If you work in PR, and aren’t on Twitter then you really need to consider changing career. Buy a sweet shop perhaps? Twitter has proven to be one of the most invaluable tools available to journalists, PR people and communications professionals of all shades. If you’re going to hear about something first, you will hear about it on Twitter. However, Twitter is a real time stream, so unless you’re really good at keeping lists or are on it eight hours a day, you are likely to miss some good stuff. Because of this there are many app developers busy at work trying to tame the Twitter beast for various sectors and professions.
One such start up, based in NYC, has created what looks like an invaluable tool for PR and communications execs. Muck Rack is a platform that filters and analyses what journalists are covering – in real time. Muck Rack’s simple business idea is this: “Thousands of journalists are using Twitter to research stories, break news, find sources and keep tabs on their beats. Don’t be left out of the conversation.”
Gregory Galant, founder of Muck Rack (and serial entrepreneur), launched the platform in 2009 with co-founder and CTO Lee Semel. Their vision was simple. They wanted “tomorrow’s newspaper today” and Twitter seemed capable of delivering most of it.
In 2010 Muck Rack was just another, decent news aggregator that pulled from Twitter, However, it has been developing ever since and now offers users the ability to see what stories journalists link to the most, what topics journalists are most interested in and what ones are trending among what group of hacks. You can also search for writers by publication, build media lists and set up alerts that will tell you immediately if a journalist or publication is using a keyword that matters to you or your client.
So, how does it make money? Well, Muck Rack Pro is free for journalists but will cost PR firms cash. See the prices here.

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