A Guest Post By Heather Whaling

As PR people, we’re constantly told, “Target your pitches” or “Build relationships with journalists” or “Help journalists meet their deadlines.”

But, are we practicing what we preach?

I recently used HARO (helpareporter.com) to find sources for a Mashable article I was writing. Normally, I’m the PR person responding to queries and pitching my clients, so it was a bit odd being on the receiving end of the pitches. Talk about an eye-opening experience.

While some of the pitches were fine – a few were even really good – a number of responses were examples of what not to do when responding to a HARO query … or pitching a reporter in general.

With that, based on my HARO experience, here are seven dos and don’ts for pitching media:

• Don’t be an annoying Twitter follower. I experienced two kinds of PR people through my HARO experience. The first kind sends a direct message before responding to the query, inquiring if the writer is interested. If you have a story that fits their query, then it’s safe to assume they’re interested. Respond to the query. Follow up after!

And that leads me to the second kind of PR person: The one who sends a random “at reply” just to say “Hey, I just sent you an email.” Well, great. I know sometimes we want to follow up with media via Twitter, but the message may be better received if it’s worked into a conversation. The out-of-the-blue reply felt a little spammy to me.

• Respect deadlines. If the writer’s deadline is Friday, that means he/she needs the info on Friday. (Seriously, I received multiple emails from people offering to send me information or schedule interviews the following week.)

• Pitch on target. My article was specifically looking for tips and best practices for incorporating Facebook into a product launch. I received multiple responses from PR people who went into extensive detail about their product … but didn’t tell me how they used Facebook. Don’t go on and on about your product, unless that’s relevant to the pitch. If I’m looking for tips, focus on that first. Then, give me the context.

• Offer enough “meat” in the pitch. Don’t just send a reporter an email offering to schedule an interview. Offer some insights about what kinds of tips, facts or anecdotes the interviewee can offer. Reporters will naturally gravitate toward the interview opportunities where they’re most likely to receive quality information for their story.

• Know who you’re pitching. I was working on a story for Mashable; yet more than one person sent me links to coverage their client received on competing sites. Even better, one suggested I pull information from that article. Why would I want to repeat information that’s already been published? And, if a reporter feels like your company’s story has already been well publicized, they won’t want to reiterate the same story. Give the reporter something fresh to work with.

• Be readily available. If you’re going to say, “Would you like details?” be standing by, ready to offer those details. Frequently, journalists work on tight deadlines, so they can’t wait days for you to respond. (And, yes, this means sometimes you even need to be available over the weekend.) I can’t tell you how many people took literally days to respond to my follow-up questions.

• Don’t respond and then go into hiding. Someone replied to my query and then went out of town. Everyone’s entitled to a vacation, but if you’re offering to connect a writer with a source, you can’t go into hiding. Turn on your out-of-office response and make sure it includes alternate contact information (either your cell phone or a back-up contact person).

What other tips would you offer to help PR pros brush up on their pitching skills?

Heather Whaling is president of Geben Communication, a boutique communication firm specializing in traditional and digital PR. Connect with Heather on Twitter (@prTini) on her blog (http://www.prTini.com) or on the company’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/gebencommunication

Back in June 2009, I interviewed Thom Brodeur, COO of HARO.  At the time, he had just accepted the position and was on the fast track to take HARO to a new plateau.  Thom was true to his word!

I caught up with Thom recently and he shared a what’s new and exciting at HARO:

Q.  There are some new and exciting developments at HARO!  Tell me what’s changed since you took your position in June 2009.

A.  Wow. What a difference 7 months makes! As you probably saw, the new and improved HARO 1.0 at www.helpareporter.com was launched on January 19. This was the culmination of an aggressive development cycle that commenced in August of 2009. Six months later, we’ve been able to transform a simple crowd-sourcing tool for reporters, into a full service online sourcing, PR and marketing solution for reporters, sources and small businesses around the world.

Q.  What kind of research does HARO conduct to keep on top of what journalists and PR professionals need from your service?

A.  As most HARO users know, we keep our finger on the pulse of what reporters, sources and our sponsors need by regularly asking them for input and feedback directly on HAROs themselves. Additionally, we use our presence on Twitter and Facebook as well as Peter Shankman’s personal blog to solicit input and feedback, and to share new developments with HARO users. The recent relaunch of HARO was informed by weeks of formal surveys conducted back in July and early August of all three HARO user groups – Reporters, Sources and Sponsors. The majority of new features rolled out in HARO 1.0 came directly from the feedback our users shared with us in those surveys. HARO 1.0 is a perfect example of innovation from the community who made the service so important and valuable to begin with. As the champion and project leader over this development and launch effort, my hat is off to the HARO community for recommending such smart improvements. Your peers are thrilled with the output you requested. We simply listened.

