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Muck Rack, a site that enables communicators to monitor journalists’ social media conversations while identifying candidates for story pitches, has made changes to its service that will allow for more targeted pitching, according to Fast Company. On the site, reporters will be able to curate their clips in one place and list the topics they do—and do not—cover.
An improvement that helps PR pros find reporters’ content that is relevant to their pitches is welcomed, says Meghan Kelleher, senior account executive at Access Communications. Access began using Muck Rack a few months ago, and the agency finds the site helpful in tracking not only what journalists are writing about, but their interests as well. “We can do keyword searches on Twitter and set alerts for certain topics,” says Kelleher. “But it’s not just about what they cover—we can spot trends and other topics they might be interested in.”
The Muck Rack upgrades will make pitching more efficient, adds Kelleher, who also heads up the New York City branch of Access' Social Media Working Group, a digital think tank. More intelligence gathered on journalists means more targeted outreach and ultimately less spam being sent to reporters, says Gregory Galant, CEO of Sawhorse Media, which owns Muck Rack.
When it comes to media relations, digital/social outreach to journalists is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, PR pros can easily blanket hundreds—or thousands—of journalists with a pitch. On the other hand, they can also selectively target reporters who will best get the word out. We guess that journalists prefer the latter as opposed to the former.
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