How to get free links and online PR with HARO (Help A Reporter Out)

Posted by Ken McGaffin on 28 January 2011

It’s true - free links and media coverage await you at HARO (Help A Reporter Out), a brilliant free service that brings the world of online PR within the reach of any small business owner or website. In an extract from his brilliant The Link Publicity Book, Ken McGaffin explains how HARO can work for you.

The service is the brainchild of Peter Shankman, who among many other things is the author of “Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work” – a book I thoroughly recommend.

HARO is a brilliantly simple idea. The service’s motto is “Everyone is an expert at something”. And Peter wants to make that expertise available to those who really need it – journalists, reporters, authors, writers, bloggers and more who have to write a story.

HARO is a free service that is increasingly being used as a source by media giants including ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, New York Times, Business Week, Reuters and the Hearst Corporation.

HARO is also one of the most effective ways I’ve seen of getting small business stories in front of big media.

Journalists are desperate for stories

The biggest myth about journalists is that they’ve got the time to chase after stories and get it right before they go to publication. But much more likely is that their job is to “write 800 words of quality copy on a subject you know very little about and have it ready by 5pm today at the latest”.

And when an editor says 5pm today he means 5pm, and the journalist who doesn’t comply will be out on their ear quicker than Google Instant can provide results for “journalist seeking new career challenge”.

That means journalists are desperate for good sources, and once they’ve got a good source they nurture them carefully and keep coming back time and again. If you’re a small business who wants free publicity and links to your website, then this is a free service that you simply must sign up to.

The site has two sections – one for reporters and one for sources (that’s you). See image below:

Registering as a source is ridiculously easy:

Once you register as a source, you immediately start to get lists of opportunities – they arrive three times a day at exactly the same time every day. It’s one of the few emails that I open immediately it arrives in my inbox.

Here’s a grab of an email showing some ‘stories’ looking for sources:

Below is the summary of one ‘story’ about ‘Chicago gifts’.

Obey the rules of HARO

There are five simple rules to HARO:

1) You will get three emails a day, Mon-Fri, with reporter queries from reporters and outlets from all over the world. Scan the emails, and if you’re knowledgeable about any of the topics, answer the reporter directly.

2) Don’t SPAM reporters with off-topic pitches in response to their queries.

3) You MAY forward queries to friends, but DO NOT post them on blogs or anywhere on the web.

4) You’re not allowed to harvest the reporter email addresses in the HARO emails for any reason.

5) Be excellent to each other.

Violating any of the above rules is punishable by any of the following: An email; a warning; being banned from the list; and in extreme cases, being “outed” to the over 130,000 members of the list. HARO works on mutual trust and support. Don’t violate that.

The types of queries that journalists make

I summarized the HARO emails that I received over a period of three days to show you the most common type of queries – I found 13 types in all.

Note that you need to respond immediately to queries so of course all the ones I list here are out of date. But don’t worry, HARO issues nearly 200 queries a day.

1) No experts should reply ...

You’ll often see experts quoted in the general media and trade press, and many ‘ordinary people’ in the industry respect this expertise but never think, “that could be my opinion in that article”. But it certainly could be because sometimes journalists don’t want to feature the same old experts – they want to hear from that army of ordinary people out there.

And sometimes they specifically exclude experts as in this query:

For a series of business stories, I'm looking for sources who fit the following criteria:

Small business owners who have been successful in getting online publicity. (NO experts/PR firms/agencies, please).

Small to mid-sized retail business (no more than 150 employees) owner who has experienced coupon and/or return fraud.

Any small business owner who has used crowdsourcing for his or her business.

Please email a bit about how you fit the bill, as well as contact information and the best time to reach you.

2) Any experts out there?

Of course, sometimes experts are exactly what is required and that can give anyone a chance to be featured. As HARO says, “Everybody is an expert at something” and the knowledge that you have will be useful to a reporter struggling to finish a piece. Here’s a request for an expert on chocolate.