Q.  Has technology played a large role in helping you to advance and fine tune HARO’s service offering?

A.  Technology has played a critical role in not only fine tuning HAROs service offering, but on streamlining internal operations. We literally moved HARO from a several-page WordPress web site with subscriber forms and a small ESP managing distribution of the HAROs to nearly 50,000 members managed in large part, manually by HARO staff, to a full-service, entirely-automated online platform that not only serves Reporters, Sources and our Sponsors but that has also streamlined our Editorial and Sales operations by reducing manual workflow and processes by nearly 75%. The operational improvements alone have helped HARO staff, already hyper-responsive from a customer service perspective, become even more helpful and available to our users. Because of these improvements, HARO is now serving more than 100,000 members with the ability to scale into the millions effortlessly. Add to the improvements already mentioned, HARO simultaneously launched a community-based customer support service using GetSatisfaction.com. Technology has enabled the next stage of user-requested innovation at HARO. I expect more of the same in the future.

Q.  How much have your communities (journalist and PR) grown since the last time we interviewed?

A.  Since we last interviewed, Deirdre, Reporters using HARO have doubled from just under 15,000 to now slightly over 30,000. Sources have grown from just under 40,000 to north of 100,000 – just over 150%. Since the launch itself just 15 days ago, we have accepted nearly 16,000 new subscribers into the HARO family, have processed dozens of automated advertising purchases from Sponsors, and have launched five new industry / vertical HAROs. The overwhelming majority of user feedback, minus the normal ‘hey this is a bug, can you fix it’ comments that go with a launch this comprehensive, has been profoundly supportive of what we’ve done here. It’s been remarkable.

Q.  What will HARO look like in the next six months to a year?  What will be your focus?

A.  Ah, the million dollar (or perhaps multimillion dollar question). We will continue improving existing features just rolled out in HARO 1.0. Yes, there will be a HARO 2.0. We will continue rolling out additional industry / vertical HAROs, and we will be looking at very smart, strategic partnerships that help Reporters, Sources and Small Business Owners connect in more meaningful, productive and profitable ways. We have set aggressive goals for 2010. By the end of the year, we intend to serve more than 75,000 Reporters and 150,000 Sources. We also intend to continue growing profitably. We’ve found that partners, the media and our users, not to mention this management team and our fearless leader, Peter Shankman, all feel that a profitable social media services company is not only a better enterprise to affiliate with or run, but is a bit unique among our peer set.

I’ve been diligently testing new products and services to get my communications department up to speed for PR 2.0 and social media campaigns.  I know that in several of my posts I’ve discussed how important it is to make sure that the PR team is equipped with great resources to build relationships with influencers, manage campaign efforts, and track program progress and measure results.

There are some fantastic tools out there and I’ve named and commented on many from HARO and PitchEngine to Vocus and Radian6.  But, the other day I had a huge ‘AHAAAA’ moment when I saw a demonstration of Blog Outreach Pro.  Now, I had already been to the company’s website to learn about the platform and I read the one pager on all of the benefits the product provides. But, when you see the platform in action (I saw how it dealt with numerous campaigns simultaneously), watch how you can manage bloggers and digital influencers, get them involved in the platform and how they can connect with your clients, it becomes a must have product.

Blog Outreach Pro is exactly as it sounds, it’s a “Blog Outreach and Social Media Marketing toolkit for public relations firms and social media agencies – allowing them to consolidate resources, manage campaigns and provide real-time client reporting.  Blog Outreach Pro has been specifically designed to address the challenges and streamline the process of your social media marketing efforts.”

I especially liked how the platform provided three different views: The agency, client and blogger views.  Focusing on the agency view, some strong features and benefits include how you can:

• Customize the platform for any product, service or industry (I saw a demo on PR for musicians)
• Provides the outreach to your existing blogger contacts and tracks the communication
• Organizes your contacts which allows you to search and match them to client efforts
• Create a central location (a newsroom) with media assets, product information, and links to sharable social media
• Observe the behavior, likes and dislikes of bloggers as they interact on the platform with your client
• Allow your clients to view the activity: they can log into the platform and see which bloggers and digital media are being contacted and pinpoint who has shown interest, requested an interview or who has left an endorsement.
• See the PR team’s daily activities and see how progress is made each and every day on a campaign

These are only a few of the highlights.  There is also the ability to track and view over time the number of bloggers contacted, how many viewed assets in the newsroom or downloaded media and/or client information, watch the blogger’s behavior within the platform and the result of the interactions (in the form of an interview, comments, rating or an endorsement).

