Researching and understanding a Contact’s background is crucial to developing a mutually beneficial, working relationship with any member of the media. That’s why you should always check out a Contact’s record before reaching out to them. Let’s take a look at how you can access a Contact Record. Additionally, while researching contacts, it is crucial to respect their privacy preferences and adhere to data-sharing protocols.
Finding a Media Contact Record by Name
Follow these steps to search the database for a specific individual:
Click on the Influencers tab.
Click on the Search option.
Make sure the criteria box is set to Contact Name and begin typing the Media Contact’s name. Notice that the Cision Communications Cloud will show any Media Contacts whose name matches what you type. The platform will also show the Media Outlet with which each Media Contact is associated.
Click the desired Contact Name from the results list.
Click on the Search button.
The Contact’s Record Page will be displayed as a result of the search.
Understanding the Media Contact Record Page
The Contact Record page contains all of the information regarding an individual. Each Media Contact Record will have a similar layout containing the following components:
In the left-hand panel, you’ll see all general details about the Media Contact inclusive of the Contact’s Twitter avatar, Title, other Media Outlets with which the Contact is associated, the Subjects or Beats on which the Contact reports, DMA (Designated Coverage Area), Type, Contact Information, and Social Channel Pages.
Within the left-hand panel, you will see the ability to add the Media Contact to a Media List.
The Pitching Profile gives you details about how best to pitch the Media Contact.
Notes can be added highlighting pitching notes or other information you have learned about the Contact. Notes are shared among Cision users within an organization and can be a valuable collaboration tool.
The Insights panel will show you charts describing the Media Contact’s Twitter audience. The Media Contact must have an associated Twitter handle within the profile to show this information.
The History panel will show a log of your interactions and communications (called Activities in this platform) with the Media Contact as well as mentions of recent News articles authored by the Media Contact.
The Media Contact's Twitter profile will appear on the right-hand side of the profile. You will also see their recent posts on Twitter if you have a connected a Twitter Account to the Cision Communications Cloud. If you do not have accounts connected for these channels, you will see a reminder to connect them.
Identifying General Details about the Media Contact
In the upper left-hand corner, you will see the Media Contact’s Twitter Profile picture. In order to see the Contact’s picture, you will need to link your Twitter account in the Settings area. If you do not have a connected Twitter account or the Media Contact does not have a Twitter account, you will see the outline of a person as a placeholder.
You will also see the Media Contact’s Name, Title, Associated Outlet, Lists that the Media Contact is a part of, and Subjects on which they report or cover. If the Media Contact is associated with more than one Media Outlet, you will be able to see and browse their profiles at each outlet.
To see additional profiles for the Media Contact:
Click the upside-down triangle next to the “Show Other Outlets” button.
Select the Outlet for which you would like to see the Media Contact’s profile.
You repeat this process to easily toggle amongst various profiles for the Media Contact.
Ability to Add a Media Contact to a List
Next, you’ll find the Lists associated with this Contact, if any, and have the ability to add or remove contacts to existing and new media lists.
Adding or Removing a Media Contact with an Existing List
Click the Edit Lists button.
A drop-down will populate with your lists. You can scroll through the existing lists to find the one to which you want to add or remove the Media Contact. A checkmark indicates that the contact has been added to the list.
Or, you can use the dialog box at the top to search for a list by name.
After making your selections, click outside of the dropdown and you will see that the Edit Lists section is updated.
Adding a Media Contact to a New Media Contact List
Click the Edit List button.
A drop-down will populate with the names of your existing lists. To create a new Media Contact List, begin typing the name of the new list in the Search box.
When the “Create New list” prompt appears, click it which will create a new list with your specific name.
Adding Private Information, Requesting Updates, Manual Opt-Out, Request Opt-In
Cision's Contact Information Privacy Policy
Cision does not share journalists’ personal contact details without their consent. If a journalist’s email address or other contact information is not listed on their profile, this indicates that the individual has chosen not to make it public in the database. Users are advised to respect this decision, as the platform strictly adheres to privacy and data-sharing protocols.
Under the list of subjects or beats that the Media Contact covers, you will find their contact information. Under the Ellipses button, you will find additional options available.
Edit Private Info : If you have additional information for the Media Contact that you would like to add to this section, you can use the Three Ellipses button is access the Edit Private Info option to incorporate this information. If Private Email information is added, it is important to note that the Private Email address will be used when an email distribution is sent from your Cision Communications Cloud account. It is recommended to ensure that any additional private information added complies with the contact’s privacy preferences and Cision’s data governance standards.
Request Updates: If you find that any of the information inside the profile needs to be updated you can reach use this button to reach out to our research team.
Opt-Out from email: Use this option if you want to manually opt out a contact so that they no longer get email distributions from you. A manual opt-out applies to all email addresses associated with the media contact, both the system and privately added.
