Creators, Publishers & Relationships: The Complete Guide for PR Teams
Find the people and outlets who talk about you, understand who matters, and run your media relationships in one place, from first mention to signed partnership.
Updated Oct 14, 2026 · 18 min read · ElixBrand Product Team
Every mention of your brand was written by someone: a journalist, a YouTuber, a Reddit regular, a trade blog. The Influencers page turns your coverage into a list of those people and outlets, ranks them by how much they matter to you, and lets your team track every relationship with them: who owns it, when you last spoke, what you promised, and whether they are drifting from friend to critic. This guide walks through the page in plain language, then shows how PR teams use it day to day with real scenarios.
1. What this page is for
Most monitoring tools tell you what was said. This page tells you who said it, and what you should do about them.
It answers four questions a PR team asks every week:
- Who is talking about us the most, and who reaches the biggest audience?
- Who loves us, who is critical, and who is changing their mind?
- Which journalists, creators and outlets are we already working with, and which ones have we neglected?
- Which of those relationships actually produced coverage for our last campaign?
Where to find it
Open a project and choose Influencers in the left sidebar. If you see a small Pro badge next to it, your plan does not include creator discovery yet; the project owner can upgrade from Billing.
2. Creators and Publishers: the two tabs
The page has two tabs. They look alike but answer different questions.
Creators are people and accounts: a journalist's byline, a YouTube channel, a TikTok creator, a Reddit user, a LinkedIn author. One person can appear more than once if they write under slightly different names or on several platforms; section 7 explains how to merge them.
Publishers (shown as Sources) are outlets and websites: a newspaper, a trade magazine, a blog, a podcast site. Social networks themselves are never listed as publishers, so you will not see twitter.com or reddit.com competing with The Guardian.
Everything on both tabs comes from mentions that match your monitored keywords, after your noise rules. Mentions you marked as spam, irrelevant or wrong brand in the feed are left out, so they never inflate someone's ranking.
Nothing is guessed
If we do not know a number, we show a dash instead of inventing one. A creator with no known follower count is shown as Unranked, and a post with no reliable audience figure has no reach. This is deliberate: a short honest list is more useful in a client meeting than a long impressive one you cannot defend.
3. Reading the table
Each row is one creator or publisher over the period you picked at the top (for example, the last 30 days). Click a row for a quick look in a side panel, or click the name to open their full profile.
You can hide columns you do not need from the Columns menu. Your choice is remembered on your computer.
- Platform: where they publish. A creator active on two platforms appears once per platform until you merge them.
- Tier: audience size based on real followers. Mega is 1 million and up, Macro 100K to 1M, Micro 10K to 100K, Nano under 10K, and Unranked when we do not know.
- Followers: the follower or subscriber count we saw on their posts.
- Max reach: the largest audience a single one of their posts reached, when the platform reports views or we can estimate it for news sites.
- Mentions: how many times they mentioned you in the period. When you pick a date range, a small arrow shows the change against the previous period of the same length.
- Sentiment mix: the share of positive, neutral, negative, mixed and unlabelled mentions.
- Impact Score: one number from 0 to 100 that combines audience, volume, engagement and sentiment. Hover it to see how it was built.
- Stage, Health, Owner and Last touched: only filled once the creator is in your relationships (section 6).
Sorting and pages
Click any column header to sort. The counter under the table tells you how many creators exist in total and how many were ranked, so you always know whether you are looking at everyone or only the top of the list.
4. The numbers, explained
You will see a handful of scores across the page, the profile and the weekly digest. Here is what each one means and how to use it in conversation with a client or your boss.
How much this creator matters to your brand right now. Audience counts for 40 points (followers on a log scale, so 10M is the top), volume for 25 (100 mentions is the top), engagement for 15 and sentiment for 20. Unknown inputs score zero rather than a guess.
Follower-based audience size. Unranked does not mean small; it means the platform did not tell us their follower count, which is common for news bylines.
