The 2014 ultimate list of Media Relations tools for the PR pro

Welcome to the ultimate list of 50+ PR tools for better Media Relations that will help you reach journalists and bloggers like a Pro and get your stories out there like never before.

The tools are sorted by purpose and contain descriptions and pricing.

Media Relations tools

 

Tools to discover the journalists and bloggers you need

 

Do you need to know which journalists and blogger fit your specifications in terms of industries, interests, locations, reach, influence etc.?

1) Vocus ­  - Identify key influencers on social media and use their pre­-made media database of 1.4M journalists, bloggers and influencers. Connect with journalists and bloggers, send press releases, monitor news, reach influencers, and measure and share your results. Monthly fee varies from $300 to $2500.

2) MuckRack ­ ­- Using their own contacts database, find the right person to pitch by searching keywords, company names, competitors, beats, outlets, media types and more. Receive email notifications when journalists tweet or link to articles matching your search terms. Streamline outreach with concise, targeted pitches. Add journalists to media lists and include private notes from past campaigns to make your upcoming outreach more efficient. Starting at $199 per month.

3) Gorkana Media Database ­ – ­ Over 200K journalists and bloggers contacts and 47K media outlets at a global level that can be sorted for specific PR campaigns. US subscription is $10,995. annually.

4) FollowerWonk ­ – ­ Search twitter bios for specific keywords. Analyze the followers and following of any twitter user to see their locations, active hours, social authority etc. Freemium.

5) WeFollow ­ – ­ Let’s you search twitter users by interests and Prominence Score (how established someone is in the interests they care about). Free.

6) GroupHigh ­ – ­ Blogger intelligence software that helps you identify influential blogs, automate research, and measure engagement to make outreach marketing more successful. Price: $5000 per year for full access.

7) BlogDash ­ – ­ Blogger outreach software that helps you search specific bloggers using keywords, categories, Klout score, Gender, location etc. and contact them directly through the platform. Starting at $59.96 per month.

8) MediaGraph ­ – ­ Based on your industry, geography, competitors and social networks, this system intelligently recommends the right person to cover your story. MediaGraph’s comprehensive directory comes with unparalleled information on publication reach, readership and social stats. Know when journalists and bloggers read and clicked on your message, and keep track of what you’ve said and when. Watch your media space and learn instantly who’s been featured where, to help shape your own outreach. Starting at $14.99 per month.

And in case you know who is a journalist or blogger that fits your target, but you don’t have his/ her email contact, you might want to try:

9) Rapportive ­ – ­ Try out potential email addresses for the name and test it with this email inbox add­-on to check if you have a match by verifying if the email address is associated with the social networks of the person you are looking for. Free.

10) FullContact Person API ­ – ­ This one requires technical knowledge. It allows you to search for a person’s full contact details by searching for a twitter username or simply a name. Free for 250 Person API matches per month. For more contacts, pricing starts at $99 per month.

 

Tools to build and manage your own Media Database

 

Do you need to keep an organized database of the media contacts you deal with, with notes and history?

11) Mustr ­ – ­ Finally get rid of Excel lists to manage your media database. Mustr helps you organize and contact journalists and bloggers. It also allows safe sharing of your media contacts with PR agencies while remaining owner of the database. Mustr gives you a central place in the cloud to keep your records. It uses made­-for-­PR filters to target influencers. Media outlets are crowdsourced by all the other Mustr users, and kept up to date by the Mustr team. Also including the possibility to add and send press releases directly through the platform. Price: $49 per month.

12) Prezly ­ – ­ Offering contact management tool, multimedia newsroom and online distribution of press releases. Share stories via email & social media press rooms. Analytics & insights included. Pricing: $65 per month for PR teams and $250 for PR agencies.

 

Tools to ease collaboration between in­house PR and PR agencies

 

Do you need an easy online way to keep your PR campaigns in sync between in­house and PR agencies? A shared media contacts database?

13) Mustr ­ – ­ Keep an updated media database of your own media contacts by allowing collaboration between companies and PR agencies. Companies (in­house PR teams) remain owners of the database and can easily change the PR agency if needed, while not losing the updates. PR agencies get an organically grown database through their clients. Price: $49 per month.

 

Tools to write Press Releases and create Newsrooms

 

Do you need help with the content creation? Do you need tools to brainstorm or discover current influential topics in the media?

14) Mindmeister ­ – ­ Brainstorm alone or with others and save your thoughts in a mind map. Freemium.

15) Tame ­ -­ Helps you discover the most shared URLs, most used hashtags and most mentioned people on twitter. Freemium.

16) NewsWhip – Great source of inspiration for producing news by knowing what are the world’s current most spreaded news. The trending news can be split by location or topic. You can set up alerts as well. Most functionality is free, while the product Spike is free at least while in beta.

17) AirPR Analyst ­ – ­ Real­-time data aggregation and dynamic data visualization of only the most authoritative and impactful information across articles, blogs, and social. Track the media activity of your top competitors; understand gaps and opportunities to drive future PR decision­making.

