UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, Revised and Updated

12

HARO—Platforming Example

NO ONE ILLUSTRATES the social media platforming concept better than Peter Shankman, who runs the very popular newsletter Help a Reporter Out (or HARO as it’s known).

While running the Geek Factory, Inc., Peter wanted to find a way to connect journalists with sources outside of his client roster. He picked Facebook as his initial platform and created a group called “Help a Reporter Out” where he would send out requests he received from journalists for sources about a variety of topics. This wasn’t anything new because there were a few services out there that did it. The difference was that he was doing it for no charge. Knowing what could happen if he built up the platform, he wanted to build a wild community of fans and subscribers. It soon outgrew the Facebook group setting and he turned it into a newsletter style at www.helpareporter.com. Three times a day (morning, afternoon, and evening) he sends out a listing of journalist requests for experts in every topic in the world, it seems.

With more than 100,000 sources subscribed (including myself), Peter has built a huge supportive list. He protects the integrity of the list like a rabid wolf, letting it be known that if anyone misuses the requests for information by spamming reporters, he will not only remove them, he will out them to the list. I remember the first time I read this, I actually said, “Yeah!” When was the last time something you wrote in your newsletter made a reader yell “Yeah!”?³⁸