Most PR is considered “proactive,” which means that PR professionals take action steps to achieve an organization’s goals with a planned strategy. However, many people forget about the “reactive” side of PR. Reactive PR involves responding to requests for news or commenting on events that have already happened. Good PR should involve a good balance of proactive and reactive efforts.
A good resource to help with reactive PR is HARO. HARO, or Help a Reporter Out, is a free email service of listings posted by reporters, bloggers, and others looking for a source or story pitch. It’s kind of like the classifieds for PR people!
Three to four times a day, an email from HARO gets sent out with all kinds of listings of story inquiries and requests. In that email, you’ll find everything from requests to submit reactions to new scientific findings, give predictions about the economy, share worst advice for newlyweds, or provide reviews of your own trusted dog products. With 50 items in a HARO email, you’ll have to be able to quickly scan for ones that you might be in a position to respond to and ignore ones that are totally unrelated to you.
We’ve found HARO emails to be a great resource, because the inquiries come directly to us! For these particular pitches, we are responding to a need that we know is already there, rather than pitching a story proactively, hoping it will get attention. Reporters, bloggers, and other members of the media know that posting on HARO will get them targeted results for the story they specifically want to cover. We especially love to skim the HARO listings looking for pet related inquiries! And the best part? It’s free!
Interested in getting started with HARO? Check out their website here: http://www.helpareporter.com/sign-up.