I'm writing an article for a section in our paper that's geared to those who have expendable incomes and make bucketloads of money and like to eat the really fancy stuff. This time I'm writing about high quality chocolate. I want to know what's the 'really good fancy' stuff...is there anything I should know about high quality chocolates and this demographic? Are there chocolate experts out there (if you live in the Hudson Valley, NY it would be ideal, but I'm open to everyone)?

3) Does this work? Please tell me ...

Journalists are great writers but they’re rarely subject experts.

That means they depend on their sources for information and opinion. In this post, the journalist comes across an interesting business model but he needs real business people to help him assess the model:

I am writing about a new pizza restaurant whose chef/owner creates a menu each day, most of which he does not allow customers to alter. For example, three of the four pizzas offered daily are served exactly as they are described on the menu or not at all. Think of a pizza version of the Soup Nazi. The only exceptions the chef allows are for patrons who claim to have allergies.

I am looking for sources who might be able to speak about this business model, which strikes me as antithesis of the typical "the customer is always right" mantra. For what it's worth, the restaurant seems to be quite successful.

4) What’s your favorite?

Sometimes, article and feature ideas can be very dry, especially if they’re dealing with something technical such as a software application. The reporter may or may not have already made up his mind on what he wants to say, but he needs to add life and color to the story with quotes from real people as in this query:

I am a reporter for a small business publication and am looking for small business owners who can speak about the programs they manage customer information. Specifically: --Do you use Excel? What do you like and dislike about it? --Have you switched to another program from Excel? Which one, and why? --What is your favorite program for managing customer information and why? Thank you!

Do you own a business? Name your top 1 or 2 online tools, programs or resources that you use for your business. Please name the resource with its website and a 1 - 2 sentence description of what is does. Also include the cost of it. Please include your name and a link to your website. All used sources will be cited in the article.

5) The odder, the better!

There are many evergreen stories in the media – stories that can pop up no matter what the season. And one of those is the mistakes that people make in interviews. Here’s an opportunity for any small business to get coverage with an unusual story. I love the reporter’s enthusiasm – "Can’t wait to hear what you’ve got ...":

It's an evergreen! It's a perennial! Call it what you want, but the @work section of the New York Post is taking a swing at the most idiotic mistakes, miscues and malapropisms committed by prospective employees during a job interview.

A couple of rules: 1. It has to have been made in the NYC metro area. 2. It's got to be better than "he wore white pants after Labor Day." The odder, the better! Can't wait to hear what you've got, and thanks for your replies!

6) Desperately seeking sources

More evidence of a reporter’s need to find good sources. All those hours you’ve wasted watching reality television could finally be put to use, if you can make a link from what you’ve seen on a reality show and a useful business lesson.

I might be wrong but the following query seems like an invitation to get creative and perhaps stretch the truth a little:

Seeking sources who can provide marketing tips or strategies that can be tied to pop culture (as in, "Marketing Lessons I Learned from Watching Reality TV" or something along those lines). Would also be interested in other marketing approaches that may not relate to pop culture but still have a cool or unique angle.

7) The game of the name!

Here’s another query that virtually any business could answer – and get some coverage, even a link as a result. People seem to have a fascination with business names and how they came about.

Why is Starbucks called Starbucks? Why is Woot called Woot? How did TGI Fridays get its name? Fascinating stuff. Could you contribute to an article about it? Then a query like this might be for you:

• I am writing a story on the importance of getting your business name right, including:
• Pointing out the importance of the right name and the risk of alienation if you get it very wrong;
• Does an offensive name ever work and, if so, how? Where's the line?
• What are the mechanics of naming a business? How do you get it right? Do you run it past family, friends, etc? At what point do you know it's right?

Need experts to address as well as small business owners who found a name challenging--and, perhaps, even changed it to another name after the first one didn't work out? Thanks!

8) You don’t have to be afraid ...

People can get dreadfully worried about all sorts of things. And there’s often stories in the media that either whip up their fears or calm them down.

Journalists who are trying to calm people down can be a great opportunity for businesses to provide reassuring advice as this query on safety shows – again it’s one of those stories that any business selling online can respond to:

I'm working on a piece that helps readers shop safely online. What are the latest scams? What precautions should shoppers undertake? Are there products/services/gadgets that can help you be more safe? Please email to get in touch.