I will be beta testing Blog Outreach Pro over the next 60 days and I will continue to keep you posted on the features and capabilities of this platform.

Here are a few screen shots to help you visualize the product.  But remember, it’s the demo and the ability to see the platform in action that brings the product to life.

Newsroom can be customized with media assets:

Upload and search contacts:

Ratings and comments left by bloggers and digital media

Product profiles that are easy for bloggers to find:

I had the pleasure of interviewing Thom Brodeur for my book, PR 2.0, New Media, New Tools & New Audiences.  Thom reached out to me recently to inform me about some exciting news.  He accepted a position at HARO as COO.  I thought it would be great to talk to Thom to see what he’ll be doing in his new role and to have him discuss his perspective on the future of PR.  He provided me with another great interview that I’d like to share with you!

What are your new responsibilities at HARO?

I will be leading the company’s expansion efforts. Of course I will be working with Peter on setting strategy for HARO as it grows and builds on its amazing track record thus far. More specifically I will have direct responsibility for marketing, business development, sales and operations. I will be working very closely with the team and with our customers on developing and introducing new products and services that help them best leverage all of what HARO can provide.

What’s the best advice you can give a PR professional for responding to HARO PR inquiries that result in coverage?

Like with anything. Be on your game, and make your outreach “count”. Have a relevant pitch that directly answers the query. Don’t look for an angle that might help you get your foot in the door for some other thing you may want to pitch a specific reporter. A lot of PR pros miss the boat on this critical item. Give the journalist what he or she is asking for, and you’ll have a friend and partnership that works for years to come. It’s pretty simple, really.

How does HARO measure its success in the PR community, with journalists and with bloggers?

Great question with a number of answers, but fundamentally it comes down to metrics. Numbers don’t lie. What started with a couple hundred “friends” on Facebook has turned into over 70,000 “source” members in less than 14 months. What started out as a couple hundred reporters who knew Peter has grown into nearly 25,000 who regularly submit queries through HARO.  What started out as non-revenue generating source / journalist matching service now counts over 900 advertisers with a waiting list several months out. The beauty of HARO’s success is truly that it is community generated. This symbiosis and collegial relationships HARO has created and continues to create between these interdependent communities has brought them together in a way that the media has been begging for for years, and that PR pros are beginning to see real value in, in some cases, for the first time.

What is the future direction of HARO?

Ah, the question of the day. HARO will always remain true to its core purpose – matching the right sources with the right reporters and media opportunities real time. But, what you will see is the brand evolve to more of an online destination where smart sources, sharp reporters and relevant advertisers come to: learn more about each other; exchange ideas / share stories, and work with each other in a truly collaborative, meaningful and simple way. Advertisers will have more opportunities to promote useful content (beyond “ads”) to sources and reporters. Sources will have the opportunity to showcase and highlight their expertise in unique ways. And, reporters will have a forum for exchanging and sharing ideas, stories and their personal and professional preferences with peers and sources alike.

Where do you see PR in the next 5 to 10 years?

Crowd-sourced journalism is a phrase you’ll often hear Peter use to describe the direction PR is headed in. The mythology of “who you know” and “how you do it” that has existed in PR circles for decades is being debunked. HARO is helping facilitate this very social media element of interactions between sources and reporters.  It’s been said before…but, command and control  “one-to-many” brand management, marketing and PR are being replaced with shut up, listen and participate appropriately one-to-one communications and PR truly driven by a balanced mix of: traditional media, citizen journalists and individuals who have something relevant and meaningful to contribute to the discussion. Silos are coming down. Social communication, discussion and now, with tools like HARO, even sourcing…are opening up opportunities for expert perspective and opinion from neighbors and friends; not just “pros” who live in gilded cages. The future of PR doesn’t allow for a special prestigious group of “keepers of the grail”. We’re all effectively “keepers” now. This makes all of us ultimately what brands really want us to be…an army of ambassadors talking about companies, products and services. The only difference now and in the future? We will be brand ambassadors communicating our own opinions shaped by our experiences with those brands and the perspective of our peers; not by what a press release, marketing slick or talking head tells us. PR pros who “get it” and get it sooner rather than later, will succeed in what you will likely write a book about someday… PR 10.0 – Same Audiences; Better Approaches.