Capitalising on trending stories is an essential part of most content strategies, especially if your blog is focussed towards providing your users with news updates related to your niche. But, to differentiate your posts from the tens or hundreds of others websites which may have the same idea, we list down a few do’s and don’ts to leverage a trending news story for getting more views.

DO’s

1. Pick up trending news that you can easily align with your brand

Leveraging trending news headlines can be very beneficial for your brand. But never try to align your brand with a particular topic forcefully. The association may seem bizarre to users, and at the same time. It will give search engine crawlers the wrong context about what you want your brand associated with.

2. Look up headlines from the national and international landscape 

Many a time, only local headlines seem relevant to us, but there are headlines in the international landscape that affect your brand as well as your target audience. Picking up national as well as international headlines can also be a differentiating factor for your brand when compared to competitors.

3. Follow Scatter Recommends

Leveraging trending news headlines just got easier with Scatter Recommends. Scatter Recommends is a Talking Tool that gives your brand a way to include itself in trending conversations, as they happen. The tool not only helps you keep your brand relevant, but also offers content ideas that resonate with your target audience.

DON’Ts

1. Don’t pick up headlines without checking the published date

The publishing date is one of the first filters you should have while sifting through news headlines. Trending news can have different lifespans depending on the field the article talks about and the platform where it is published. However, the median lifespan of online articles was found to be 2.6 days, according to a study conducted by Parse.ly. And so, the more recent the publishing date, the more you may benefit from it.

2. Don’t repeat news headlines from a similar genre

Repeating news headlines from a similar genre will leave you with minimal ideas when it comes to creating around it. When you pick up headlines from various genres, you not only have a varied list of topics to write on but you also get the chance to address a much larger audience.

3. Don’t pick up a news headline which is too political or too negative

Bad news often dominates the headlines as we tend to pay more attention to negative words. But associating your brand with a controversial headline or with a negative sentiment may backfire instead of doing your website any good. And this is why we recommend being careful while choosing a news headline.

Trending headlines have the power to keep your audience informed and entertained. Some trends are hard to predict while many others are seasonal and hence predictable. Being prepared for content covering the seasonal trends is what almost every brand, but if you start leveraging the other type of trend you can be among the few who cover new ground and benefit by capturing more pageviews.