Meltwater Press Mini-Review: Part 2
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Item

Part 1 of this mini-review provides a brief overview of Meltwater Press, how it fits within the Meltwater suite of products and how it differs from traditional PR databases. In this Part 2, we take a closer look at some of the functions of Meltwater Press.

Finding journalists through search means pulling up a list of contacts who have demonstrably produced content on the topic of interest, no matter how niche or esoteric. Once I have created the list through an initial search, Meltwater Press provides me with a number of intuitive options for working with those contacts.

The best pitches take into account the specific interests and requirements of a journalist. Meltwater Press enhances contact records with “pitching tips”, viewable from the contact detail (see Figure 1).

This kind of information is often gathered from byline information or directly from the contact when validating contact information. However, Meltwater Press enhances a PR professional’s ability to pitch effectively by once again relying on the power of its search technology to build the underlying content. In addition to the official pitching tip, the contact detail screen provides a link to a “pitch cloud”: a word cloud built from the contact’s actual output (see Figure 2).

The pitch cloud provides me with an at-a-glance overview of the keywords that are important in this contact’s body of work. In this case, I can see that the contact is writing with an eye toward CIOs and probably about Washington-based government regulations. I can click on any word in the cloud to pull up relevant articles for further review and validation.

This screen also makes it easy for me to look up the contact on LinkedIn, generate a report of my interactions with the contact (if any have occurred) or save the contact to one or more lists and/or to a general “saved” file, if I’m not yet ready to add the contact to a specific list. I can also click the tab for “my comments” to add and save any additional notes I might have about this contact, and any colleagues who also have access to my account will be able to review my comments and add their own.

As with other PR products now available on the market, Meltwater Press also integrates outreach to PR contacts as part of the product. The process of adding contacts to a list is very intuitive: simply tick the boxes and name the list to save contacts to a list. It’s possible to create as many distinct lists as needed, and contacts can be on multiple lists.

Once a list is created, the “outreach” module enables creation and distribution of a press release to one or more lists. I created a “test list” and pulled up a WYSIWYG editor to start to create a press release to send to the list (see Figure 3).

Following distribution of the release, Meltwater Press also provides useful reporting features. Had I sent this test release, I’d be able to examine a report on which email addresses bounced, who opened the release, and if recipients clicked on any links. The ability to prioritise follow up with contacts who express interest by interacting with the release is, again, a time-saver. Furthermore, the next time I look at a contact record of a contact who received a release, I’ll be able to review directly from the record if and how that person interacted with the release.

VIP’s View

The distribution and reporting functions of Meltwater Press are not unique in the marketplace, but they work well and integrate smoothly and intuitively with the rest of the product. The power of search to discover, target and pitch to journalists, coupled with the outreach and reporting elements, make Meltwater Press worth a closer look for a PR agency, professional or organisation needing efficiency and an easy-to-use tool.

Learn more about Meltwater’s offerings, structure and customers in the FreePint Research Report: Insights on Meltwater. This report provides detailed discussion of Meltwater’s history, legal situation, customer base, and products. 39 pages, starts at £180 for single site use.

« Blog