You’re writing about something–say it’s a piece about the biological function of jealousy–and you’re on deadline. You need a specialist and you need it now. You can rely on your network–this being a web 2.0 world, chances are that you’ve cultivated quite the spectacular one. But imagine you don’t have an evolutionary biologist among your contacts and you really, really, really need one.
Enter Help A Reporter Out, or HARO. This is a sweet little service that ties journalists and bloggers with the sources they need–for free. Yeah, you read that right: free.
Here’s how it works: sources, whatever their field, want publicity. They sign up to receive three daily e-mails from HARO with queries from reporters and bloggers. When a query comes along that’s in the source’s area, they answer, and the journalist or blogger turns around and includes the source in their story. The writers meet their deadlines and the sources get exposure.
The bigger the Rolodex, the better the writer, they say. Sure thing–and your Rolodex just got significantly fatter.
And who’s responsible for all of this? Meet Peter Shankman, the CEO of The Geek Factory, a PR and marketing firm in New York City, and founder of HARO.
Some Background with Peter Shankman
1. How did it occur to you to start HARO?
I know a lot of reporters. Over time, I’d help them whenever they’d ask. “Peter, I need a source.” I never asked for anything in return. It was simply good karma. Good karma begets good karma. We’re now the largest source repository in the world for any kind of media, including bloggers.
2. When you say “everyone is an expert” do you suggest everyone should be signing up–even my little sister in college? Do you take queries from small time bloggers?
Everyone IS an expert at something. Your little sister might be brilliant at knowing every episode of the Simpsons, or a whiz at astronomy. Whatever it is, someone, somewhere is writing a story about it, and needs a source. We take queries from major media such as the NY Times, CNN, and The Today Show, and small bloggers such as random entertainment and healthcare blogs.
3. How do you manage to condense the number of questions you must get into three e-mails per day with less than 50 queries each?
We’re over 100,000 members strong, as well as have 30,000 journalists who have used the service since we started it a little over a year ago. We base everything on a deadline system. Queries come in all the time, we organize them via deadline so we never overwhelm the reader. I never, ever expected this. I’m thrilled by it every single day. I’m like a kid in a candy store. Or more technically, me in a candy store.
4. Are you planning on expanding the service?
We are planning on expanding. We just hired a new COO to help us grow. Expect to see the list separated into specific categories, so you can sign up for as many or as few as you like. Expect new implementations to make it easier to find the queries you’re looking for. Heck, expect an iPhone app. :)
5. What’s the business model there?
Each HARO list has a small, 5-6 line text ad at the top of it. Those ads have turned HARO from a fun little idea into an-over-one-million-dollar-per-year-in-revenue business in just over 14 months. I’d say we’re onto something.
Photo by Ged Carroll.
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