Contact Records Overview

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Modified on: Tue, 13 Dec, 2022 at 7:08 PM

Researching and understanding a Contacts’s background is crucial to developing a mutually beneficial working relationship with any media member. You should always check a Contact’s record before reaching out to them. Let’s take a look at how you can access a Contact Record.

Finding a Media Contact Record by Name:

Follow these steps to search the database for a specific individual:

1. Click on the Influencers tab
2. Click on Search

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 names match what you type. The platform will also show the Media Outlet associated with each Media Contact.

Click the desired Contact Name from the results list.

Click Search with the desired contact’s information in the search box.

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:

Identifying General Details about the Media Contact:

You will see the Media Contact’s Twitter Profile picture in the upper left-hand corner.  To see the Contact’s picture, you need to link your Twitter account to 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 the subjects they report or cover. If the Media Contact is associated with more than one Media Outlet,  you can see and browse their profiles at each outlet.

To see additional profiles for the Media Contact:

1. Click the upside-down triangle next to the “Show Other Outlet” button.
2. Select the Outlet you want to see the Media Contact’s profile.
3. 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. To manage what Lists are associated with the Contact:

Adding a Media Contact to an Existing List:

1. Click the Edit List button.
2. 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 the Media Contact.
3. You can use the dialog box at the top to search for a list by name.
4. To add the Media Contact to an existing list, click the checkbox by the desired list’s name.

Adding a Media Contact to a New Media Contact List:

1. Click the Edit List button.
2. 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.
3. When the “Create New list”  prompt appears, click it to create a new list with your specific name.

Three Ellipses Button for Adding Private Information, Requesting Updates, Manual Opt-Out, and Request Opt-In:

Under the list of subjects or beats that the Media Contact covers, you will find their contact information. Under the Three-Ellipses button, you will find additional options available.

1. 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.
2. Request Updates: If you find that any of the information inside the profile needs to be updated, you can reach us this button to reach out to our research team
3. Opt-Out from email: Use this option 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.
4. 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 contacts requesting that they opt back on to email distributions.

You may see an Opt-Out label at the bottom of this section if the Media Contact has Opted Out of your email distributions.

Submit an Update to Our Research Team:

Rounding out the left-hand panel of the Contact Record, you’ll next find links to the Contact’s Social Media pages which you can click on to be taken to that platform.

You will also see a link that you can use to report out-of-date contact information directly to our research team. While our research team reaches out to each Media Contact several times a year to verify and update their information, we certainly want to know about any out-of-date information you find so we can quickly update it!

Media Contact Pitching Profile:

In the top center, you’ll find the Pitching Profile. Here you’ll find information about their 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 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 organisation.  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 and their followers’ social media habits. You can see the following:

• Where this Contact’s followers hail from
• What they most frequently Tweet 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 Cision tracks on social media and in the news.  Within this tab, you will see charts for each trending topic 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 a social community, reach of the 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.

Activities and News Related to a Media Contact:

You will find the History panel to the right of the Audience Insights and Influence panel. This panel will show a log of your interactions and communications (called Activities in this platform)  with the Media Contact and links to any News they have authored. To learn more about creating Activities, click here.

1. Activities generated on the Campaigns tab, such as Email Distributions, Phone Calls, and Interviews, will be logged in chronological order. Using the Plus Sign button, you can also log a new activity directly from this panel. You can see more about any listed Activity or edit it by clicking on the Activity title.
2. News that the Media Contact has authored will show on the News tab. You can click on the News item to read the article if the News items are presented as links. If any of the News the Contact has authored meets your News monitoring criteria, you will see those mentions on the My Coverage tab.

Emails logged on the History Panel will have one of two indicator messages. A sent email indicates that an email was sent to the media contact. An opened message indicates that the media contact received and opened the email.

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 and 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 the News.

Sharing the Media Contact Profile via Email:

In the upper right-hand corner, you can 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 in the profile's top right corner.

A form will appear where you can customise the email to share the Media Contact’s information.

1. Enter the email address you want to share this information.
2 Enter recipient email addresses simply by typing them in individually and clicking Enter after each.
3. Add a Subject line for the email.
4. Include any additional information you would like to appear in the body of the email.
5. Uncheck any profile items that you DO NOT want to share. All information is selected 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.