Request to Opt Back In: If the media contact has previously opted themselves out or been manually opted out, you will see the option to send an invitation to the media contact requesting that they opt back on to email distributions.
At the bottom of this section, you may see an Opt-Out label if the Media Contact has Opted Out of your email distributions.
Complete the form and click on the Submit button to send your request directly to our Media Research Team.
Media Contact Pitching Profile
In the top center of the Contact's full profile page, you’ll see their Pitching Profile.
Here you’ll find information about educational history, career stops, and awards they have won. Most importantly, you’ll find valuable pitching advice direct from the Contact.
Pay attention to this area, because Media Contacts will often indicate when and how they prefer to be pitched.
Adding and Viewing Notes About the Media Contact
To the right of the Pitching Profile, you will see your ability to record Notes about the Media Contact.
In this section, you will also see any Notes about the Media Contact authored by other Cision users within your organization.
Finally, this section consolidates all Notes about the Media Contact recorded in the Cision Communications Cloud. This means that if the Media Contact has multiple profiles within our system, as a result of being associated with multiple outlets, you will see all Notes from their various profiles in this single location!
Audience Insights
The Insights panel, located in the center bottom portion of the screen, will contain valuable information about this Contact’s, and their followers’ social media habits.
In this area, you may see:
Where this Contact’s followers are located.
What the contact most frequently Tweets about.
Other demographic information.
Top Influencer Insights
Some Contacts will have an Influence tab on the Insights Panel.
If a Contact has this tab, they are one of the top 500 influencers talking about one or more of the 300 trending topics that Cision tracks on social media and in the news.
Within this tab, you will see charts for each trending topic about which the media contact has written. Charts appear in descending order based on the media contact’s influence on the topic.
Note: The algorithm used to calculate Influencer rank in the Cision Communications Cloud is unique to this Cision platform and takes into consideration six different elements: overall volume of content, engagement with social community, reach of message, focus (keyword and niche coverage), consistency of message, and SPAM Behavior.
Each chart will show the last 30 days of their activity and their rank on the given topic. A rank of 1 is the highest rank an influencer can have. This tab will enable you to find influencers as they are just rising in prominence on a particular topic so you can reach them before they have peaked in popularity. The annotation button will tell you whether the Contact is a social media influencer or a news influencer.
If the contact was an influencer within the last 30 days, but drops out of the top 500, it will be denoted on the chart for that topic.
Activities and News Related to a Media Contact
To the right of the Audience Insights and Influence panel, you will find the History panel. This panel will show a log of your interactions and communications (called Activities in this platform) with the Media Contact as well as links to any News they have authored.
The All tab will display all news the contact has authored that is part of My Coverage, Activities recorded by you or other users on your account and additional News authored by the contact that is not part of My Coverage.
News that the Media Contact has authored will show on the News tab. If the News items are presented as links, you can click on the News item to read the article.
If any of the News the Contact has authored meets your News monitoring criteria, you will see those mentions on the My Coverage tab.
Activities generated on the Campaigns tab such as Email Distributions, Phone Calls, or Interviews will be logged in chronological order.
You can also log a new activity directly from this panel using the Plus Sign button. You can see more about any listed Activity or edit it by clicking on the Activity title.
Emails logged on the History Panel will have one of two indicator messages.
A sent email message indicates that an email was sent to the media contact.
An opened message indicates that the email was received and opened by the media contact.
Media Contact’s Social Profiles Panel
The contact’s Twitter profile will appear on the right-hand side of the profile. You will also see their recent posts if you have connected a Twitter account to the Cision Communications Cloud.
If you do not have a Twitter account connected, you will see a reminder to connect it.
Note: If the Media Contact has recently reTweeted a post, you will see the label RT in front of the post along with the name of the post’s original author in the Streams panel.
You May Also Like
The You May Also Like section will appear at the bottom of the Media Contact Record. In this section, you will find Media Contacts that the Cision Communications Cloud considers to be like the Contact you are examining. The likenesses are drawn from what the Media Contacts write about in Social Media or in the News.
Sharing the Media Contact Profile via Email
In the upper right-hand corner, you will find the option to share the Media Contact Profile via Email. This can be an effective way to collaborate and recommend Media Contacts to others who may be building lists for which the Media Contact would be a good candidate.
To get started, click the Share via Email button located in the top right corner of the profile.
A form will appear where you can customize the email used to share the Media Contact’s information.
Enter the email address you would like to use to share this information.
Enter recipient email addresses simply by typing them in individually and clicking Enter after each.
Add a Subject line for the email.
Include any additional information you would like to appear in the body of the email.
Uncheck any profile items that you DO NOT want to share. All information is select by default. If you share Notes and History Information for Media Contacts associated with Multiple Outlets, we will consolidate all Notes and History from their various profiles in the email.
Click on the Share button to share this contact's profile.