How to Piggyback a News Story
Over the weekend, a news story broke about a girl who used a code word to thwart a potential abduction. The media and readers of the story all praised the “brilliant strategy” of a code word and how this “top-notch parenting.”
On Twitter, the hashtag #codeword blew up. So I banged out a blog post entitled, “A Code Word Did NOT Save a 10-Year Old from Abduction.” While code words seem like a good idea, Chris Sutton of COBRA-Defense convinced me otherwise. Never teach a child to engage in conversation with a stranger.
I then searched for the hashtags #codeword on Twitter and Google News. Here I could target high traffic Twitter pages like Good Morning America and Tweet my short headline and a link to my personal blog.
The key is that you have to add to the story. You can’t just comment. Bring a different viewpoint from the norm. In this case, the praise for the strategy was almost 100%, so a fresh viewpoint adds to the story. Of course, some people will disagree with me, but I’m used to that.