1) HARO will remain free.

2) The HARO you know and love will remain free.

3) The HARO you know and love will NOT CHANGE from what you know and love. The queries will still show up, on time, 3x per day, Monday through Friday, FOR FREE.

4) I’ve said this. The CEO of Vocus has said this. The CEO of Vocus has said this. HARO will remain free.

5) Am I working with Vocus to create some brilliant new additions to HARO, IN ADDITION to the HARO you know and love that’s already free? Of course I am. That’s called progress.

6) Will some of these new additions potentially have a revenue component to them? I.e., will some of the new additions possibly cost money? Possibly, sure.

7) Will any of the new additions affect the current HARO you get, or make the HARO you get NOT free in any capacity? NO.

8 ) Will you have the option to purchase, if we make them available for purchase, any of the add-ons we might add to HARO? Yes.

9) Do you have to? NO.

10) If you don’t, will you still get the same HARO you’ve always gotten, and will it still be free? YES.

11) Do you really think I’d allow what my name is staked on to piss off 100k people? Come on.

12) Will the HARO you know and love stay free? YES.

I really, really hope this cuts down the rumor mill. Come on, guys. Lindsay Lohan is supposed to get out of jail later this week. Isn’t that MUCH more important?

I’m going on vacation now. That is my current goal for the next nine days.

Enjoy, all…

-Peter Shankman

PS: Did I mention the HARO you know and love will always stay FREE? Good. Just checking.

I try and explain that if I followed everyone who followed me, I’d never read anyone’s posts, and it would achieve instant pointlessness. So I follow a handful. I add a few more each week. It keeps it manageable. It also keeps me entertained, intrigued, informed, and, when it comes down to it, interesting at parties. A lot of people have asked me how I choose who I follow. So here are my five rules of why I might be following you.

5) You’re interesting to me by being totally different than me, and teaching me interesting things outside of my comfort zone. I don’t know much about child psychology, but I do know that learning about child psychology usually tends to teach us about adult psychology. Dr. Jennifer Hartstein is a child and adolescent psychologist, and a contributor to the Early Show. (Full disclosure, she’s also a friend.) Point being, I read her tweets, and it sparks ideas in me for how to deal with clients, how to teach people to use social media, and generates new ideas.

4)You’re interesting to me because the information you provide helps me in real-time. Time is money, money is power, therefore, time=power. And if time=power, the more you know that helps you manage your time, the more powerful you are. Right? Very few tweets go to my mobile phone – But NotifyNYC does. Provided by NYC’s Office of Emergency Management, they tell me what I need to know, when I need to know it. Trust me – If you live in NYC, nothing sucks more than being on the A train, stuck underground for three hours because of a track fire, EXCEPT knowing that you could have avoided it, but didn’t. There are similar accounts for any major city – Find yours, and save yourself some time.

3) You’re interesting to me because you help me know things I didn’t know before, that I’d have no need to know if not for you. I can’t name more than two of the cast of the Jersey Shore. I also have no idea who the Kardashains are, except that they tend to sound annoying. But, I try and keep up on the most pressing issues in the entertainment world. I do that by reading my stream. I place people into my stream who can offer me that information. The Twitter stream of I Don’t Like You In That Way is one great example. In 15 seconds, I know what happened in the world of entertainment. Plus, they’re great writers. What don’t you know about that can better “round out” your life?

2) You’re interesting to me because you make me laugh. Without humor, I would have been dead countless years ago. If you make me laugh in my otherwise hellish day, I will follow you, and I will thank you.

1) You inspire me. At the end of the day, we all need to be inspired.

Best. Ever.

I immediately got about 100 or so retweets saying “right on!” or “Hell yes!” or similar.

Now as you all know, I’m pretty much the most approachable person in like, the history of forever. Email me – I tell people every day. Got a quick question? Happy to answer it. I put my damn cell phone number in the sigfile of every email I write. There’s a big difference between “Peter, would you use Facebook or Twitter to reach teenagers?” and “Peter, I’d like you to do six hours of work for me for free in exchange for a hot dog, and it won’t be considered work, because I call it “picking your brain” and it sounds much nicer that way!”

Within a few hours, Kami Watson Huyse, APR wrote a blog post, telling the world that my tweet was a pet peeve of hers. She believes I’ve gotten too famous for my own good. She didn’t include my name, but of course, it took about 20 seconds before someone pointed out the post to me. Hey, her opinion, no worries there. But… To counter her post, I submit the following email to her, and then ask the question – Still think it’s about me being a douche?

Kami:

I’d like to take you to lunch. I have no intention of paying for said lunch, (we can go dutch!) But I’d like to get at least an hour to sit down with you, probably closer to two hours. During that time, I’d like to show you (and make you read) my business plan for my new startup. I’d also like you to not only comment on it, but tell me what exactly I should do in the marketing section of it. I’ll need it back by Thursday, but you’re welcome to take it home and send it back to me by email as long as it gets to me by Thursday.

Once you do that, I was wondering if I could call you or email you at least once a week with another question.

I know that you consult to Fortune 100 companies and give them the same advice I’m asking for, for lots and lots of money, but I’m asking you to do it for me, multiple times, for free. You’re nice, so I know you’ll say yes, right?

That sound good?

If you don’t get it to me in time, I’ll probably just email you every few days to see how it’s going, then start calling you on your mobile. Maybe even at home.

So – Yeah – If you could get that all to me, (did I mention for free? I did, right?) that’d be great.

OK? Thanks.

You’re so awesome,

-Peter

PS: A good friend of a friend of mine is looking for a job. Any chance you’re hiring? I’ve included her resume, and also given her your phone number so she can call you directly. Thanks again, you’re a peach!

So Kami – Does my tweet make a little more sense now? Feel free to call me – Let’s have lunch and talk about it. I’ll even pay.