How to Get Interviews – Part I
You’ve come up with a business idea you believe will rock the world.
You have built your website… it’s so beautiful it brings a tear to your eye.
You are the expert in your field and you’ve got something to say.
Now you just need someone to say it to!
It’s no surprise that the best way to become recognized is to be interviewed by others who want to leverage your expertise for a newspaper or magazine article, a website, a radio show or television segment.
So how do you find those people?
Or how do those looking to interview someone with your expertise find you?
Over the next three days I will post three must-follow resources that can help you get more exposure.
Here is the first resource you should pay attention to…
1) Help-a-Reporter Out (HARO)
Peter Shankman loves to take risks. It shows through his love for skydiving and his penchance for publicity. Peter proves that there’s nothing crazy about doing crazy stunts, especially if it gets attention for your company. I read his book, Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work–And Why Your Company Needs Them
Being in touch with the media so frequently, Peter was often contacted by journalists seeking someone they could interview for a particular story. After all, writers have short deadlines and it is often difficult to locate just the right expert to ask questions.
As a result, Peter created a Facebook group called “Help a Reporter Out.” The group encouraged people who were experts in their particular niche to post who they were, what their expertise was, and how they could be contacted. This would form a database of reliable sources journalists could easily locate.
The Facebook group exploded and soon became a massive list of resources.
Today, Shankman’s newsletter goes out to well over one hundred thousand sources. Essentially, anyone seeking to be interviewed could sign up and receive a long list of queries from reporters, journalists and bloggers seeking experts. The list goes out three times each day and usually contains approximately 30-40 queries. Here is an example pulled from a HARO newsletter I just received.
********* INDEX ***********
Biotech and Healthcare
1) patients describing symptoms (Health Behavior News Service)
2) describing symptoms to doctors (Health Behavior News Service)
3) Need expert on travelers’ diarrhea (Maiden Voyage (www.maiden-voyage-travel.com)
Business and Finance
4) Interview Series on Wise Decision Making (e-Series)
5) Advice for Identity Theft Victims (Pitch)
6) Career Future for Corporate Whistleblowers? (CFA Institute Magazine)
7) Looking for those 55 and older who are purchasing the same brand of car as their parents (AARP Bulletin)
8) Fire Prevention for pizza operators (Pizza Today)
9) Entrepreneur Journeys: eCommerce Companies > $10M (www.sramanamitra.com)
10) Seeking retail merchandising expert to comment on bundling (Dance Retailer News)
11) Customer Engagement Blog (Zengage)
Energy and Green Tech
12) Context on cellulosic ethanol market (Freelance)
Entertainment and Media
13) “Enough Already” is seeking homeowners who desperately need help with extreme clutter (OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network)
14) Need Experts in Male Fashion – dressing after drastic pound shedding (Backstage Pass Radio Program & Blog)
General
15) Using Social Media Successfully at Trade Shows (Social Media/Webinar/Blog)
16) Sports Psychologists — Girls who like “boys'” sports, boys who like “girls'” sports (NYC Regional Magazine)
17) Divorcing & Breaking Up (CBS)
18) Warehousing (The Electrical Distributor)
19) Inside Pre-paid Legal Plans (Freelance)
20) Need Pencil Skirts for Upcoming Article (Online Magazine)
21) Nine Wines for $19 or Less (ChicagoNow)
22) New books & music the holidays (Santa Barbara Seasons)
23) Eating Out for Free or at a Discount (6ABC Philadelphia)
24) Wine tasting events (Regional niche magazine)
25) Dental Tourism (National TV news outlet)
High Tech
26) storage usage techniques (Processor magazine)
Lifestyle and Fitness
27) chemistry expert to speak on pet urine (Feline Wellness (Canada))
28) Need Unusual Ideas for Celebrating Halloween (E-Guide)
29) Expert needed–“how to be the life of the party” (magazine)
30) Pilates Teacher Trainers (Pitch)
31) Seeking Great L.A. Hosts and Hostesses (L.A. Examiner.com)
32) Winter Fitness (EmpoweringMommy.com)
33) Print Interview of Food Personalities (Children’s Food Magazine)
Public Policy and Government
34) Muslims in NYC (Rise Up)
You can see how diverse the queries are. You never know what opportunities are going to turn up, so its worth paying attention to every edition.
The summaries are followed by detailed descriptions of what the writer is looking for.
