When your media contact list is “everyone”

By on June 19th, 2009 In Best Practices

It used to be that you could create a target media list and focus on trade editors, bloggers, journalists, and analysts.   But that was so 2008.  Now we’re in the middle of “hypermicro public relations,” according to Todd Defren at Shift Communications.

PR programs are going after the “regular folks” now too. 

Love all the posts on this trend, but haven’t found any (yet) that go much beyond the theroetical and describe specifically HOW to do it.  So I asked some local PR experts how they manage their multiple contacts and industries.

Everyone seems frustrated by the challenge of keeping up with real-time data, and is using the approach best for her/him. 

Carol Klimas, Off Madison Ave - we use a media list vendor just to get us going for off-line media, but we actually do quite a bit of research to find more of the social media contacts and journalists online. We haven’t really found a good vendor capable of keeping up with this real-time research.

Sara Fleury, BJ Communications - we use Vocus, more to track media outlets, beats and opportunities. We seem to rarely use it for mass distributions. It has its flaws, but we haven’t found a better resource for being able to pinpoint the right contact if you’re working with an unfamiliar media outlet or outside market. We’ve used ACT, but now that seems archaic and more often than not, if we have a targeted vertical or geographic market were focusing on, we’ll do a limited wire distribution to that group.  It’s not a perfect system either, but it seems to be the most effective.

Melissa Rzeppa, Zooloo – we use Cision to track down national contacts that we don’t already have established relationships with. We think it offers the most extensive database of contacts including bloggers. However, we don’t keep track of our contacts in Cision, we pull them out and organize them into our own spreadsheets where we can keep taking notes and other details. We usually find our best media contacts not through a database, but rather through reading online news publications and blogs that relate to our industry.

Aly Saxe, Ubiquity PR - we use Vocus to qualify contacts or get their contact info. But we locate writers the old-fashioned way – read the blog/site/publication, see who’s writing about what and then tailor the pitch appropriately. We store contacts in Excel spreadsheets, and are considering buying a CRM system.

Kasey Broach, Snell & Wilmer L.L.P – We use Cision Point for our media resources.  I also use an old-school Excel spreadsheet to track some individual beats and new hire announcement contacts.  Due to the ever-changing nature of media, I keep my close contacts on an Excel spreadsheet and update it with information such as “X is working on international pieces lately.”  I’ve used Bacon’s, Vocus, Burrelle’s in the past and am pretty happy with Cision Point.   For big pitches I do a lot of research through LexisNexis prior to reaching out to the reporter.  Overall, I don’t think any media monitoring service is perfect, so I use a combo of the media resource and good old-fashioned research.

Abbie Fink, HMA PR - We use Act, but have found it more beneficial to create lists in Outlook based on the account person and the specific client needs.  Since the media changes beats so often and each client may cut across several sections of the newspaper, for instance, you basically start from scratch anyway.

Ryan La Rosa, Park & Co - In terms of building and keeping track of contacts, lists, etc we use Cision.  It’s been a big help and their upgrade from Bacon’s has been a big improvement.  That said, you have to fit your requirements and needs within the constraints of their operating system so often it comes down to good old organization via email, Excel, etc.

 

So there’s seven different perspectives for you.  Here’s an eighth:  In the 80s, I kept the names in a word processing document.  In the 90s, I used PressAccess, which bundled (quickly out of date) lists with a customized version of Act software.   And in the last few years, I’ve purchased niche lists from outfits like Bulldog Reporter, read publications, and conducted online research, supplementing with target distribution lists through Businesswire.   

I don’t get the sense that there’s a Holy Grail or any shortcut for the hard work of creating these media lists, despite all the technology advances.   Am I missing anything?

 

 

Comments

Aly Saxe Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 8:49 am

Linda, this is a really interesting post and it seems like we’re all using these list building services simply as a back-up solution and not the main driver of our media contact tracking. Interesting to see, since these services charge SO MUCH. I have to admit, the number one reason we continue to use Vocus is the reporting platform — it’s actually very good. But as far as finding the right contact to pitch a story it’s largely useless. To your point, there are just too many influencers out there we need to target and they change to rapidly, there is just no way any media service can keep up. These days we spend considerably less time building lists and a lot more time pinpointing just the right blog to tell the story, identifying just the writer blogger, and tailoring just the right pitch.

