A while ago we posted on how Facebook‘s newfangled “graph search” setup could help PR pros and marketers more effectively push their clients’ content to the general public and conduct market research. But here’s something we never thought about: what if graph search could double as a media contact database?

We recently spoke to Peter Axtman of Sunshine Sachs to learn how he used graph search to score a big PR win for a client with a very specific target audience.

Axtman was working to promote a client called Playground Sessions, an instructional app-maker that is “like Rosetta Stone for piano”. Axtman told us that, though the client had received some “mainstream tech coverage“, he “wanted to talk to niche piano publications” that might appeal more explicitly to the client’s target audience — people interested in learning to play piano or improve their form without in-person training.

So he turned to graph search with surprising (and encouraging) results.

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As they do each year, the folks at Sunshine Sachs–the biggest firm with no public profile–used a news tie-in as the hook on their holiday invite: “100% of you are invited | 47% of you like free alcohol enough to come”.  Six years after this blog began, Ken Sunshine and his partner Shawn Sachs still don’t have a website–and only the latter Tweets sporadically.

‘Tis appropriate that the firm with Democratic party roots chose to use the Mitt Romney hook as its own, though we hear the current client base is fully diversified to extend beyond the original politics-and-celebrities two-step.

And as is tradition, every member of the staff gets to invite who they want–and receives a mention on the invitation. Some quick math tells us the firm is indeed still growing. This year they’ve added 14% to the headcount. Not bad considering the invite showed 50 percent and 29 percent growth in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Principals at big-time NY/LA-based PR firm Sunshine Sachs don’t like to bring too much attention to themselves, but that hasn’t stopped them from scoring great headlines and sponsoring A-list events with a focus on noble causes like, say…reducing poverty rates around the world. (Did you know that more than 1.3 billion people across the globe live on the equivalent of $1.50 a day? We need to get out more.)

The firm’s latest announcement is significant in a couple of ways. They’re publicizing a massive September 29^th concert in Central Park with headliners Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Foo Fighters, and The Black Keys, but the details of the event are even more interesting: As reported on the Huffington Post, the show’s 54,000 tickets will not be available through the usual channels. Fans will have to “earn” their way into a raffle by downloading an app from the Global Citizen website and accumulating points by performing acts like donating to charities, signing petitions, or sharing information about global poverty on social media channels.

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With Jason Russell, the co-founder of Invisible Children, (hopefully) resting after an episode that his wife says was “brief reactive psychosis,” the Kony 2012 campaign rolls on. Today we have word from CEO Ben Keesey and director of idea development Jedidiah Jenkins that a sequel is coming next week, which will provide an update on the LRA and the conditions on the ground in the places affected by its heinous acts.

This time around, with some help from the PR firm Sunshine Sachs, the group will likely be ready for any questions, responses, backlash, and positive reactions to the video.

Let’s hope no one is running around asking publicists and marketing pros to whip up a viral campaign. But sometimes, whether we expect it or not, that’s exactly what happens. Kony 2012 is the most viral video in history, so that sort of situation is unlikely to be duplicated for a long while. Still, after the jump, we have three tips to help campaigns of all kinds prepare for the possibility of spreading quickly, far, and wide.

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Valentine’s Day cards abound! Check out a few here, based on some of your favorite TV shows. Or what about this card at left, care of the hit show Downtown Abbey? Oh, what.

According to an email pitch Mediabistro got from Sunshine Sachs, everyone can celebrate this day of love with lots of free e-cards. The pitch gave a special shout out to a card based on the popular PBS program. Subject: “Paperless Post does Downtown Abbey.” Only problem is the show is called Downton Abbey. We’ll assume they’re just not fans of Masterpiece Theater or witty British dowagers.

And also, the pitch came with some info that had been intended for a reporter at the New York Post.

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