9) Rants welcome - what makes you really, really mad?

We all enjoy a good rant and find it hard to resist the opportunity to vent our feelings. There’s something about expressing your outrage to other people that seems to take the pain away.

And of course, we enjoy listening to other people’s rants whether we laugh at them or nod sagely in agreement. That makes rants good copy and that’s reflected in this query:

Looking for small business owners to feature in a series hosted by CBS Interactive on their highly trafficked online business magazine, http://www.bnet.com . This "Owners Only" series features small business owners' stories, specifically problems you've experienced as an owner, and what really frustrates you. (Please no rants about health care or taxes, but rants about other issues are welcome.) Businesses must have at least five employees as well as the intention of growing the company, whether in terms of geography, employees or revenues. You also need to be willing to share revenue figures for 2009 to participate. Thanks.

10) So what exactly is a ...

OK, by now you should be getting the picture. Journalists and bloggers, no matter how skilled they are, simply can’t be on top of all the subjects they have to write about. That means they need you to help them – and your rewards in publicity for your business could be great.

In this query, the journalist gets right to the point:

Hi, I need two things: 1) A marketing expert to describe what an elevator pitch is (Who makes them? Why? How long should they be? And what are good occasions to reveal them?). 2) Some owners, marketers or PR folks who can give me examples of elevator pitches they’ve used (How did you come up with it? Why did you use it? Was it successful?). I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

11) All you have to do is submit ...

“Don’t never volunteer for nothing” is a popular saying but in the world of public relations and link building, it would be terrible advice to follow. Volunteer and you can get fantastic coverage as well as valuable links to your website.

Wordtracker and many other companies often ask customers to submit stories or case studies about how they’ve used their products. Such publicity is of great interest to many business people. But you know what they do?

They think about it, talk about it and then do nothing about it. What a waste!

The truth is that it’s incredibly easy to get yourself featured… but you’ve got to take the first step and submit your story.

Here’s a typical request from HARO that nearly any business could reply to:

Submissions required for startups of the month. The economy is thriving and so are the startups this year. Do you own an innovative startup? If yes, submit your entries to us and we will write about you on ideabing.com. We will also award one startup the "startup of the month". All posts published on ideabing.com will also be printed in a book - the ideabing idea book every 6 months. So go ahead, submit your startups!

12) Putting your business on the map

I often talk about the importance of online communities. But the physical community where you live, where you have your business, where you employ people, where you buy and sell from other businesses can be even more important.

Journalists recognize the importance of the communities in which we live and they know that stories about them are always going to strike a chord with readers.

In this query, the journalist wants to focus on how retailers can attract customers from outside their area – in other words, make their community a destination. The journalist has talked to experts and now he wants to find real examples:

I've interviewed experts about how to make your town or community a destination for shoppers and need some real life examples of towns and country retailers who have done just that. What strategies did you employ? What worked and what didn't?

13) Are you in the know?

And here’s a final query that I think really drives the HARO message through. In this case, a journalist wants to hear about consumer priorities when they want to remodel their kitchen and bathroom. Think about their options: any published market research is unlikely to give them the personal stories they want, and they certainly don’t have time to find consumers who fit the bill.

The only people who can provide the journalist with what he or she wants are kitchen and bathroom retailers who deal with consumers every day. What an opportunity for free publicity!

We need green experts to talk about what are consumers' priorities when it comes to green remodeling, and how kitchen and bath dealers can address those concerns. For instance, are their priorities lower utility bills or finding materials that don't cost more than the non-green alternative?

HARO offers fantastic public relations opportunities

Here’s what you’ve got to do to take advantage of them:

1) Sign up free at helpareporter.com

2) Don’t submit immediately but spend a week or so reading through the queries, you’ll get emailed three times a day.

3) Absorb what reporters are looking for and decide what type of queries you’re interested in responding to.

4) Once you’re comfortable with the service, start replying but only to RELEVANT queries.

Good luck and let us at Wordtracker know how you’re getting on (which may get some more publicity).

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