Based on the balance of positive and negative mentions in the period. Clearly more positive than negative makes an Ally, clearly more negative makes a Critic, anything in between is Neutral.
How healthy your relationship is, not how big the creator is. Recency of contact counts for 30 points (it drops to zero after 60 days without outreach), stance trend for 25, mention momentum for 20, audience for 15 and team hygiene for 10 (an owner is assigned and no follow-up is overdue). Strong is 75 and up, Steady 50, Cooling 30, below that At risk. Critics never show above Cooling.
On a profile: what share of all your negative mentions in the period came from this one creator or outlet.
On publishers: AI assistants cited this outlet when answering questions about your market in your recent AI Visibility checks.
5. Filters and views
Open Filters to narrow the list. Filters you set on the Creators tab do not leak into the Publishers tab, and the page address updates as you filter, so you can copy the link and send a teammate exactly what you are looking at.
- Platforms, tiers, stance and dominant sentiment.
- Minimum followers and minimum mentions, to remove one-off posters.
- In relationships only, stage, owner and lists, to work on the people you already track.
- Cited by AI only, and publisher type (news, blog, forum, podcast and so on) on the Publishers tab.
- Relationship health, to find relationships that are Cooling or At risk.
Three views of the same list
Table is the full list. Allies vs critics splits the same creators into two columns ranked by Impact Score, with a Rising critics box for critics whose mentions are growing. Relationships shows only the creators and publishers your team tracks, with a bar of stage counts at the top.
6. Relationships: stages, owners and lists
A relationship is a creator or publisher your team has decided to track. Add one from a row (the Add button in the Stage column), from the side panel, from their profile, from a mention in the feed, or for many rows at once by ticking them and using the selection bar.
Every relationship has a stage. There is no board to drag cards around; the stage is a field you change in one click from the table or the profile.
- Watching: on your radar, no contact planned yet.
- To contact: you intend to reach out.
- In conversation: you are talking, pitching or negotiating.
- Partner: an active, friendly relationship (paid or not).
- Critic: someone who covers you negatively and that you handle with care.
Stage is your team's decision. Stance is what the coverage says. The gap between the two is where the work is.
Owners, lists and contact details
Give each relationship an owner from your team so everyone knows who to ask before reaching out. The Mine filter in the Relationships view shows only yours.
Lists are simple labels such as Tier-1 tech press, Launch 2027 or Crisis responders. A relationship can be on several lists, and you can filter the table by list.
Add a contact email, free notes and tags on the relationship card. Notes are shared with the whole team on the project.
Bulk actions
Tick up to 100 rows and use the selection bar to add them to relationships with a stage, list and owner in one go, change their stage, add them to a list, or remove them. Useful after a big launch or when a colleague hands over their accounts.
7. Duplicates: one person, several names
The same journalist can appear as Jane Smith on her outlet, @janesmith on X and Jane Smith (Editor) on LinkedIn. Until you merge them, each counts separately.
In the Relationships view, choose Find duplicates. The app suggests groups: the same name on different platforms, the same handle, or names that are almost identical. Pick which record to keep and merge.
After a merge, every number counts all of that person's identities together: mentions, sentiment, health, the feed chips, exports and alerts. Their activity history, notes and lists are combined on the record you kept.
Merging is for people you track
Duplicates are only suggested between relationships. Add each identity to relationships first, then merge.
8. The profile page
Click any creator or publisher name to open their profile. It is the one place that tells you everything about them for the period you choose (7, 30, 90 or 365 days).
- Key numbers: mentions with the change versus the previous period, followers and tier, best reach, Impact Score, stance, negative share and first and last mention.
- A timeline of their mentions, with positive and negative lines.
- Talks about: which of your monitored keywords they mention, including competitors, with negative counts. Click one to open those mentions in the feed.
- Topics they write about, and for publishers, the pages AI assistants cited.
- Campaigns they contributed coverage to.
- The relationship card (stage, owner, lists, contact, notes), the health breakdown and the outreach card.
