Peter Shankman

Founder of Help A Reporter Out, (HARO)

PR Week Magazine has described Peter as “redefining the art of networking,” and Investor’s Business Daily has called him “crazy, but effective.” Peter Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you merge the power of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with pure creativity and a dose of adventure, and make it work to your advantage.

An entrepreneur, author, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, creativity, and customer service.

Peter is perhaps best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year has become the de-facto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 125,000 sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,200 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline, “Everyone is an Expert at Something,” proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members join at helpareporter.com each week.

In addition to HARO, 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 as a website in 1995 at http://shankman.com, both comments on and generates news and conversation.

Peter’s PR and Social Media clients have included the Snapple Beverage Group, NASA, Sprint, Haworth, The US Department of Defense, Walt Disney World, Abercrombie and Kent, The Ad Council, American Express, Discovery Networks, New Frontier Media, Napster, Juno, Dream Catcher Destinations Club, Harrah’s Hotels, and many others.

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, and tradeshows worldwide, including The Affiliate Summit, South By Southwest, The Public Relations Society of America, The International Association of Business Communicators, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, OMMA, Mobile Marketing Asia, and the Direct Marketing Association. Peter’s second book, Customer Service: New Rules for a Social-Enabled World (Que Biz-Tech 2010) comes out in the fall of 2010.