To be successful, attempts at newsjacking must have a legitimate tie to the story, especially when the story is about a disaster, death, or any other negative event.

For dedicated newsjackers, there is no tool more essential than Twitter. It is both a primary source of newsjacking ideas and a powerful channel to get your message out to the media in real time.

The goal of newsjacking is to get noticed and let the buzz you create in both social media and traditional outlets drive business.

Newsjacking is amazingly powerful, but only when executed in real time.

traditional marketing and PR model—creating “campaigns” with long lead times—just doesn't work when a story breaks quickly.

Make sure to feature appropriate keywords and phrases that journalists are likely to enter, and write your headline so it clearly shows reporters that you have a fresh and compelling take on the story.

To get found in this way, as reporters are looking for experts, you've got to post your take on a story right now. Not tomorrow. Not this afternoon. Now.

Google, Bing, and other search engines now index in real time, which means that your blog post or update to your online media room will instantly appear in search results.

“The single most effective thing PR people do is watch and read my stories and send me personalized, smart pitches for stories that I am actually likely to cover,”