Aly Saxe Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 8:53 am

Oh! I also need to thank you Linda for yesterday’s post with my call for freelancers. Based on the response I’m getting, there are a lot of very talented PR people from all over the southwest who read the Valley PR blog!

Courtenay Dulak Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 1:09 pm

Linda, I believe the point comes down to quality, not quantity. Certainly, there are endless ways to pull a list but only real research can produce the outstanding results our clients deserve. Thank you for a deeper look into the tools of the trade and gathering advice from some of Phoenix’s finest!

Len Gutman Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

Echo everyone’s comments here. Also, the trouble with Outlook and other e-mail systems is that their not really designed for multiple users and they’re not always available outside the office. That’s why I recommend using a CRM system to manage contacts — you can have multiple users and everyone can see each other’s notes on a particular reporter/editor.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money on CRM anymore. I highly recommend ZohoCRM (http://crm.zoho.com). It’s web based, and free for up to three users and relatively inexpensive beyond that. It’s easy to use too and the paid version allows you to blast email up to 250 contacts per day if you must.

I take what’s in Cision and Finderbinder and then keep my own contact database in Zoho. I know mine is much more up-to-date than Cision and Finderbinder!

Len Gutman Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

P.S. Linda this photo is frightening!

Linda VandeVrede Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 5:33 pm

Len, with “hypermicro public relations,” I guess the theory is you target everyone, including “bat boy.”

francine hardaway Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

Don’t make lists. Waste of time. Use BusinessWire or PRNewswire if you have material news that needs simultaneous distribution, or pitch individually for longer stories. All journos hate Vocus. They think it’s spam. Just sayin’

Ian Gilyeat Says:
June 20th, 2009 at 10:30 am

It’s nice to see that all you pro’s do it the same way as the rest of us in marketing that may not think of ourselves as pro’s in the PR game.

Dan Wool Says:
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:09 am

Good PR people never make lists, they identify priorities.

Malcolm Atherton Says:
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:44 am

Hi y’all!

I talk with PR/marketing pros all day every day and I hear much of the same information that was mentioned above: Vocus and Cision are the two utilized most often but cost, user-friendliness, etc. pop up a lot as negatives.

Here are a couple other sources that I’ve been playing around with lately:
- http://www.muckrack.com: a resource for journalists on twitter. It’s got a nice list built up and is a good way to root out new names/contacts for your media lists.

- http://www.twellow.com: a “yellow pages” for people on twitter. There is a category for journalists BUT it’s also one of the few tools that allows you to search a Twitter user’s profile/description. Search “editor”, “journalist”, “tech blogger”, etc. (or a publication’s name) and see what happens!

While these are both very Twitter-centric ya don’t have to connect with them through that medium.

Lastly, thank you to those who mentioned Business Wire as an option for connecting with journalists. (note: I work for BW)

Our trade media lists are comprised of opt-in eds/journos/bloggers only who expect to receive content that they filter to their needs and are regularly validated & updated. We reach print/broadcast/other editors & journos through AP, RSS, syndicated feeds, web search, and more as well.

However, we are just one piece to the puzzle and nothing supplants building a personal (or at least familiar) relationship with targeted contacts. Like we’ve all heard from many “meet the media” panels (and from badpitchblog.com), research the needs and beats of everyone on a pitch list.

Have a great week!
m

Brent Diggins Says:
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:26 pm

Good post again Linda!

I think this process is so individualized, but as someone said with the constant changing of the media, it is difficult to use a list from one day to the next (Beats are changing frequently, seasoned journalists are going freelance,blogs are popping up and folding on a daily basis, and journalists start twitter accounts one day and are done using them the next).

And of course, many of us work on retainer hours which means we have to prioritize our multiple tasks.

We also have to consider the client. Are they happy with one hit on a major relevant blog or do they want multiple placements in national newspapers/TV so they can see their name?

These questions are ones you have to consider and I think they are what drives not only media placements, but more importantly success with your clients.

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