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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Journalists covering a story don't always have the luxury of interviewing executives or waiting for responses from busy PR teams. A press kit helps them easily find essential information like your company's size, headquarters location, and product offerings. It also houses visual assets like company logos, product photos, and headshots of key executives, which are perfect for illustrating articles.

Press kits offer on-demand resources for journalists, and more often these days, influencers. Depending on your business scale, you may have a single comprehensive press kit or create targeted kits for specific products or sub-brands.

Why Press Kits are Essential for All Businesses

What Are the Most Important Elements of a Press Kit?

Optimizing Your Press Kit’s Performance

How Meltwater PR Solutions Help Build Press Kits

A press kit, also known as a media kit, is a digital toolkit designed to streamline media coverage of your business; a package of information and resources that provide journalists with all of the essential information they might need when they are including your organization in a story. 

In the past, press kits were physical packages of documents and images, and in the early days of digital they were electronic files sent out on physical CD ROMs, because print-quality image files were too big for slow internet speeds. 

But today they typically live online for easy access, usually in an area of the corporate website specifically created for members of the press. Some companies also provide downloadable versions containing images and a PDF outlining key information all in a single file. Regardless of format, a press kit is a central hub of media-friendly resources.

A press kit isn't just helpful – it's a strategic necessity for brands seeking coverage. 

Firstly, a press kit will streamline your PR activity by seamlessly providing journalists with the information they need, instantly. Journalists face relentless deadlines and are often working under pressure, so your press kit is their go-to for essential company information and approved visuals. Without that easy access to information and resources, they may skip your brand in favor of a competitor that's easier to cover.

A press kit helps you to keep a tighter control over your narrative, providing the media with a single source of truth about your brand. You’re better able to ensure accuracy and consistent messaging by providing up-to-date facts, figures, and the imagery you want representing your business in the kit. If journalists need to look elsewhere to get information or images for your business, there’s a good chance what they find will be out of date or just inaccurate.

Finally, a well-prepared press kit helps you to build relationships and credibility with members of the press. Journalists appreciate brands that respect their time. Providing quick access to resources establishes trust and paints your business as professional and media-savvy. This positive reputation can significantly influence future coverage decisions.

A press kit is more than just a collection of resources. It facilitates positive media coverage, establishes your brand's authority, and strengthens relationships with journalists, all of which are crucial advantages for any business seeking visibility.

Your press kit serves as a vital reference point for journalists and influencers. Here's a breakdown of what to include:

Mission Statement: Articulate your organization's purpose.

Company Facts: Size (by number of employees and/or revenues), locations of your headquarters and other key facilities, countries of operation.

Products/Services: Clear description of your offerings.

Areas of Expertise: Highlight your specialized knowledge and capabilities.

Brands: List all the brands under your corporate umbrella.

Company History: Concise timeline of key milestones.

Leadership Team: Names and titles of top executives.

Contact Information: Designated media contact details.

Social Media: Links to official social media profiles.

Legal & Regulatory Information: Include as required by your industry/market.

Press Center Link: Ensure clear navigation if your press center exists separately.

Photo Library: High-resolution images of executives, facilities, products, and relevant visuals.

Logos: Various sizes/formats (print and digital) of your company logo.

B-Roll Video: General-use video clips showcasing your business.

Case Studies: Highlight your most compelling success stories.

Testimonials: Positive quotes from clients, partners, media, and influencers.

A professional looking press kit isn't just informative, it's user-friendly. Here's how to strike the right balance:

Make clarity of purpose your main priority by opting for a clean, uncluttered design. Put essential information (especially contact details) front and center, with clear navigation for the rest. Remember that journalists value speed and ease of use over aesthetics - there’s no point having a beautifully designed press kit if it’s frustratingly difficult to find the resources people need in a hurry. 

Your press kit must work seamlessly on smartphones and tablets because if it only works on desktop computers you’re going to alienate a lot of journalists. Media professionals are often on the go, so mobile access is key.

Put yourself in the shoes of a journalist, include what they need, and make it easy to find. 

It’s important to invest in high-quality visuals, especially if you’re hoping to get featured in print publications. But even online media values high-quality photography. Provide professionally shot photos in both print- and web-ready formats, and make sure to offer a variety of imagery for every potential citation, including executive headshots, as well as photography of your products and workplaces.

