Help a Reporter

Attention PR people and journalists: here's a Facebook success story for those of us who believe that PR people can actually be helpful to journalists.

Peter Shankman started a Facebook group a few months back called "If I can help a reporter out, I will." The idea was simple: journalists on deadline looking for information on a particular story idea would let Shankman know. He'd email or message the group. Anyone in the group who could answer the question - AND FOR WHOM THE QUERY WAS ON TARGET - would reply.

The results: (1) journalist got the details needed for the story, and (2) PR person made a good contact and quite probably got some additional publicity for a client.

The group has been successful - so much so that it is now a victim of its own success. The group has outgrown Facebook's limit on outgoing messages - that is, when a journalist's request comes in, it is being redirected to so many people that Facebook's spam filters kick in.

So Shankman has started a new site - http://www.helpareporter.com - where you can register to join a special no-spam list and keep this project rolling. Please read what's at the link. It makes a couple of key points, the main one being DO NOT SPAM REPORTERS, but that's something you already know, right? Journalists will also find instructions there on how to get a query sent to the list.

It's a great idea. There were nearly 1100 members of the Facebook group, and the journalists were getting what they needed and the PR people were finding themselves actually getting some respect.

Let's see if we can keep it going.