TrustRadius Insights
HARO, or Help a Reporter Out, is widely used by professionals across various industries for its valuable features and benefits. Users turn …
Overview
What is Help a Reporter Out (HARO)?
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a service owned by Cision (via the merger with Vocus) for reaching out to journalists.
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What is Help a Reporter Out (HARO)?
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a service owned by Cision (via the merger with Vocus) for reaching out to journalists.
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What is Muck Rack?
Muck Rack is a public relations offering from Sawhorse Media.
Product Details
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What is Help a Reporter Out (HARO)?
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
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(19)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
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HARO, or Help a Reporter Out, is widely used by professionals across various industries for its valuable features and benefits. Users turn to HARO to find great sources and reach successful people who can provide intelligent comments for their stories. The platform is especially popular among journalists and writers who use it to discover PR opportunities and monitor trending media topics. With its email format and straightforward structure, HARO makes it easy for users to reply and generate excellent stories and media exposure opportunities. This simplicity has earned it high recommendations from many users who rely on HARO almost daily to spread the word about brands and startups. Startups specifically find value in using HARO as an alternative to investing in a PR agency, as it allows them to find media appearance opportunities and gain brand awareness and exposure. Freelance writers and editors also benefit significantly from HARO, as it helps them find qualified sources across various industries and obtain specific information for their assignments. Overall, HARO's versatility and efficiency make it an invaluable tool for professionals seeking media coverage opportunities, insightful comments, and targeted industry information. Whether you're in PR, journalism, research, or simply looking to enhance your brand's visibility, HARO provides a reliable platform that streamlines communication with relevant sources and amplifies exposure efforts.
Helpful in connecting journalists with renowned experts: Users have found the product helpful in connecting journalists with renowned experts, providing access to people who are looking for media coverage.
Pushes PR opportunities directly to the user's desktop: Reviewers appreciate that the product pushes public relations opportunities directly to their desktop multiple times a day, offering media opportunities for various industries and topics.
Easy way to contact reporters with relevant information: The product offers an easy way for users to contact reporters with relevant information. Several reviewers have mentioned that they appreciate this feature and find it convenient for their PR efforts. The product also provides insight into what reporters are interested in discussing and gives visibility into the process of story creation, helping users stay updated with industry conversations and establish relationships between their organization and reporters.
Outdated User Experience: A significant number of users have expressed dissatisfaction with the old-fashioned user experience and appearance of the product. They suggest that it needs to be updated to meet modern design standards, which would greatly enhance their overall satisfaction with the product.
Lack of Feedback from Journalists: Many users have mentioned experiencing a lack of feedback and responses from journalists when using the product's services. This has resulted in frustration for these users, as they value clear communication and engagement between themselves and reporters.
Overwhelming HARO Emails: Numerous users have reported feeling overwhelmed by the frequency of emails received through HARO, also known as Help a Reporter Out. These users suggest implementing a new strategy for organizing queries to ensure they can manage them more effectively, improving their overall experience with the platform.
Based on user reviews, here are the top recommendations for HARO:
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Set aside time each day to review HARO offerings. Users have found it valuable to dedicate regular time to review the opportunities provided by HARO.
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Subscribe to the daily emails and consider opting for an industry-specific HARO email. Many users recommend getting the daily emails as it helps them stay updated and also suggest using industry-specific emails for more relevant opportunities.
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Have a strategy in place for effective outreach to reporters. Users advise having a well-thought-out strategy when reaching out to reporters in order to maximize the chances of success.
Additionally, some users have recommended other strategies such as tightening up the media outlet list, doing research before sending samples, filtering results based on clients' needs, and splitting HAROs between two-three people to cover different editions. Overall, HARO is considered a valuable tool for public relations professionals looking for story opportunities and media coverage.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-11 of 11)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
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.
- Bring media appearance opportunities
- Send daily updates
- Simplify communication with reporters
- Control of which reporter you communicate with
- Help you track responses and query statuses
- Better vet different types/categories of press oportunities
August 05, 2021
Good, but not worth the monthly charge
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.
