6 free tools to build media lists

Social media has made your list of media contacts longer, but it’s also provided tools for creating these lists for free (mostly).

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Luckily, social media is also making these lists easier to expand, update, or even create. While you can still check the “Contact Us” (or similar) tab on a media outlet’s website to find email addresses, these seven digital tools can make the process easier—especially when those email addresses aren’t available.

Trackur

Trackur monitors blogs and social media. I use it to plug in keywords, find writers who are covering those keywords, and then add those writers into my media list. It searches blogs, Twitter and many of the social bookmarking sites. A paid version gives you a full suite of services.

Technorati

Blog directories such as Technorati are a great resource for finding bloggers. You can search by categories, use their blog directory, search by tags or use their “top 100” list.

LinkedIn

Google any journalist and most likely you will come upon LinkedIn. It’s not good etiquette to send a journalist a request if you are not acquaintances, but profiles are a great place to find a public email address or a link to a personal blog that will give you the contact information you need for your media list.

Twitter Lists

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