Help a Reporter Out (HARO), discontinued Reviews and Ratings

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Connecting our clients and their stories to reporters seeking sources for stories they're actively developing is a critical process that leads to important results. We use Help a Reporter Out (HARO) (and similar tools) to learn about these opportunities. When we find a suitable match between a reporter and the experts we have to offer, we make the pitch and hopefully turn it into coverage.

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to find media appearance opportunities for our company so we can send our pitches and get any coverage for our startup. This helps us get brand awareness in general and exposure to prospective clients and ventura capital funds without having to invest money in a PR agency.

Likelihood to Recommend

I believe I explained the main scenarios. Haro is a simple tool that 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. It's better suited for b2c or smb-focused companies for sure.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is being used to monitor traffic and conversation around the topics of my industry, primarily credit unions. It is used to listen in on possible topics where the organization can be inserted into. It solves the issue of not knowing what kind of financial news is being reported on and what possible angle reporters are trying to carve out.

Likelihood to Recommend

This tool is great to get you into the conversations that are being reported on in your industry. It does the heavier and time-consuming work of finding which reporter to reach out to with your expertise, they come to you instead. It is one of the tools that are always there to allow you to jump into the conversation if needed or able.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

HARO is used at our agency across members of the public relations (PR) team. As we look for opportunities to place our agency experts as resources, and/or our clients, HARO helps to save time by offering up opportunities to pitch from our inbox vs. proactively finding reporters to pitch. Primary areas we use it for are across sports and PR/marketing opportunities.

Likelihood to Recommend

Best suited for resources interested in opportunities to comment and/or for journalists in need of a source without a previous relationship and/or having to do a ton of desktop research on their own to find a resource.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use HARO daily. From checking to see what reporters and outlets are planning to work on, to connecting experts from my non-profit to reporters, Help a Reporter Out is perhaps the best way to stay ahead of the media cycle.

With its easy to use email format and straightforward structure to reply, the service is easy and results in excellent stories as well as great opportunities for our organization to gain media exposure by helping reporters when they need a specific quote.

I highly recommend signing up and tracking this service.

Likelihood to Recommend

Help a Reporter Out is a great way to track what media are planning to report on, and assist organizations in connecting with these reporters when a request matches your organization's expertise.

It is not a great way to try and do PR or get out your specific message -- you are there to assist reporters with specific requests rather than try and get reporters to cover work you are doing.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a contributing editor and freelance writer, I am often given assignments which use my research skills to flush out the desired synopsis assigned by the publisher of a variety of magazines. HARO has been invaluable in helping me find qualified sources in a variety of industries that I may not have personal contacts in. The responses to my requests for interviews and source material has been extremely fast. I've used HARO to obtain quirky pieces of info that make my stories unique, to requests for specific examples to illustrate a larger trend.

Likelihood to Recommend

[It's] Well suited to obtain interviews with A-list sources that you may not have access to. Their representatives can reach out to you. Also good to find new contacts in industries to get information on trends. Less appropriate to find specific people or companies. You'll get responses you can cull through however and determine what's best to follow up on. Good for posting a topic but not the publication if it confidential yet.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use HARO almost every day looking for opportunities to spread the word about brands in my portfolio. One brand, SD Strong Distilling, is a true startup and working very hard to get the word out. With HARO I know I am contacting people who are looking for content that will be published quickly.

Likelihood to Recommend

Especially good for building confidence in reaching out to reporters, journalists, etc. These folks are looking for stories and you are providing them with a direct link to the brands you represent. It's a win-win for both parties if your pitch is considered and accepted.

Be sure to do your diligence to confirm that the outlet is the caliber your client is looking for.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use HARO at Velo IT Group to seek out opportunities to be cited in articles, which is instrumental for generating brand awareness and boosting SEO efforts. It is managed by myself (Marketing) and I frequently request quotes from team members in different departments. These opportunities have provided great social media content which has garnered high levels of engagement and helped our leadership team establish credibility in their areas of expertise.

Likelihood to Recommend

HARO has been a tremendous success for Velo IT Group! We have been included in numerous articles, which is a powerful marketing tool in that it augments our SEO efforts and increases brand awareness. These opportunities have provided great social media content which has garnered high levels of engagement and helped our leadership team establish credibility in their areas of expertise. We’ve landed mentions in Forbes, Inc, Digital Guardian, USA Today, ABC News and CMS Wire to name a few, and have built up enough content to create an ‘In the News’ page on our website: <a href="https://www.velomethod.com/in-the-news/">https://www.velomethod.com/in-the-news/</a>

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use HARO not only to find PR opportunities for myself, my clients, and students, but also to monitor trending media topics and to gain media insight. It's by far the quickest and easiest way to get PR.

Likelihood to Recommend

HARO is great for reactive pitching, can get you some quick press when done right, and can be used to monitor trends for your proactive pitching, as well. It's not meant to be used as a vehicle to sway reporters off of a story idea, though -- I hear many people saying they send pitches that aren't exactly what the reporter asked for, and this is not the place to do that.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As the research analyst for DZone, I use HARO to find IT professionals to interview for our 16 research guides that cover different subsectors of the IT landscape from AI/ML, big data to performance, security, and web development. HARO has helped me connect with more than 400 PR and corporate communications professionals and more than 800 IT professionals.

Likelihood to Recommend

When you have a specific topic you want to discuss (e.g. internet of things) and you know who you want to talk to (e.g. c-level and V.P.-level IT executives). Media professionals who respond to my HARO queries are much more relevant than the unsolicited queries I receive via email.