For example…
11) Summary: Customer Engagement Blog
Name: Tiffany Maleshefski (Zengage)
Category: Business and Finance
Email: [email protected]
Media Outlet: Zengage
Deadline: 05:00 PM EST – 10 September
Query:
We are writing a story about the end of the Bros Icing Bros
campaign (Smirnoff Ice). We need a customer service or customer
engagement expert, or even a branding expert, who can give us
perspective on how and why these types of organic viral campaigns
appeal to customers and what happens to the customer after the
campaign ends. And really — what does this do for Smirnoff Ice
in the long run. It was a campaign that put the company at the
butt of a joke, yet it did report seeing a slight bump in sales.
Anyone who can talk to us about this idea and specific campaign
is appreciated!
———————-
15) Summary: Using Social Media Successfully at Trade Shows
Name: Stephanie Cross (Social Media/Webinar/Blog)
Category: General
Email: [email protected]
Media Outlet: Social Media/Webinar/Blog
Deadline: 07:00 PM EST – 10 September
Query:
Looking for people who have used or experienced social media
being leveraged at Trade Show events. What was done? Did you
like it? Looking for ideas!!!!
———————-
28) Summary: Need Unusual Ideas for Celebrating Halloween
Name: susan hawkins Hawkins (E-Guide)
Category: Lifestyle and Fitness
Email: [email protected]
Media Outlet: E-Guide
Deadline: 07:00 PM EST – 10 September
Query:
Boo, y’all! I’m really digging deep for our Halloween hosting
E-guide, because almost everyone knows the Halloween routine.
That’s why I’m looking for your extraordinary Halloween
suggestions: how to make cool, but inexpensive costumes (for kids
and adults), your scariest Halloween recipe for food or drink,
your spookiest haunted-house ideas, fun things to do with kids,
and over-the-top decorating ideas. I’d love to include your
favorite Halloween memories and photos of your wildest Halloween
costumes. I also need a costume-shop owner, make-up artist or
haunted-house designer for our “expert” interview. And even if
you do nothing else, please complete this sentence: “I get into
Halloween because_____________. As always, all contributions
used in the e-guide will get credit and a link. That alone should
scare up lots of responses! I can’t wait to see them!
You get the idea.
Sign up for HARO as a resource and start receiving Peter’s newsletter.
Scour it for opportunities for you to share your expertise and put in a pitch if you think you are a good fit.
I’ve received MANY interviews as a result of HARO.
Incidently, HARO was recently purchased by Vocus. However, Peter still manages all editorial and is the face of the publication.
HARO is the biggest of the bunch, but there are two other similar sites you should pay attention to. They are lesser known, therefore you have a better chance of getting selected by a journalist to be the subject of an interview.
Stay tuned for the second part of this series tomorrow!
Comments? You know what to do…
Yes, HARO is great, been using it for quite some time. You have to be quick, and you have to watch and really follow it, but over time, you can get some nice pick up with it. Thanks for the reminder.
Timing is everything, I just finished applying (if you will) to HARO. Then I got your e-mail.
Thank you Joel. Look forward to the rest of the posts on this topic.
I scour my HARO emails at least twice a day, and almost always find something relevant for one of my clients or friends. Great way to get a feel for up and coming hot topics, too.
Joel, Thanks for the reminder. I’d heard about this before but had forgotten. This is a great win-win, plus it’s sort of a back door way to keep tabs on what the media think is important at the moment. Thanks again!
Wow! What another great resource… I had not heard about “Help-A-Reporter-Out” until now. Gaining exposure for my clients isn’t limited to what I can do for them as a Signage professional – I need to help them gain every edge they can – not to mention my own business! Thanks for a great post, Joel!
Joel, pretty important to remind people they absolutely MUST follow Peter’s five rules or they will be banned. And as Gary notes above, you have to reply fast because sometimes the reporters get swamped with responses and if they do they tend to go with the earliest respondents.
Joel, as always, you cut to the chase. HARO is a great resource.
No.1 in Google for “2012 olympics forum” – I’d love to be interviewed for my hopes and dreams for London 2012
A great site for getting celebrity interviews (they have actors, athletes, musicians, reality stars, gurus, authors, etc.) is Contact Any Celebrity (www.ContactAnyCelebrity.com). It’s been recommended by HARO, Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, and Yanik Silver. Tim Ferriss even recommends it twice in The 4-Hour Workweek!