- The activity timeline: everything your team did with them, mixed with their latest mentions.
9. Logging outreach and follow-ups
The activity timeline is your team's shared memory. Some things are logged for you automatically: when a relationship is created, when its stage or owner changes, when records are merged, when you mark a pitch as sent from AI Visibility, and when an alert fires about this person.
Everything else you log in a few seconds with Log activity: a note, a pitch you sent, an email, a call, a meeting, or a follow-up with a due date.
If the relationship has a contact email, the Email button opens your own email app with a subject already filled in. ElixBrand does not send the email for you. When you come back, it asks whether to log it, so the timeline stays complete.
Needs attention
A relationship at the stage To contact, In conversation or Partner with no outreach logged for 30 days gets an amber dot and appears under Needs attention. You can change the 30 days in Relationship settings (the gear in the Relationships view).
Follow-ups
A follow-up is a reminder with a due date, for example: send the embargoed release on Monday, or check whether the review went live.
Open Follow-ups in the Relationships view to see everything due, grouped as Overdue, Today, Upcoming and Done, for you or for the whole team. Tick one to complete it. Overdue follow-ups show as a red count on the row and next to the view switcher, and they lower the relationship's health until they are done.
10. Staying informed without checking the page
Three things keep you up to date automatically.
- The weekly digest: an email and, if you like, a Slack message on the weekday you choose (email and Slack delivery follow your plan's alert features). It lists new relationships, stage changes, the biggest health changes, rising critics, lapsed partners, your team's outreach that week and follow-ups due soon. Turn it on in Relationship settings and press Send me a test digest to see it. The This week button shows the same digest in the app at any time.
- Alerts: in Smart Alerts you can create three relationship rules. Watched creator mentioned tells you when anyone in your relationships mentions a keyword. Rising critic tells you when a creator's negative mentions grow compared with the previous window. Lapsed partner tells you when a partner or in-conversation relationship has had no outreach for a number of days you choose.
- The mentions feed: author and publisher names on every mention link to their profile. Hover a name to see a quick card, and look for the small stage chip (Partner, Critic…) next to people you already track. From the mention's menu you can add them to relationships or log an activity, and the feed filters From relationships and stage let you read only what your contacts wrote.
11. Campaigns, reports and exports
On a campaign page, the Relationships panel lists who produced the campaign's coverage, their stage and health, and what share of the coverage came from your relationships. Anyone missing can be added with one click.
In the Report Builder, the Media relationships section summarises stages, outreach, top partners by health, critics, movers and follow-up discipline for the report period, ideal for a monthly client report. The Creator stance, Influencer tier matrix and Top profiles sections cover the wider creator landscape.
Export CSV on the Influencers page downloads the rows you are looking at (up to 500), including stage, owner, lists, last contact, open follow-ups and health. Exports need the Mentions Export feature on your plan.
12. Scenario: preparing a product launch
Your company launches a new product in three weeks. You want the right journalists and creators briefed, and you want to know afterwards who delivered.
Find who covers your category
On the Creators tab, set the period to 90 days, filter by your category keyword and the platforms that matter, then sort by Impact Score. Repeat on the Publishers tab and switch on Cited by AI only to spot outlets that also shape AI answers.
Turn the shortlist into relationships
Tick the rows, choose Add to relationships, set the stage To contact, the list Launch 2027 and an owner per person. Merge any duplicates the app suggests.
Pitch and log
From each profile, use Email to send your pitch from your own mailbox, log it, and add a follow-up for embargo day. Move people to In conversation as they reply.
Watch launch day
Create a Watched creator mentioned alert on your product keyword so you hear the moment any of your contacts publishes. In the feed, filter From relationships to read only their coverage.
Measure who delivered
Create the launch as a campaign. Its Relationships panel shows who produced coverage and how much came from your list. Promote the best to Partner and add a Media relationships section to the launch report.
13. Scenario: a critic is gaining momentum
On Tuesday morning the weekly digest lists a tech YouTuber under Rising critics: four negative videos this week, none the week before.
