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Help a Reporter Out Proves Beneficial Not Only for the Reporter!
April 13, 2017

Help a Reporter Out Proves Beneficial Not Only for the Reporter!

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

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.
  • It has allowed us to leverage certain media coverage opportunities that we wouldn't have had otherwise.
  • It's free so its benefits definitely outweigh the cost. It's a great resource considering it costs nothing.
  • Some of the coverage we have received using HARO has allowed us to build rapports with journalists we wouldn't have without making the connection through HARO.
These products I mentioned are a little different because they are used by more mainstream journalists which is a huge advantage. PR Newswire is email-based product similarly to HARO but Cision is a huge database of media contact information which is great if you want to take the initiative to find something on your own. HARO is great because it goes the extra step in connecting both parties based on a common idea. It's similar to PR Newswire but the fact that it's free makes it a great resource for anyone.
I think it's really meant as a supplement for traditional media pitching like I said before. It's definitely not something that could serve as a primary resource to gain media coverage because it can be very hit or miss. In my experience the odds that you find something relevant to you (especially as a company in a very niche industry) is quite slim and even if I do find something I still have to assess whether it's the right outlet and sometimes there is a super short deadline. You have to check HARO very frequently to make the most out of it.