Private Contacts
If you are unable to locate a particular Media Contact in the Cision Communications Cloud, you can add that person as a Private Contact to your view of the Cision Database. Private Contacts are then available for Cision users within your organization to add to their Media Lists. If your Cision Communications Cloud is divided into different work spaces or data groups, added Private Contacts are available for all work spaces or data groups, within an organization.
Adding a Private Contact
Click on the Influencers tab.
Click on the Add New option.
Be sure that New Contact option is selected.
Enter the contact record information you would like saved in the system.
Enter any other additional information you would like on to appear on the Contact profile.
Once you have added the desired criteria, click the Save button. You will see a note at the top of the screen letting you know the private contact was created successfully.
Note: The two required fields are Contact Last Name and Country. If you would like to use the Formal Name merge field option in our email distributions, fill out Prefix and Suffix.
Deleting a Private Contact
You can delete a Private Contact from their Media Contact Record. In order to access the record, you will need first need to find the contact.
Search for a Contact
Click on the Influencers tab.
Click on the Search option.
Select the Contact Name field.
Type the name of the Private Contact in the search box. As you type, the system will present you with matches from the database.
Click Search.
The Media Contact Record for the Private Contact will display. A Private Contact’s record will always have a Private Contact purple banner in the upper left hand corner.
Delete the Private Contact
Click the Ellipses button in the left panel of the Media Contact Record.
Click the Delete Contact option.
Click Confirm on the Delete Contact menu that appear to fully remove the Private Contact from the database.
Searching For Private Media Contacts
Run a search to locate all or some of the Private Media contacts you have added to the system.
Click on the Influencers tab.
Click on the Search option.
From the Media Contacts drop down, select on the Record Type and choose Private. This will run a search for any Private Contacts in your system.
You can use the blue Plus sign to add any additional criteria you would like to your search.
Once you click Search, you will see a list of contacts that match that criteria.
If you prefer to view results in a column view, you can select the hamburger menu located on the right hand side of your screen and look for the Record Type column.
The Key icon in that column will indicate that it is Private.
Private Outlets
If you are unable to locate a particular Media Outlet in the Cision Communications Cloud, you can add that Outlet as a Private Outlet to your view of the Cision Database. Private Outlets are then available for your Cision users within your organization to add to their Media Lists. If your Cision Communications Cloud is divided into different workspaces or data groups, added Private Outlets are available for all workspaces or data groups, within an organization.
Adding a Private Outlet
Click on the Influencers tab.
Click on the Add New option.
Be sure that the New Outlet option is selected.
Enter the outlet record information you would like saved in the system. Note: A note will appear if the Outlet Name matches any others already in the system.
Enter any other additional information you would like on to appear on the Outlet profile.
Once you have added the desired criteria, click the Save button. You will see a note at the top of the screen letting you know the private outlet was created successfully.
Note: The two required fields are Outlet Name and Country.
IMPORTANT: On the client end, this is the only way to add private outlets to the Cision Communications Cloud. For more information on pricing for uploading a spreadsheet of media outlets, please reach out to your Account Manager directly.
Deleting a Private Outlet
You can delete a Private Outlet from your database at any time. In order to access the record, you will need first need to find the outlet.
Bulk Import of Private Contacts
The Cision Communications Cloud allows you to import Private Contacts in bulk from a spreadsheet. This option allows you to quickly import and leverage a list that you may have built manually over time or within another system.
When beginning the bulk import process, it is important that you have selected the data group to which you want to add the contacts. If your system is not partitioned into data group, you do not need to worry about this step.
To select the data group to which you want to add Private Contacts, click the triangle next to the current data group. Select the data group to which you want to add from among the list. Again, if you do not see a list of data groups, you can skip this step!
Once you have selected a data group, you can begin the import process by navigating according to the following steps:
Click on the Influencers tab.
Click on the Add New option.
Choose the Bulk Contact Import option.
Click the link to Download the CSV (spreadsheet) template. We highly recommend you use the CSV template provided to ensure the best results. If you have an existing spreadsheet of Private Contacts and their related information, consider copy and pasting existing information into the template.
Add your Private Contacts and their related information to the CSV file and save it. NOTE: Last Name and Country are required fields for every contact included in the CSV file.
The additional fields are optional: First Name, Email Address, List(s).
The Lists field refers to the name(s) of influencer lists to which the Private Contact should be added. If a new list is named in the CSV file, the list will be created and the Private Contact added to the named lists as part of the import process.
Click the Upload button. Once you select this button, the system will enable you to find and select the CSV file that you want to import.
Click the Import button to complete the process. You will see a message indicating that your import is in process.
Populating the CSV Template Properly
We highly recommend you use the CSV template provided to ensure the best results. If you have an existing spreadsheet of Private Contact information, consider copy and pasting existing information into the template.
Within the template itself, you can add information for up to 5,000 Private Contacts. If you have more than 5,000 Private Contacts to upload, simply repeat the import process with a new template.
The below example is what the template will look like when downloaded and opened.
It is important that the data columns remain in order or the import will not be successful. You can add the following information for each Private Contact in the CSV template:
First Name
Last Name (required) Email Address
Country (required)- Country must be entered to match how the Cision database lists the country name. Example: United States must be written as “United States” while the UK must be written as “United Kingdom”. If you are unsure, you can search by Location Country on the Contact Search page to see how to enter it within the field.
List(s)- The Lists field refers to the name(s) of influencer lists to which the Private Contacts should be added. If a new list is named in the CSV file, the list will be created and the private contact added to the named lists as part of the import process. More than one list can be entered by separating each list name with a semi-colon (;).
Saving the Template and Preparing for Import
Once you have added all Private Contact information to the template, you will want to be sure to save it as a CSV file as only a CSV file can be uploaded to the system.
As a result, if you download the template provided in Excel or another spreadsheet application, you will need to save the file type as CSV before uploading it to the Cision Communications Cloud.
We highly recommend you use the CSV template provided to ensure the best results.
If you have an existing spreadsheet of Private Contacts and their related information, consider copy and pasting information into the template.
What to Expect During and After Import
During Import, the system does not attempt to find matches between your Private Contact information and existing media contact records in the system. This means that contact information for each Private Contact added to the system as a result of import must be updated by your organization.
Additionally, if a Private Contact is listed twice in your CSV template, they will be added twice to your Cision database. Since Outlet information is not part of the template, a connection between the Private Contacts and their respective Outlets is not made as part of the import.
Finally, if the upload determines any error in the file (headers out of order, etc.) as you import, you will receive error messages indicating the issue. If errors result, you can make corrections in the file and re-upload it. If the upload is successful, you will receive a confirmation message.
The import process creates each contact as a Private Contact in your Cision database. Based on the information you added to the template, you can Search for the Private Contacts like any other member of the media in the database.