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.
Recent Reviews
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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.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Alternatives Pricing
What is Muck Rack?
Muck Rack is a public relations offering from Sawhorse Media.
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
What is Help a Reporter Out (HARO)?
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
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Reviews and Ratings
(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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- Recommendations
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
(1-4 of 4)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
- Daily email with opportunities
- Separation in categories
- Link to send email to reporter directly
- Free media coverage
- Helped networking
- Content syndication
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.
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
- Free publicity alerts
- Can insert our expertise into existing conversation
- Mostly done through email
- Can be expensive since it is monthly
- The free version is positive ROI for my business
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
- Newsletter format
- Daily
- Queries are divided into fields that make sense for us, i.e., sports, marketing, business, lifestyle
- Positive from an earned media perspective
- Negative from taking the time to reply and not hearing back
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.
- Provides a steady stream of media opportunities
- I average about an 80% success rate for my pitches via HARO. Time very well spent. And since there is no cost, excellent ROI.
- Easy to set up push notifications
- Easy system for responding to relevant reporter queries via the provided email
- In order to get good results from HARO, you need to know best PR practices, and stick to exactly what reporters are asking for.