What is the second paragraph?

I have been both a journalist and a public relations practitioner so I have an advantage when thinking about the ways that you can use real-time content to get mentioned in the media.

In particular, I've been thinking a lot about what it takes to get your ideas mentioned in news stories and blog posts. While there are certainly many different ways to get noticed, I am a huge fan of working "the second paragraph."

The technique goes like this:

1) Something breaks in the news. Dozens or hundreds or even thousands of journalists scurry to write up (or broadcast) the news as quickly as possible in the first moments.

2) Then, everyone wants to put some context around the story. The journalists are looking in real-time to find "the second paragraph" to the breaking news flash they have already written. In many ways this is the toughest part of real-time journalism.

3) Your job is to instantly get your story or idea out there if you can add to what’s being written and provide that perfect second paragraph.

Here are a few examples I have written about previously:

Lead paragraph: Paris Hilton arrested for cocaine possession in Las Vegas
Second paragraph: The Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas bans Paris Hilton
Result: 5,286 news stories mention the Wynn Hotels.

Lead paragraph: Oracle acquires marketing automation vendor Market2Lead
Second paragraph: CEO of Eloqua, a Market2Lead competitor, defines what the acquisition means to the marketplace.
Result: Eloqua generates over $1 million in new business as a result of a single blog post.

Lead paragraph: Boston "water crisis" means residents without water
Second paragraph: The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority does an excellent job communicating to the public during the crisis
Result: Front page article in the Boston Globe quoting me.

Lead paragraph: Egypt pro-democracy protesters bring down government
Second paragraph: Wael Ghonim, Head of Marketing for Google in the Middle East, organizes protesters via Facebook.
Result: Ghonim named one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people in 2011 and is given the annual John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

You have an amazing opportunity to get the media to write or broadcast about you by thinking about what the reporters might need as a second paragraph.

But this technique only works if you operate in real-time.

I'm always on the lookout for other examples of this technique.

Image: Shutterstock / Miguel Angel Salinas

Disclosure: I am on the board of advisors of Eloqua.

Comments

[David Dalka]

Thoughtful post. Not sure about the Egypt one - that was massive international story regardless of format.

Has other implications.

[Starbrightbusiness.blogspot.com]

Great tip. Reporters are going to be looking for the followup, so be ahead of the game and be prepared to give them a followup.

[Colin Warwick]

Thanks, David, this is very timely. I made use of the Eloqua example to blog about a very similar acquistion that happened today in my industry. http://signal-integrity.tm.agilent.com/2011/national-instruments-joins-the-party/

Thanks again,

-- Colin

[David Meerman Scott]

Great work Colin. Let us know what the result is.

[Brendan Ziolo]

Great post. Editors are always looking for additional sources to tell more of the story but you've hit the nail on the head when you say you must respond instantly or in real-time.

I've been using this type of outreach recently to get coverage. I also blogged about how to do it in this recent post: http://www.dudeitsmarketing.com/2011/05/leverage-industry-news-for-real-time-pr.html.

[C_Pappas]

Hi David,

Your article could not have come at a more perfect time! So we had some major news today and its about what we believe is a solution that is commonly talked about in the industry. I understand the concept of piggy-backing off of news stories but any suggestions on how to find the right ones and then respond?

[David Meerman Scott]

@C_Pappas - You gotta be quick. Best way is to immediately write your own blog post using appropriate words and phrases and let the market find you. Good luck.

[Colin Warwick]

...I received one "Thanks, nice take" from an editor at the major pub for my industry, and he added a "By the way I'm writing an article about (another widget)... Do you guys do those?" ("Why, yes...")

[aluminium kozijnen]

We are eagerly waiting for that results.. Because you did great work.. Thanks for this information..

[Jill Richards]

Love this concept! Too often organizations are in broadcast mode about their news instead of thinking of their media and ultimate customers. Thanks for making PR better!