At Costa DeVault, it’s no secret that we are big fans of Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out (HARO). Dubbed the “largest source repository in the world,” HARO sends out approximately 210 media opportunities daily. For down-to-the-wire deadlines, it’s a journalist’s best friend … and a PR professional’s dream. But, with more than 120,800 active sources receiving the thrice-daily email, competition can be stiff for that coveted placement.

When you find a fitting query, having the perfect resource is just half the battle. The following are a few of our favorite HARO tips that we’ve learned from personal experience:

• Keep it short. When you mix a tight deadline with a high volume of replies, multiple paragraphs of text – while relevant and informative – might be overlooked in favor of short and to-the-point bullets. (In fact, People Magazine’s Steve Helling is a big advocate of the 250-word pitch.)

• Provide all the information. Some of the most coveted queries request particular information. Often times you’ll be asked to include common details, like the name of the source, company name and contact information. But sometimes, the reporter might want even more information – like a headshot, the source’s age or highly specific quotes and comments. When compared to another expert resource, if your email lacks any of the requested information, it might be the difference between being included and being ignored.

• Subject lines are valuable. Use them wisely. Our friends at HARO automatically add “New Pitch –” to your email’s subject line (at least when you reply to an auto-generated HARO email, like “queryxyz@”). Don’t waste valuable subject line real estate by including something similar – instead, get right to the point.

• Omit bold text to avoid “screaming.” In the past, I’ve used bold text to call out specific statistics and relevant information when responding to a HARO query. Sounds like a smart idea, right? When a reporter replied to me recently, they included my original pitch and I was surprised to see that my “courtesy” bolding had actually translated into SCARY CAPITALIZATION. Eek! Often times, people read capitalization as screaming … which is definitely not something I want to portray to a reporter.

For more best practices – from Peter, himself – visit Shankman.com. Please share your own favorite tips in the comment section below.

In 2007, when I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I discovered that, while my friends in Orlando were quick to adopt everything from Myspace to Flickr to Twitter, people in Silicon Valley avoided signing up for multiple forms of social media. For them, Facebook was the present and future king of all social networking. The reason? Managing too many different accounts was overwhelming, and Facebook effectively streamlined everything one wanted – from status and news updates … to photo sharing … to event posting – on one, easy-to-use site.

So how has Facebook managed this? It isn’t always because they had the best ideas first … but it is because they recognized value in other social media outlets and integrated facets of several of them. Recently, the site added Places, a spin on Foursquare’s geo-tagging application – putting the juggernaut in direct competition with Foursquare, a fledging start-up that has increased its user base this year, but hasn’t quite become the next big thing that some experts predicted. And, last week, Facebook did it again by introducing a new profile layout that puts job and education information in an easy-to-see location at the top of user profiles, and also allows people to add specific job details … a move that social media expert Peter Shankman believes could be “checkmate” for LinkedIn.

Only time will tell how Facebook’s new features and applications impact other social networking sites – but with the company moving full-steam ahead, it doesn’t appear that the trend of adopting ideas and tweaking them is short-term. And, it begs the question: If Facebook already does it and I have an account with them, why would I bother trying to manage another site or application?

What do you think? Would you prefer to use Facebook for all your social media needs or do you think that Facebook can’t provide the same benefits that other applications do? And do you think the “little guys” have a chance of surviving?

Quick – you need a restaurant recommendation for a special night out; do you…

A. Google “Winter Park, FL restaurants”
B. Send out a tweet asking for help
C. Check reviews on Yelp!

Yesterday’s HARO (Help a Reporter Out) conference call, hosted by Peter Shankman and Chris Brogan, introduced listeners to the idea of the “human web” versus the “machine web” – and why brands need to utilize one more than the other.

The human web includes social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yelp! – while the machine web refers to search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. When you’re looking for movie times, it is smart to get help from Google – but if you want a review, your human network is probably your best bet.

For example, some critics deemed recent movie Brüno the “one-day wonder” due to the fact that its numbers declined 40% from Friday to Saturday. Time suggested that Twitter might be to blame, claiming that “Brüno could be the first movie defeated by the Twitter effect.” As moviegoers tweeted their various experiences, ranging from walking out of the theater to being completely mortified, their followers caught on.

It is sometimes easy to forget that search engines are, in the end, machines fueled by search algorithms and, in some cases, advertisements. Having a “loyal army,” as Shankman puts it, is vital to brands in the social media age. It might be easier for a consumer to ask a search engine what restaurants are in the area, but if the consumer asks their Twitter followers to suggest one, they get a recommendation from someone they trust – whether they know them personally or not. On the same note, as discussed in the conference call, a recommendation from a loyal customer is more trusted than the restaurant itself suggesting you try their newest dish.

The key for businesses is to get customers to be their biggest fans (and their ultimate source for PR) – but this is easier said than done. One step in the right direction is to make sure you are interacting with your social media network… not just having a one-sided conversation.

Photo credit: hyku

Peter Shankman, founder of HARO – Help a Reporter Out, a service connecting journalists with sources – talks about Twitter and how it can help businesses. This social network is Peter’s sounding board and immediate focus group. Plus, it totally changes customer service. 

What can Twitter do for you?

Also, Costa DeVault would like to congratulate Peter on HARO’s first anniversary. Here’s to an even bigger and better year!