I’m going to share something that I’ve been mainly keeping to myself. Admittedly, it has been a completely selfish move – not wanting to share a resource that has helped me and my clients. But also because I’ve seen how some public relations practitioners have abused it – potentially harming the great intentions of the resource itself.
But in the interest of increasing my professional karma points – I’d like to tell those of you who do not know about HARO – Help A Reporter Out. Something that can help both PR props and journalists alike.
I learned of the movement through Facebook earlier this year. It was the first example for me of how social media was helping with professional connections – linking reporters on assignment with contacts who could help their stories – experts, sources, regular joes/janes. It quickly outgrew Facebook and became its own website with three free daily distributions of reporter queries.
The mastermind behind the project is uber-publicist Peter Shankman (CEO of The Geek Factory). One reason alone to sign up to receive his lists of queries is his great commentary that precedes the query list. 8,000 people have signed up for the queries, and a wide variety of journalists submit queries to fill the lists daily.
PR Pros and Experts: To sign up to receive the list, go here
Media: To submit journalist queries, go here
But beware – this is warning for the PR folks – pitch intelligently! Don’t waste a reporter’s time with off-topic pitches. What I really appreciate about Peter is that he truly respects the media’s needs and parameters. If he finds out you have pitched a journalist on something waaaay of the query they submitted – he will bump you off his list. Right now, he is trying to decide if he will publicly ‘out’ the offending PR folks who pitch off topic.
If you are curious about off-topic pitches, and some of the less than stellar strategies of those who call themselves members of the PR field – you might also find the Bad Pitch Blog interesting.
-Jess