Understand before you react
Open their profile. Check negative share (how much of your negative coverage is theirs), Talks about (is it your product or a competitor comparison?) and the recent mentions to read what they actually said.
Assign and record
Add them to relationships at the stage Critic, assign the owner who handles product communication, and add a note with your summary so the team has the context.
Set a tripwire
Create a Rising critic alert on the product keyword so you hear if more creators follow, and a Watched creator mentioned alert so you see their next video the moment it appears.
Engage and track the result
Reach out, log the call or email, and schedule a follow-up. Over the following weeks, the stance and the health card on the profile show whether the relationship is improving.
Why the stage stays Critic
Keep the stage at Critic while you work on them. The health score is capped at Cooling for critics so they never look like a healthy partnership by accident. Move them to In conversation or Partner once the coverage actually turns.
14. Scenario: keeping a team's media list healthy
Your team of five manages 120 journalists and creators. Nobody remembers who last spoke to whom.
Monday: read the digest
The weekly digest lists lapsed partners, overdue follow-ups and the biggest health drops. Turn it on for the whole team by adding their emails in Relationship settings.
Clear Needs attention
In the Relationships view, choose Mine and Needs attention. Contact each person, or move them back to Watching if the relationship is not active any more.
Close follow-ups
Open Follow-ups, scope Mine, and finish or reschedule everything overdue. Overdue items lower health, so this also improves your numbers.
Handle a hand-over
When a colleague leaves, filter by their name as owner, tick all rows and reassign them in one bulk action. Their notes and activity history stay on each record.
15. Scenario: the monthly client report
You run PR for a client and send a report on the first of each month.
Add the Media relationships section
In the Report Builder, add Media relationships next to your coverage sections. It shows your pipeline by stage, outreach volume, top partners, critics and follow-up discipline for the month.
Show who mattered
Add Top profiles and Influencer tier matrix for the wider creator landscape, and Creator stance for allies versus critics.
Attach the detail
Export the Relationships view as CSV for clients who want the full list with stages, owners and last contact.
16. Scenario: winning visibility in AI answers
Your leadership asks why ChatGPT recommends a competitor. AI Visibility shows which outlets the AI assistants cite; this page helps you build relationships with them.
Find the outlets AI trusts
On the Publishers tab, switch on Cited by AI only. These are outlets AI assistants quoted in your recent AI Visibility checks.
Check where you stand
Open each outlet's profile. Talks about shows whether they cover you, your competitors or both, and the Cited by AI card lists the exact pages the assistants used.
Pitch and track
Add them to relationships with the list AI visibility, generate a pitch from the AI Visibility citations tab and mark it as sent; it appears on the outlet's timeline automatically.
17. Common questions
Why is a famous journalist Unranked? News sites rarely publish follower counts on articles. Unranked means unknown, not small. Judge them by their outlet on the Publishers tab.
Why is reach empty on some posts? We only show reach when the platform reports it (for example video views) or when we can estimate it reliably for news sites. We do not fill gaps with guesses.
Why does someone appear twice? They publish under different names or on different platforms. Add both to relationships and merge them.
Why does a relationship say Needs attention when we spoke yesterday? The conversation was not logged. Log the call or email and the warning clears.
Why don't I see stage chips in the feed? Chips only appear for people already in your relationships, and only on plans with creator discovery.
Who can see notes? Everyone with access to the project. Do not store anything there you would not share with your team.
Who can add or change relationships? Owners, admins and editors on the project. Viewers can read everything but not change it.
Is my data sent anywhere when I click Email? No. The button opens your own email app; ElixBrand only records what you choose to log.
Run your media relationships in one place
Find the creators and outlets that talk about your brand, track every relationship, and see who delivered coverage.
Disclaimer: All metrics, recommendations, and analytics provided by ElixBrand are for informational and brand intelligence purposes only. ElixBrand does not provide legal, financial, or medical advice; consult a qualified professional for decisions regarding those matters.