The power of reactive digital PR

Author: Rebekah Foster, Digital PR Account Director

The world of Digital PR is constantly changing, and it is no surprise that with this comes reactive thinking.

Reactive Digital PR, or newsjacking, is an essential part of an overarching strategy. You need to be aware of what is happening on social media and the general news scape. For example, if you see some bad weather is on the way, can your client comment on ways to stay warm? How to drive safely in icy conditions? Or even some gardening tips to prevent your plants from dying?

But, for reactive Digital PR to work effectively, you need these three important things:

• A client that can react quickly with you
• A prewritten seasonal comment bank
• Access to journalist requests e.g. Response Source

In this article, we take a look at these key elements and why they’re so important when looking to harness the power of reactive PR…

1) The benefits of a reactive-thinking client

One of the main caveats to a successful reactive strategy is having a client that who is available to sign off on comment opportunities as soon as possible. The news scape moves so fast that if your client can’t approve your comments within a couple of hours, then you will more than likely miss out on the opportunity.

If you can write a comment on behalf of your client, that is even better. However, being aware of your client'’s tone of voice and overall view on certain issues is important to ensure the sign-off process is as smooth as possible.

2) Seasonal comment banks

Another way to utilise reactive commentary is by pinpointing key opportunities ahead of time and producing a seasonal comment bank. This proactive way of working allows us to find key reoccurring news that is trending each year, and have it prepared for any reactive news that appears throughout the season.

By producing comments ahead of time, we can get ahead of the news cycle and allow our clients a longer sign-off period.

This strategy also allows us to add any further data that we can gather to support the comment. This could be through a survey question or even readily available government data.

3) Journalist requests

The most common form of reactive commentary is a journalist request. You can find these through a tool such as Response Source, or even by using the #journorequest hashtag on X (formally known as Twitter).

This request comes straight from the journalist and is targeted towards a specific subject or brief. These can be trickier to respond to in time, but if you have a reactive thinking client, you can get a result within a day, or even a couple of hours.

Being available to review any journalist requests throughout the day is essential so you don’t miss a key opportunity. Deadlines can range from a couple of hours to a couple of days, so monitoring these regularly is important.

Comment banks also come in handy for this strategy, as you may already have a seasonal comment that fits the brief, and you can send this straight over to the journalist, cutting out any longer sign-off times.

The results in practice

We use our available clients to our advantage, by sending regular journalist requests, or just any ideas we have spotted from media monitoring.

Through this strategy, some of our clients have received up to five results for just one comment, such as how to drive safely in a storm.

For a client who specialises in interiors and furniture, we used this technique to land a whopping 63 results in the past three months. These comments ranged from style advice to keeping spiders out of your home in winter.

By applying any of the above techniques, it is more likely you will gain quality results and increase links at a faster rate. The key is to be quick, concise, and always be aware of current and upcoming news stories.

If you’re interested in finding out more reactive PR or more about our Digital PR services, please get in touch.