I often recommend that do-it-yourself publicists subscribe to PR Leads so they can respond readily to media queries from reporters who are seeking experts. Some are reluctant to commit to the monthly fee. While I can certainly understand that, I can tell you the fee is well worth it, based on my own experience with ProfNet. I love that service, and I don’t know how I ran my PR agency before without it.
Still, if you are a beginner at the media relations game, you may be sitting on the sidelines waiting for proof that services such as these really can pay off for you. Or perhaps you just want to dip your big toe in the media lead response waters before you dive right in to incur the expense, however modest.
If that is the case, there is a relatively new and free service that does much the same thing, and I want to encourage you to give it a try. Peter Shankman created a free service called Help a Reporter Out, or HARO. And it’s really pretty cool. You sign up, and then you receive a nice variety of media leads direct to your inbox that might be right on target for your expertise.
Your task is to reply in a concise, compelling, specific way to the query to be of service to the reporter seeking information. If you do this often enough, your storytelling and pitching skills will become sharp, and you’ll start earning the “ink and the air.”
Here is a link to make it easy for you to read more about it and sign up. I signed up a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve already enlisted the interest of a number of reporters to consider the expertise of my clients for stories in development. If you are the least bit curious, what do you have to lose? More importantly, what do you have to gain? Have fun, and keep me up to date on your do-it-yourself publicity success so I can spread the word here at the blog.
