Help A Reporter Out (HARO) began as a group on Facebook and is now a dedicated website with rapidly growing momentum. People sign up to receive queries from reporters looking to interview experts or people with experience for their articles.

HARO was created by Peter Shankman, who still manages the site and mailing list in his spare time, while he’s not working with clients, speaking, or is otherwise engaged in PR and social media activities.

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About our Conversation Partner

An entrepreneur, author, speaker, and ingenious worldwide connector, Peter Shankman is recognized nationally and globally for radically new ways of thinking about Social Media, PR, Marketing, Advertising, creativity, and just about everything else, as well.

Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. His blog, which he launched in 2002, both comments on and generates news and conversation.

Peter founded AirTroductions, the world’s first social network for business travelers after a particularly brutal inter-continental flight. Launched in 2005 to instant media attention, AirTroductions was acquired in mid 2007 and relaunched in January of 2008 as TripLife, the largest social networking and connections website for all travelers.

Peter is the author of Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them (Wiley and Sons 2006) and a frequent keynote speaker and workshop presenter at conferences, trade shows, and private companies, including The U.S. Department of Defense, Edelman Public Relations, The Public Relations Society of America, Saatchi and Saatchi, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, Mobile Marketing Asia, Advertising Week, and the Direct Marketing Association.

Peter started his career in Vienna, VA, with America Online as a Senior News Editor, helping found the AOL Newsroom and spearheading coverage of the Democratic and Republican 1996 conventions, which marked the first time an online news service covered any major political event. Peter is also a frequent runner, with 13 completed marathons and three Olympic distance triathlons to his credit, an amateur boxer, and a ‘B’ licensed skydiver, specializing in free-flying.

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(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)