phrases you can then use for ranking. Using this material will attract new eyeballs to your products, services, and help your brand’s philosophy as a whole.

So, how do you make the newsjacking process happen for your brand quickly and easily? Use the following five steps to ensure you're maximizing your ad potential and creating copy that is appropriate, sensitive and positive.

Use Google resources the right way to ID trending news and terminology in real time.

Your first order of business is to monitor stories that you can link to in the most obvious and logical ways. Google Alerts, Trends and Maps are excellent tools to use in this way. Not only can you keep your eye on breaking stories, you can gauge interest levels and precise locations of news happening in your local sales areas.

Pull out the basic facts about a news event, repeat them factually and accurately to your customers, and then link that info to your products in a brief sentence or two. For example, if a news report indicates that consumers in your area have less access to outdoor restaurant dining as the weather turns colder, you can offer them the option of purchasing the food your brand offers via delivery, or through your grocery store product line.

Review backlinks and hashtags to determine how people are reacting to a given news story.

Your team should immediately monitor a story's interest level this way. Once it’s obvious people are talking about a current event, the team can determine whether those people are consumers in your wheelhouse, and, if so, move your brand quickly into the conversation.

Make your commentary on a breaking story sensible and substantial.

According to Front Lines Media, it's key to ask yourself, “How can I add value to this? How can I tie my brand in?” You want to do this in a way that is never tone-deaf or sensational, but instead shows your brand off in a concrete, responsible light.

Don't be smug or corny with the content phrasing you use — in context with a real-world event, it will be jarring and seem out of place. Also, never ever use dark humor in a tie-in, as this too will most likely fall flat at best, or repel the audience you're trying to attract at worst.

Stay ethical at all points in the process.

Examples from Shortstack emphasize the fact that newsjacking can go wrong if you choose a story not relevant to your brand, lack empathy for any people who are adversely affected within a story, or put out false info about your brand in any way. Never try to insert your brand into a story about a tragic event.

You also never want to blatantly push products in a post related to a news story — being obvious is a no-go. Instead, state your brand's position on the matter in a humane and intelligent way, and you'll stir interest for what you sell effortlessly.

Be timely.

Jump on a breaking story with a brand post within a half-hour if possible. You can wait as long as a day to link to a story that has longer legs in a news cycle, but after that your brand runs the risk of looking a bit out of the loop.

Network, network, network.

Connect with bloggers, local journalists and your influencers in terms of asking them to alert you to interesting news they see in real time, and then repost your subsequent response to it when that is appropriate.

This kind of outreach can maximize your posts' exposure even further. Think of newsjacking as a speed-driven team effort — get all the moving parts in sync, and your brand's exposure level can reach its greatest heights yet!