Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) operates America’s most reliable wireless network and the nation’s premier all-fiber network, and delivers integrated solutions to businesses worldwide.

With brands like Yahoo, TechCrunch and HuffPost, the company’s media group helps consumers stay informed and entertained, communicate and transact, while creating new ways for advertisers and partners to connect. 

Search 

The first feature that obviously struck me about Muck Rack was Search. The fact that you can see reporters, outlets, the articles they’ve written and their tweets got me hooked on the tool and it’s one of the features I go back to most often.

Working at such a large company with a big geographic reach, I receive incoming media inquiries all the time. The reality is there are too many journalists and outlets for me to know every single one, so Muck Rack’s Search feature has been incredibly helpful. I look up the reporter by name, see the stories they’ve worked on and the tone of their coverage, and that helps inform the way I respond to them. Muck Rack helps me know who I’m dealing with.

We also use Muck Rack for proactive pitching. Last summer, our marketing team did an activation that included a concert series in New York City. It was my job to get reporters and influencers out to those events. In addition to restricting search by beats (music, etc.), I thought it would be interesting to go after reporters who didn’t cover music, but had a specific interest in the band performing. The way I achieved this was by searching the band on Muck Rack and browsing reporters who had tweeted about the band. The fact that Muck Rack includes a journalist’s Twitter feed is very helpful because Twitter often tells you more about a journalist than their history of writing or beat does. If you’re able to identify their passions, you give them the opportunity to pitch something to their editor they might not have known about and the chance to diversify their experience. I was able to proactively pitch these reporters, meet them at the event and start building a relationship for future coverage opportunities. It worked out well!

Alerts 

Muck Rack Alerts beat my Google Alerts. I’ve moved more toward Muck Rack and am not using Google Alerts as much these days. I have an alert for every major city in my territory, and see the previous day's coverage when I wake up in the morning. For projects I'm working on, or the names of people I'm supporting, I get alerts in real time.  I'm usually the first to know when something hits. It helps me share the news but also to get corrections quickly when needed.

Recently, I worked with a broadcast station in a small market on a story. When the first Muck Rack Alert came through I was pleased with how it turned out. The next morning my Muck Rack Alert let me know that that 8 additional outlets across the country picked up the story. Without the Muck Rack Alert, there's a chance I wouldn't have known about the broader pickup that allowed for this small local story to have national reach.

If I know there's media coverage coming, I’ll set up an alert through Muck Rack. For example, if I do an interview with a reporter, I’ll set up an alert with “Verizon” +  “journalist name” so I’ll know instantly when the story goes live. Similarly, if we have a potential crisis, I’ll have an alert set up for the town + Verizon and that will alert me if someone is covering it.

Who Shared My Link  

I love to use Muck Rack’s “Who Shared My Link” tool to reverse engineer a media list for journalists who might be interested in a story.

If I'm trying to get attention for a product or campaign,  I'll search for a story that covered something similar on the trend or about another company. I can then see which reporters had enough interest to retweet it. From there, I’ll consider pitching them and add relevant journalists to my media list.

1. If you had to explain how you use Muck Rack to someone in a tweet, what would you say?

"Imagine a world where Google designed their search engine specifically with PR professionals and journalists in mind, that's Muck Rack."

2. How would you describe Muck Rack in three words?

Efficient, intuitive and enabling

3. In addition to results, what other benefits have you experienced from Muck Rack?

The scope and geography of my job is pretty big and there is a lot that needs to get done. Muck Rack allows me to be more efficient in my job so I can take on more of the “nice to do” items on my list. Before Muck Rack I spent hours lost in Google News results. Now I can spend five minutes in Muck Rack finding the journalists I want to pitch. Muck Rack helps me complete projects faster while targeting journalists I may have previously missed, allowing me to take on additional projects.

4. What would your job be like if you didn’t have Muck Rack?

It would be more difficult. If I didn’t have Muck Rack, I would spend a lot more time finding the news that matters to me and teams I support.  Pulling together media lists and researching journalists would be more of a chore.

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

It’s worked for me! It’s a tool that’s going to make you more effective in communicating and free up time to communicate more.