An effective press kit facilitates your media coverage goals by streamlining the journalist's experience. Clarity and accessibility are paramount.

Building an effective press kit doesn't have to be overwhelming, just follow these easy steps and you’ll have it done in no time:

Plan Out Your Content Inventory: Start by listing everything your kit should include (refer to the component list above for guidance). Tailor the content to your target media – who are the journalists and influencers likely to cover your brand, and what kind of assets are they most likely to need?

Gather Your Assets: Use a spreadsheet or project management tool to track what you already have and what needs to be created (case studies, visuals, etc.). Assign deadlines and responsibilities for generating new content, and as the content is either created or located, make a note of where it can be found within your chosen project management tool.

Involve the Web Dev Team Early: Your web development team will be critical to the success of this project, so make sure they are on board early and fully understand the specific requirements of an online press kit. Remember, these are the important factors: simplicity, accessibility, mobile-friendliness, and SEO (so your kit is easy to find if journalists are googling you). Tip: Learn how to optimize a press release for SEO.

Make it Easy to Find: Once live, make your press kit easy to find on your website – don’t just add it to a tiny link in the footer (you’d be surprised how many brands do) but put the link somewhere a time-pressed journalist can find it without tearing their hair out. Once your press kit is live, make sure to let people know about it. Email it to the journalists and influencers who you already work with, add a link to the email signatures of everybody on the PR team, and make sure to include it in all of your other press materials.

Tip: Learn how to leverage a media database to build a list of journalists, how to pitch your press release to journalists, and how to write a press release.

Your press kit isn't just a one-time creation; it's an ongoing asset that drives coverage. Here's how to ensure it works hard for your brand:

Keep it updated with any new information and assets that are important to your business. New products, leadership changes, updated company stats, anything significant that’s changed at the organization should be promptly reflected in your press kit to maintain accuracy.

To help make this happen, make sure that your press kit is embedded in the day-to-day workflow of the PR and comms function so that it doesn’t get forgotten about once it’s built. Include it in all relevant communications, such as press outreach, and influencer collaborations. When you’re planning campaigns and routine comms activities, always include a line item for updating the press kit. 

A regularly updated, well-promoted press kit isn't just a resource; it's a powerful tool for streamlining media relations and generating positive coverage for your brand.

Tracking your press kit's success will help you gain valuable insights for improvement, as well as justifying continued investment in it.

The easiest way to get a clear picture of how the press kit is performing is to use web analytics. This will show you how many people are using the kit, and which resources are getting the most attention from journalists, so you’ll have an idea of what additional assets are worth including in future.

All of the data provided by your press kit analytics can be added to your routine PR reporting, giving you more ammunition to showcase your team’s success to stakeholders.

Let's take a look at some inspiring press kit examples:

As you would expect from Adobe, the brand’s press kit is a great example of slick design. All of the information a journalist could need is provided in an easy-to-navigate area of the corporate website. Alongside facts, figures, and media assets, you’ll also find the latest news releases. 

Visa’s press kit shows how easy it is to point journalists to exactly the right information when you’re a global company with different media information for different markets. There’s a wealth of useful information and resources on the page, and a simple, highly visible drop-down menu lets you find the right media contact for your region.

Another exercise in simplicity, Lego’s press kit contains almost all of the essential information for journalists in a single page, with clear links to additional resources. This highlights the point that a press kit shouldn’t be overly elaborate - just keep it simple and make everything easy to find.

Meltwater’s media relations solution includes a range of PR and social media tools that can help create a successful press kit. Our Media Intelligence solution and social listening capabilities will make sure you always know when your brand is featured in legacy or social media, so you can quickly add high-profile coverage to the press kit. It also empowers you to identify coverage that includes inaccurate information or outdated assets, so you can direct the authors to your press kit.

Our Media Relations suite and Influencer Marketing suite streamline the management of PR outreach campaigns, and you can include your press kit in these activities to be sure that your contacts always have access to the most up-to-date information about your brand.

To find out more about how Meltwater can help with your PR efforts, book a personalized demonstration today:

What is a Press Kit? 3 Press Kit Examples to Inspire You

10 years ago, ordering a mattress online would seem crazy. The logistics alone would be hard to fathom. The mattress-in-a-box industry has changed all that. From Casper to Leesa to Purple, the market continues to grow with new players offering consumers an easy way to shop and deliver a mattress. Tuft & Needle is an Arizona-based brand providing affordably priced mattresses and a simplified buying process.