18) MyNewsDesk ­ – ­ Offering digital newsrooms. Pricing starts at $280 per month.

19) Launch it (beta) ­ – ­ Free digital newsroom.

20) PR.co ­ – ­ Easy editor to write press releases for your newsroom, with rich­media attachment and search engine optimization. Import and manage press lists and send your press releases to your media contacts. See who read your emails. Starting at $300 per year.

21) PR underground - ­ Social media press releases that are optimized for search, conversation and sharing. Gain immediate first page visibility on search engines, plus distribution to social media and social bookmarking sites. House it all in a newsroom, with links to your releases, images, video, and your social media profiles. Starting at $39 per press release.

 

Tools to distribute your Press Releases

 

Do you need to send your press release to media while not having your own media database?

22) Vocus ­  ­- Use their pre­made media database of 1.4M journalists, bloggers and influencers. Connect with journalists and bloggers, send press releases, monitor news, reach influencers, and measure and share your results. Monthly fee varies from $300 to $2500.

23) Cision ­ – ­ Access over 1.5M contacts with your press release distribution and conduct media monitoring and analysis. Pricing starts at $350 per month.

24) PR Newswire ­ – ­ Send press releases to PRnewswire’s network of more than 200K media points and 8000 websites. Annual membership fee: $195 ­ $249 or $99 for non­profits. A press release starts at $680.

25) Businesswire ­ – ­ Send press releases to major media outlets in defined geographical areas and track results. Starting at $275 for a press release.

26) MarketWired ­ – ­ Access to a worldwide network of media contacts, social media channels etc. Performance reporting. A press release starts at $460.

27) FeatureExec ­ – ­ Contains tens of thousands of editorial contacts, media outlets, freelancer journalists from UK and Europe. Prices start at £3000 per year per office (not per user).

28) RealWire ­ – ­ Starting at £125 per press release.

29) PRweb ­ – ­ Distributions are forwarded to journalists and bloggers who subscribe. Prices start at $99 per press release.

30) Pressat ­ – ­ Press distribution in the UK. Starting at £50 per press release.

31) IBwire ­ – ­ Distribute to major publications. Starting at $80 per press release.

32) PRbuzz ­ – ­Distribute your press release to thousands of popular news sites and blogs. Starting at $299 per year per company.

33) OpenPR ­ – ­ Free press release submission (uses ads on the press release though).

34) PRlog ­ – ­ Free press release distribution (uses ads).

35) 24­7 Press Release ­ – ­ Free press release distribution with ad­ support.

36) EcommWire ­ – ­ Free press release distribution with focus on e-commerce.

37) Express Press Release ­ – ­ Freemium press release distribution.

38) Free Press Release ­ – ­ Freemium press release distribution.

39) NewsWire Today ­ – ­ Freemium press release distribution.

40) PR.com ­ – ­ Free press release distribution.

41) PR Inside ­ – ­ European ­based free press release distribution site.

42) Rush PR News ­ – ­ Free press release distribution.

Good overview of the free tools for press release distribution: http://www.vitispr.com/blog/free­press­release­sites/

 

Tools to get contacted by journalists and bloggers to help them write their articles

 

Do you want to stay in the loop of media for expertise inputs on your industry?

43) HARO ­ – ­ From The New York Times, to ABC News, to HuffingtonPost.com and everyone in between, nearly 30,000 members of the media have quoted HARO sources in their stories. Everyone’s an expert at something. Sharing your expertise may land you that big media opportunity you’ve been looking for. Freemium.

44) Reporter Connection ­ – ­ Free service that connects journalists to experts available for media interviews.

45) News Certified ­ – ­ Provides the global news media with a searchable database of credible, interview-­ready experts and story ideas that are accessible 24/7.

46) Media Diplomat ­ – ­ Receive requests from reporters seeking professional expert comment. It’s free.

 

Tools to amplify the media coverage you got

 

47) Buffer ­ – ­ Social Media posting scheduling. Buffer shares your content at the best possible times throughout the day so that your followers and fans see your updates more often. Freemium.

 

Tools to track your media mentions

 

Do you need tools to help you track the results of your Media Relations efforts?

48) Mention ­ – ­ Media and Social Monitoring with real-­time alerts. Starts with a free plan for up to 250 mentions and goes up to $99 per month for up to 50k mentions.

49) MuckRack’s WhoSharedMyLink ­ – ­ Displays total number of social media shares for an article (for free) plus registered journalists that shared it (paid feature).

50) Twilert ­ – ­ Monitors what’s being said about you and your brand on Twitter. It helps you keep an eye on your mentions, hashtags and manage your online reputation. Starting at $9 per month.

51) Monitor Backlinks ­ – ­ Get notified when you or your competition gains or loses backlinks. Analysis of SEO impact from links mentioning you. Price: $19.90 per month.

 

Contest ­ Vote the TOP 10 Tools for Media Relations

 

Do you have your favorites? Vote them up in the widget below.

Photo Credit: Eric Chan