TalonPR

TalonPR, Inc., headquartered in Topeka, Kansas, serves clients worldwide in the mobile and desktop software arenas. Members of TalonPR’s workforce, particularly its contractors for special projects, generally work from home-based offices across the U.S.

TalonPR needed an efficient way to centrally manage press contacts for its many clients worldwide. The firm was using Bacon’s Information’s MediaSource, which is the largest contact database in North America. It includes editors, beat reporters, columnists, and syndicated writers.

TalonPR needed a way to effectively manage and track its activity with press contacts drawn selectively from MediaSource on behalf of its clients.

TalonPR decided to use WebEx WebOffice Database Manager in conjunction with Bacon’s Information’s MediaSource to effectively manage its press contact activity.

“We pull contacts from Bacon’s MediaSource - either one at a time, or based upon a grid of editorial contacts that specialize in software technologies - and place that contact information into our WebEx WebOffice Database Manager where we can work with it in a variety of ways to our advantage,” says Tracy Rafferty, Media Relations Coordinator for TalonPR.

TalonPR documents information in the WebOffice database about editorial calendars of interest to its clients, and tracks the media contacts that were sent story pitches for each client, as well as those who have shown interest in client products.

In the WebOffice database’s Activity Log, TalonPR staff members include notations about conversations with editors and reporters and use the system to follow up with them as necessary.

"The press contacts database powered by WebOffice is a key component in our agency’s ability to provide superior service to our clients and to the media."

- Tracy Rafferty, Media Relations Coordinator for TalonPR

“We have a huge contact directory in our WebOffice press database and interact with some individual press contacts on behalf of 3 or 4 of our clients. WebOffice allows us to track all of this activity accurately,” Rafferty noted.

Kevin Doel, President of TalonPR says, “We provide a valuable service - not only for our clients, but for the media as well. The media may not be a paying client, but we must treat them as such. Providing excellent customer service to a reporter means they get the information they’re looking for, when and how they want it. This approach results in superior media coverage for our clients.”

Rafferty adds, “Effective PR is much more than churning out press releases; rather, it takes a thoughtful, strategic and longterm view to help our clients move toward positions of market leadership. The press contacts database powered by WebOffice is a key component in our agency’s ability to provide this superior service to our clients and to the media.”

Then too, updating each client about the agency’s effectiveness is not only part and parcel of superior service, but also a means of insuring that appreciative clients will be happy to renew service contracts.

So, every month Rafferty reviews activity in the WebOffice database to create Status Reports for each of the agency’s clients so they can see which publications are either in the process of writing, or have completed and published, reviews about their products.

Rafferty then uploads the Status Reports into the WebOffice Document Manager, so everyone in the agency has access to them going forward. Uploading completed status report files into WebOffice - using it as a server - allows staff members to download the reports whenever they need them, and they are always sure to have the most current and accurate report data.

“Occasionally,” Rafferty explained, “other people within the agency need to update an item on a client’s status report, and it’s very handy for them to be able to review previous reports in the Document Manager; they can see which contacts I’ve already followed up with, so they don’t duplicate the effort.”

TalonPR has three full-time users of WebOffice, along with its contractors for special projects who most generally work from home-based offices. WebOffice makes keeping in touch with its contractors in Dallas and Chicago easy. “Our contract workers may be with us from three months to a year at a time, depending on our workload. WebOffice allows our geographically dispersed group to collaborate effectively,” Rafferty says.

TalonPR keeps announcements, calendar events and tasks updated every day on WebOffice. “The first thing we do in the morning is look at our WebOffice site to see if anything there needs immediate attention,” says Rafferty.

WebOffice has enabled TalonPR to eliminate the expense of renting office space for the company headquarters. “We realized that since our company is a virtual one and we do most of our work through the Internet, there was no reason why we couldn’t use WebOffice to put our databases, reports and documents on the web and save the money that would normally have gone to renting an office,” Rafferty concluded.