Dilemma: In an oversaturated market, ripe with competition, Tuft & Needle must find a way to stand out from the masses (of mattresses).

Solution: #WakeUpBetter: a creative campaign utilizing a diverse pool of niche influencers, each connecting the Tuft & Needle experience with their personal narrative.

Result: A collection of targeted personas that can easily speak to a specific audience.

#WakeUpBetter is an ongoing campaign run by the mattress-in-a-box brand Tuft & Needle. As of now they have partnered with 75 influencers across many different industries including lifestyle, fashion, beauty, parenting, entrepreneurship, cooking, fitness, and dance. The successful combination of strategic messaging and collaboration has helped Tuft & Needle separate themselves from the competition. By collaborating with multiple personas, Tuft & Needle is expressing

“this is a product for every person and every situation”.

Target Audience: Young, Active, New Yorkers

Antuan Byers, a professional dancer and model located in New York. Antuan has 25K followers, and outstanding engagement metrics for an influencer of his size, averaging, 8.7K true reach (real views) per post.

We identified that 59% of Antuan’s followers are women, 30-years old, 33% are from New York City, 14% are dancers or in the dance space, and the top hashtag used by his network is #art. Meaning, Antuan’s followers are extremely focused and interested in the type of content he produces.

Through Antuan, Tuft & Needle is able to connect with young men and women, who are interested in dance, and convey that their products are perfect for people who live an active lifestyle and need a place to rest and restore.

Meltwater Influencer Profile: Antuan Byers

Target: Interior Decorators & Design Lovers

Kamille Magette is an Arizona based interior designer with 35.5K instagram followers. Her instagram account @dreaming_of_decor share’s design inspiration with her followers from her house and other projects she has worked on.

94% of Kamille’s audience is Female, and #homedecor #boho and #interiors are the most popular hashtag used and generating engagement by her followers.  Meaning, she is consistently engaging with a network of people that are passionate about interior design.

With Kamille’s carefully curated posts, Kamile was able to effectively articulate that Tuft & Needle is the brand for those looking for sleek and stylish items. Not only is her audience passionate about interior design, they see Kamille as a source of style inspiration. With her help, Tuft & Needle can express they are not just a mattress, they are an it-item for those looking to update their home.

Creating an exciting brand message that resonates across age, gender, and interest is challenging. Yet, Tuft & Needle managed to do so by establishing a pain-point anyone can relate to. Whether you’re a parent of young children, a touring dancer, or an entrepreneur, you’ll need to feel refreshed when you wake up in order to start your day right.

Ready to plan your next campaign? Schedule a demo and discover how your brand can benefit from Meltwater Influencer Marketing's industry-leading solution.

Influencer Marketing Inspiration: Tuft & Needle

The coronavirus pandemic has upturned our lives, completely redefining the way we communicate. Social media usage is up and brands are finding new ways to connect with their audience, most of whom are self-isolating at home.

As screen time increases, many have been utilizing new features like Instagram Live (IG Live) to drive engagement and provide valuable content during this time. In fact, in a recent study, we observed that Instagram Live’s popularity surged 288% from March 15 – April 14. And, this popularity is not just with influencers and celebrities, from fitness to food to performing arts to playboy, many different brands are utilizing this unique feature.

IG Live is a component within Instagram Stories, that allows for real-time video streaming and audience interactions (comments and likes). 

Similar to Stories, IG Live offers unfiltered, authentic content.

IG Live is a nice replacement for face-to-face and communal interactions during lockdown.

SoulCycle is a global fitness brand offering cycle-based workouts. The brand has over 90 studios worldwide, all of which have shut down due to coronavirus. For a fitness-brand, whose workout is based on a very specific prop, this posed some technicalities that SoulCycle would have to workaround. The brand decided to offer “Off The Bike”, live courses offered on the official Social Cycle Instagram page, and a calendar of courses offered by SoulCycle instructors on their personal Instagram pages.

SoulCycle couldn’t offer fans the “cycle” component of their brand, but the core of the brand is fitness and that is what they are still providing.

Sabra is a food and beverage company, offering a variety of Mediterranean-style foods including a range of hummus flavors and Guacamole. To better adapt to COVID-19, the brand launched “Hummus at Home”, an initiative to bring sabra-based recipes to people’s homes. Sabra hosts different chefs on their Instagram channel who teach followers how to prepare a fun and delicious recipe.

