In PR Hot Seat, Sandra Stewart and Sarah Grolnic-McClurg of Thinkshift Communications deliver expert advice on your PR dilemmas. No names, so no worries. Go ahead, ask us anything. We're here for your questions and quandaries: [email protected]
Dear PR Hot Seat,
Are reporter query platforms like HARO relevant, or is targeted outreach more effective?
Sandra: Targeted outreach, 100%. Sarah, care to elaborate?
Sarah: Sure. I have spent a lot of time on HARO and various platforms like it over the course of my career. HARO for years has grown more infotainment and celebrity oriented, and focused on consumer lifestyle trends. But within, it seems like the last five years, the degree to which HARO has become almost literally ambulance chasing is unbelievable—“I want to talk to someone who’s traumatized about X, Y, Z ….”
Sandra: Right. If you’re representing therapists or financial advisors or some other kind of professional who works with people on personal issues and can provide perspective, you might find something there now and then.
For B2B PR, HARO is irrelevant. Qwoted is a newer and better platform for finding less lurid journalist queries, and we have sourced a few opportunities for our B2B clients there. They tend not to be the most prestigious outlets, but that’s not always bad. If you’re working with people who are new to media work or if you’re new to it, then it can be good to have first experiences with low-pressure outlets.
But again, if you really want to make something happen, you need to do targeted outreach.
Sarah: Targeted outreach is a much, much better way to go, especially if you’re in the B2B space and you have experts who want to talk about technical topics or policy issues. Only you can judge, based on who your clients are, but if you’re new to these platforms it might be worthwhile to check them out. I wouldn’t spend a lot of time on it—it’s not going to get you very far.
