I’ve written previously about how to use HARO to get quoted in the press, and by the way, if you happen to be in Hong Kong on the evening of January 16th, 2014 I’ll be speaking on the topic of getting press for your startup at CoCoon. Over 100 people have already signed up so they’re about full, but if you can’t sign up just show up and I’m sure we can jam you in like they pack people onto the MTR (what they call the subway here in Hong Kong).
In addition to using HARO to generate press, you can also use it to get ideas for content marketing. I’ll show you exactly how I just did this.
1. First, I went to the HARO website and signed up as a source. Now I receive emails each day with opportunities for me to connect with journalists who need sources for their stories.
2. Each day when I receive the email, I review the opportunities that are of interest to me. I usually look at the business and finance section first.
3. Yesterday I received a HARO email that had this opportunity listed:
TITLE: Need sources on evaluating the risk vs. rewards of entrepreneurship
DEADLINE: Tue Jan 14, 2014 5:00 PM
QUERY: I am writing an article on how to evaluate the risks vs. rewards of starting one’s own business and would like to interview successful entrepreneurs, psychologists, and leadership book authors on how to balance risk and reward. I am on a tight deadline, so I prefer you email me your thoughts on the following questions…
And then several questions were listed out.
Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough to get my submission in before the deadline, but now I had the makings of a decent blog post.
4. So I turned the questions and my responses into a blog post, which I just posted here. I didn’t have to post that on this blog. I could have worked on it a bit more and turned it into an article for Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, or another publication. If I wanted to put some more work into it, I could have added an infographic.
The point is by reading HARO each day, I’m in touch with the questions journalists are asking. In 99 cases out of 100, I would prefer to respond to them and get quoted in a publication rather than posting the content here on my blog. But if I can’t respond in time, I can still use the questions asked on HARO as a great resource for ideas for my own content marketing efforts. And so can you.
Have you used HARO to stimulate your content marketing efforts? Please share in the comments below.
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