By collaborating with chefs, Sabra is able to show how their ingredient is the perfect ingredient to a great dish. What type of collaborator would give your brand the stamp of approval?

DPAC is a performing arts center located in Durham, North Carolina. DPAC hosts touring Broadway shows, concerts, comedies, and other live events. It has currently suspended all performances until April 30th, due to the coronavirus pandemic. But, DPAC is still offering fans a small taste of the arts on their Instagram page, by offering IG Live interviews with Broadway stars and behind-the-scenes and a “private-tours” of the performing arts center. For theater geeks, this is awesome content.

Your fans are home looking for new things to attract their attention. An exclusive interview with someone relevant to your field or a tour of your office is a great way to engage your fans while social distancing.

For customer-facing businesses, like fitness centers and hair salons, social distancing completely impacts a brand's ability to give services. Figuring out a format for your brand to operate virtually lets you maintain a relationship with customers, even if it’s remote. Just as SoulCycle is offering “off the bike” lessons, IG Live is a great place to offer some form of support or service to your customers even if it’s not at full capacity.

2. Let Someone Take Over Your Brand’s Instagram

If you’re still feeling uneasy about hosting your own IG Live find an influencer from your industry and have them host a fun segment. Try using a social media publishing tool to schedule some posts promoting this takeover in advance. For example, If you are a food company, perhaps you should have a chef offer your followers a cooking lesson, or if you a beauty brand have an influencer offer your fans a make-up tutorial. Not only are Lives a great format for showcasing how your products can be used, but influencers can give you the stamp of approval.

3. Host an Interview With an Important Player in Your Ecosystem

Whether your brand is Fortune 100 or a smaller national organization, you’re going to have people interested in what you know and eager to get to know the people behind the scenes. Many brands, and even celebrities, have been using the IG Live tool to host interviews. The “add a friend to broadcast” feature, lets two users participate in a Live simultaneously. This is a great way to put a face to your brand, without it seeming overly curated or forced.

Should Your Brand Be On Instagram Live?

Meltwater Influencer Marketing searches and organizes influencer information across the leading social networks to help you find the most relevant influencers for your brand.

How Meltwater Organizes Social Media Influencers

Meltwater Influencer Marketing organizes information about influencers into a search index. This index is like a library, with an extremely efficient librarian. In the Meltwater search index, each influencer is categorized by their topic.

Our AI technology is able to classify influencers into topics by looking at hundreds of different features and significant signals. These signals include #hashtags, audience interests, network quality, and more.

How does AI pick up significant signals? 

Our AI sifts through thousands of signals to identify which of those highly correlate with specific topical communities. It would be impossible to list them all, but here are some examples of questions machines ask themselves during the process:

Which hashtags are unique to this influencer’s audience? 

On what topics does this influencer influence their audience? 

Are there similar usage patterns between this influencer to other influencers surrounding the said topic

Are there any suspicious signals in this influencer’s audience (like newly created accounts, no-name, low/too-high activity rates, bot patterns).

That way, whether you search by a #hashtag or a Topic, our AI algorithm has already leveraged categorical prediction capabilities, to result in the most relevant influencers for your influencer search.

With the number of influencers and various social networking platforms, identifying suitable influencers for collaboration can be nearly impossible without help sorting. The Meltwater Influencer Marketing scoring system does just that. In a millisecond, Meltwater's search algorithm sorts through millions of influencers in our search index. We then present you with the influencers whose topic classification best aligns with your search criteria.

Our scoring systems are made up of not one, but a whole series of algorithms. To give you the most useful information, Search algorithms look at many factors, in order to infer if a user has the ability to generate social influence. We use machine learning and data prediction analyzing thousands of features and billions of posts. Using these algorithms, we calculate influence across the top social networks. That way, you will see how well influencers align with brand goals.

Using machine learning algorithms, we predict the number of real views an influencer’s post has the potential to receive. We evaluate network patterns that correspond with real people vs. automated bots or sporadic usage. There are thousands of different patterns our system identifies. For example, receiving many new likes from newly created accounts is considered a low-quality pattern, while long-lasting relationships and high-interest space matches are considered a high-quality pattern.

