The group behind the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) easily finds relevant journalists on Muck Rack based on past event coverage and social media posts. Combining relevant data with a seamless workflow platform makes collaborating throughout the media relations process simple.

Activity Tracking

Muck Rack’s Activity tracking helps me work better with my team.

With members of the CTA communications team focused on pitching different angles, on any given day, we’re working with multiple members of the press. Tracking our Activities (like notes, pitches sent, etc) allows us to seamlessly collaborate with one another on Muck Rack, so we’re all up-to-date on the conversations and interactions we’re having with journalists.

When I pitch a reporter, I’m able to share that with my team by adding a pitch log about my communication with that particular journalist. It helps all of us to plan, makes us more strategic and is crucial for avoiding double pitching.

For example, CES attracts over 170,000 attendees and thousands of journalists. There are a lot of reporters to manage, organize and track. With Muck Rack, I’m able to efficiently monitor press coverage, automatically identify the authors and tag them appropriately (“This reporter attended a policy panel” or “This story resulted from a conversation on site”) for other members of my team to see. It’s useful to have these types of detailed records of media relationships and history as to how we got results.

Media Monitoring

Not only does Muck Rack make it easier to form relationships with reporters, it has helped my team integrate every aspect of the press into our daily PR programming.

For example, when it comes to media lists, I love, love, love that Muck Rack automatically updates the contact information of journalists as their careers shift and change. When I sit down with my media list ready to pitch, I know it’s going to be as accurate and up-to-date as possible so that when I send an email, it won’t bounce back.

I also really appreciate that Muck Rack allows me to share media lists with my team on the platform. It makes collaboration and transparency super easy, and adds a level of ownership to each relationship on our media lists.

Muck Rack Alerts

Muck Rack Alerts have been extremely useful especially prior to major events like CES and SXSW to see what pre-fodder journalists are tweeting about. That way we know how to best engage them on site at a tradeshow or conference.

I currently have a half-dozen alerts set up, monitoring our company name, names of executives, our competitors, as well as key issues that may not necessarily be headline stories, but are being talked and tweeted about by journalists that we want to get to know.

1. Tell us about some of CTA’s major communication goals.

I’m part of a strategic communication team focused on thought leadership and policy communications. My job is to make sure our message is reaching policy makers, as well as policy reporters.

2. What has your experience been like working with Muck Rack’s customer success team?

I appreciate that Muck Rack’s customer success team is always listening, and always open to feedback. On more than one occasion, the team has reached out to me to see how we’re doing with the platform, and to ask what types of features we’d like to see in the future.

3. If you had to explain how you use Muck Rack to someone in a 140-character tweet or 10-second SnapChat story, what would you say?

“@MuckRack is the only way to absorb news quickly and to figure out @CTATech’s effectiveness in getting a message out.”

4. How would you describe your experience with Muck Rack in three words?

Engaging, targeted and effective.

5. What would you tell other companies considering using Muck Rack?

If you’re a small shop operation, this is probably the best solution to help identify journalists and manage lists, but also give you the analytics and metrics you need to help establish goals and results for your company.

If you’re part of a large company like CTA, the collaboration and transparency that exists within the Muck Rack platform helps teams work closer together to make inroads with reporters.