This is a great tool for larger size companies that will have a lot of media tracking they need to do. It appeals to stakeholders involved in PR, data analytics, and helps decision makers know what will have the most impact and where their marketing dollars should go!
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) was (and today, HERO is) an incredibly valuable tool that effectively bridges the gap between journalists and PR practitioners, and it filled a need on both ends. A perfect solution to an ongoing industry problem. When I have a client that needs media coverage, and a lead is shared in the daily email that fits the client's expertise, it creates an opportunity that we may never have otherwise been able to identify.
Personally I didn't see any. Though I know my boss had a few calls with their team to get the daily reports formatted and presented just the way she wanted them. The team took a few tries to get into the swing of what she was asking for, but they were more than willing to put in the time and effort to customize the reports for her.
I've noticed that some queries are incredibly vague to the point where they could or could not apply to me. I feel like they should implement more strict parameters on what the query has to include.
Sometimes the outlet is marked anonymous which is not beneficial at all to those who are browsing queries. I think the outlet should be required as that is a pretty essential piece of information to consider.
I think they email slightly too often. My inbox gets flooded with HARO emails and I'm not able to go through all of them because they get buried. Maybe explore a new strategy to organize the huge amount of queries that get submitted every day.
They are different tools. While HARO pretty much gives you feedback on media opportunities you can pitch for and allows you to get in touch with the reporter, so you can get exposure and they can find people for their news. Cision allows you to syndicate your press releases. You need to have a written press release in order to use it.
I wasn't at the top of these discussions but, I did help make monthly reports that went directly to the CFO and CEO that used these analytics to show how our corporate communications office was doing and all the work we had done for the past month. This is a way to cover yourself and show that we had done a lot of work and good work at that.
A hard thing to measure in terms of actual sales dollars, however, being able to provide fresh content is essential to any brand. When someone mentions they saw the published piece or it grows organically from social media, that is a win.