Search Results that are Easy to Understand

To ensure that you embark on the most impactful collaboration, Meltwater Influencer Marketing presents search results in a useful and digestible format. Whether you want to review an influencer’s topics, #hashtags, engagement, audience demographic, portfolio, or more, it’s all at your fingertips and we are constantly developing new ways to present information. 

If you set Spain as a search criterion, you most likely want an influencer with an audience in Spain, not just an influencer located in Spain. Meltwater's index is built to sort results based on such requests and presents the main country of an influencer’s audience. Always offering you the full picture.

Social media is constantly evolving, and this is reflected in the results you see in Meltwater search. We constantly recrawl the social index for new content. Depending on your query, some results pages change rapidly, while others are more stable. 

Meltwater search is great, but we know it can always be better. We want to ensure we are always providing the most useful and updating results. That is why we are continually evolving Meltwater search by applying testing and evaluations. 

Our engineers have many ideas on how to improve our Search Results. Each idea is placed through a rigorous testing and evaluation process. The data from these experiments go through a Data review process, including engineers, data scientists, and search analysts, and then we decide if the idea can be launched. Every year Meltwater runs thousands of experiments, resulting in thousands of improvements.

Get a free tour of our platform and start your own influencer search today:

How Does Meltwater Influencer Search Work?

Is your public relations team reaching the right media contacts? Having a list of journalists compiled in a media database helps you stay organized and efficient with your media outreach. Read on to improve your PR strategy through tips to creating and maintaining a journalist database.

Are you looking to leverage a media database in the Australian market? Check out our dedicated blog.

Filling & Maintaining a Media Database with Lists of Journalists

5. Nurture journalists for your media database

9. Keep your list of journalists up-to-date

How To Create a Media List with Meltwater

A media database is a repository of media contacts and journalists that PR professionals can use when reaching out for earned media coverage of a product, service, or company announcement. 

Media or PR databases include, at a bare minimum, contact information for each journalist. Ideally, though, each journalist will also be tagged with other information making it easier to sort by industry and improve the relevancy of your public relations outreach.

Looking for media contacts? Check out Meltwater's media database.

Discovering relevant press contacts to add to your media database is a painstaking job. You could approach this project in-house, however most public relations agencies will use a service, such as Meltwater, to access a curated list of global journalists and influencers. 

Here are the 9 top tips to compiling and using a stellar press list of journalists for your media database:

To help with pinpointing the right journalists from a PR database, it’s good practice to build a detailed persona of your target audience. Who do you want your story to be read by? The more niche your answer is, the more relevant (and ultimately more useful) your media list will be.

Of course, you’ll be considering basic demographics like age range, gender, location, and job title but these don’t tell you the whole story. 

Psychographics are just as, if not more, important for getting in front of the most relevant communications cross-section. They can tell you preferred social networks, lifestyle, personality, political views, and the kinds of publications they read & media they consume — do they prefer reading blogs, newspapers, trade magazines, forums, etc.? Get granular when creating audience personas; all this information will inform your journalist selection!

Tip: Take a look at the most popular US magazines

Some questions to ask yourself about your target audience:

Once your audience has properly been profiled, and you know the type of content that interests them, you can start researching meaningful publications and gather your journalist list with this in mind.

Reading Tip: Take a look at the largest US newspapers

Media Relations: How to Search for Media Contacts

It can be easy to get caught up in reach figures. Logic dictates that reach = eyeballs, so that’s good, right? Wrong. It’s important to go after the right eyeballs, to maximize your PR efforts beyond just an impression.

Knowing exactly which contacts to add to your list of journalists is the first step in organizing and optimizing PR outreach. You need to have good foundations in order to see tangible results. We have listed a few considerations below. 

The Meltwater Blog

What is a Press Kit? 3 Press Kit Examples to Inspire You

Influencer Marketing Inspiration: Tuft & Needle

Should Your Brand Be On Instagram Live?

How Does Meltwater Influencer Search Work?

Leveraging a Media Database to Build a List of Journalists

Meltwater Influencer Marketing User Guide: Getting Started on Klear!

Klear Brand Score: See How Well Influencers Align with Brand Goals

How to Use Instagram Collab Posts to Increase Your Reach

How To Use WhatsApp for Business in 2025

This Valentine’s Day We Love Self-Love: Top Diverse Influencers We Love

How To Create an Influencer Proposal Template + Example

Top Influencer Marketing Certificates To Add To Your LinkedIn