- Offer insight into what reporters are wanting to talk about
- See the process on story creation
- Keep up with the industry conversation
- It is owned by a media company
- Once you sign up for it, Cision will bombard you trying to get you to upgrade
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.
- It's a great resource for journalist seeking sources
- It's a great resource for sources seeking opportunities to comment on
- It's a daily/digestible newsletter format (morning, afternoon, evening)
- Better vetting of sources/journalists
- Lack of feedback/responses from journalists
- Ability for journalists/others to remain anonymous
July 28, 2021
Quickest way to get press
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.
- Pushes PR opportunities right to your desktop several times a day
- Provides media opportunities for just about every industry and if you monitor it regularly, on just about every topic you can think of
- Provides an easy way to contact reporters with relevant information
- Media outlets are verified for you
- It would be great if there was a way of knowing if a reporter had read your email, so the user would have immediate feedback on the types of pitches that are successful, or not.
January 14, 2019
Excellent resource to connect experts to reporters
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.
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.
- Connects reporters to experts
- Allows organization to gain media exposure by helping reporters with specific requests and questions
- Updates regularly, with three daily emails
- Establishes relationships between members of your organization and reporters
- Make the emails easier to navigate and more friendly to different email servers
- Allow for forwarding and direct emails, even when someone hasn't signed up for the service
June 28, 2018
Catch a Rising Star or Industry Expert
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.
- Obtain interviews with A-list known experts and celebrities.
- Find sources of data to identify trends.
- Obtain contacts in new industries.
- Since the request for info is so open to response, there are always people sending replies that have little to do with the posted topic.
June 28, 2018
I landed an AP piece using HARO!
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.
- Clear concise format
- Gives user tips for achieving the best results
- Love the 3 times per day..keeps my creative energy working.
- When someone responds to my inquiry, it would be helpful to have the original query from the reporter included. As I am working several brands at one time, this would help keep everything clear and concise.
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.
- Provides opportunities for exposure online on highly reputable sites, boosting SEO.
- Helps our leadership team establish credibility in their areas of expertise.
- Provides great social media content which has garnered high levels of engagement.
- Better follow-up from reporters. The majority of reporters do not take the time to let you know that your quote was used.
- Better approval/disapproval tracking. I've only had two submissions "rejected" yet only a small percentage of submissions are used.
June 27, 2018
HARO has helped me build a network of IT, PR, and corporate communications professionals.
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.
- Connects me with senior level IT executives who share their insights on the current and future state of the industry.
- Helps me build relationships with more than 800 IT professionals.
- Helps me build relationships with more than 300 PR and corporate communications professionals.
- I cannot think of any. I think they do a great job of helping me find the people I need to speak with for the articles I am writing.
I often use HARO to find great sources for the stories I'm working on. Almost everyone at Authority Magazine uses it as well. HARO makes it really easy to reach successful people who can comment intelligently on a story we are working on. I would say that a good deal of the success of Authority comes from my experience with HARO.
- Helps journalists like me connect with renowned experts
- It helps people looking for media coverage to connect with journalists
- It helps to democratize the media - without HARO the media would only be accessed by people who have the keys to the gatekeepers
- I think it is really great. The user experience and appearance seems a bit old fashioned, but it works
We use Help a Reporter Out particularly in the Communications department as a tool to find media coverage opportunities separate from our standard pitching to local and national media. When I first started working here it was just an extra resource I would check daily to see if there was ever a need by a journalist for something that we could provide insight on if it was specific to our industry/business.
- It does a great job at staying in touch with users. You receive a daily email with categories that apply to you as well as a separate weekly emails with all categories of queries.
- The way they organize their emails makes it quick and easy to get right to the section that pertains to you. When you click the links they scroll down to the appropriate section for you.
- It's very user-friendly. A very simple layout which makes the process straight and to the point. No complex or complicated interface.
- 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.