I got an email this morning that even floored me, the most cynical person in the world. It came from a PR person who was pitching me a new product – A shirt. Yes, a shirt. Nothing special about the shirt, it was simply a new style from a new designer. But here’s what gets me: The subject line of the email was: “Hi! Can I borrow your audience?” (Insert blogging-car-skidding-to-a-halt sound here…) Can you borrow my… Hold up… WHAT? Can you “BORROW MY AUDIENCE?” Are you serious? OK. Not even taking into account the fact that my audience… IS AN AUDIENCE, and not, say, A SPATULA, no, you can’t “borrow my audience.” Let’s understand something – My audience is [...]

Running HARO for the past three years, I’ve seen, hands down, the best ways to get your story placed, front page, EVERY TIME. Assuming you want ALL THAT COVERAGE, as your boss has told you that you do, these are, without question, the top five ways to get it. Make sure you follow EVERY single rule here, and you’ll be well on your way to getting tons and tons of coverage! 1) Make sure to pitch completely and totally off-topic, with absolutely no regard to what the journalist covers. Hey, times are tight, right? They should be LOVING you for pitching them at all! They cover finance? Make sure to pitch them on a home entertainment system for 8-15 year [...]

Please link to this, post this around, dump it onto Twitter, etc. The more people who watch the better HARO works for everyone. Blue skies! How to Answer a HARO Journalist Query from Peter Shankman on Vimeo.

First person who knows what the line “Abstract business” is from gets a HARO t-shirt. Sitting outside the Huntington, LI Hilton, waiting to speak at the Long Island Public Relations Professionals breakfast this morning. “Breakfast” and “Driving to Long Island for” should never, ever be in the same sentence. So this afternoon is the HARO “How to Pitch” Conference Call, at 2pm EST, 11am. We’ve got over 500 people registered, please join us, as well! Tomorrow find me speaking at the Entrepreneurial Women’s Network in Norwalk, CT. Hey, it’s a great way to meet women! Kidding. That’ll be a fun lunch. Of course, Thursday morning is the big one – my Keynote at the T3PR conference in Manhattan. Of course, [...]

Every once in a while, I come across SUCH a great pitch, so perfect in form, function, so on target, and so exactly what the reporter is looking for, I’ve no choice but to call the pitcher out and blog about it. Jenny Schmitt saw a pitch on HARO about fun father/daughter ideas that wouldn’t cause a “guy to get his guy card revoked.” Seeing that the reporter obviously had a sense of humor, Jenny crafted the perfect pitch, filling it with information, exactly what the reporter wanted, and topped it off with a touch of humor. I don’t know what the result is (Jenny, let us know!) but I just had to call this pitch out as one of [...]