There are many useful social media tools to help journalist and PR professionals find each other. I still haven’t found the Match.com of PR pros and journalists, but I’ve become particularly fond of these three – MediaOnTwitter, HARO and TweetBeep.

MediaOnTwitter is a Twitter database for media contacts. The list is not huge but it’s definitely growing. Some interesting folks on this list include John A. Byrne, Editor-in-Chief of BusinessWeek.com, Kara Swisher, columnist at AllThingD.com, several CNET contributors, etc.

• MediaOnTwitter now allows media, public relations and other professionals to:
• COLLECT media contact information using a web form that automatically populates in a shareable database;
• ORGANIZE a growing list of media and bloggers from around the world as well as sort and view contacts by country, media outlet or name; and
• SHARE media on Twitter information through dynamic published reports accessible at three locations.

After April 20, the MediaOnTwitter database will be permanently housed on:http://PRSarahEvans.com and http://www.DigitalIdeamedia.com.

LINK: Sarah Evans

Another useful source for media Twitter contacts is the Twittering Journalists wiki.

Thanks to @prsarahevans @skydiver @melissahourigan @edunigan @briansolis for your collaborative efforts on MediaOnTwitter.

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a daily media queries resource that sends you emails in the morning, afternoon and evening for free. Often these queries are more relevant than the queries from ProfNet, which you pay big bucks for. Follow @skydiver, the creator, as he sometimes tweets urgent queries before adding them on his daily emails.

Tweetbeep is a free Twitter alert by email. Include keywords of your brand, competitors, etc and check out what people are saying about you on Twitter. BusinessWeek.com just wrote a great article about how businesses can use Twitter to get consumers. Tweetbeep is one of those tools that can expand the functionality of Twitter to allow you to stay on top of your consumer’s needs.

True story – I was contacted by a company that sells insect resistant mattress covers after Twittering about finding bed bugs in my NYC apartment. I bought $200 worth of mattress covers a week later.

Are you a marketing/PR professional? If so, what other tools do you regularly use to stay on top of media opportunities?