Public relations and marketing professionals always have yet one more job to tick off their lists. We know how hard it is to keep on top of a never-ending workload. And that's how it is as soon as you walk through the door on a Monday morning and throughout the rest of the week.
But there are ways of dealing with workload problems we all face in this industry.
We are living in the Digital Age, when thousands of tools are potentially at our fingertips. But those tools can either drown you or save you.
As a community director at BlogsRelease, I use the following tools to help me keep up with our fast-paced marketing and PR world. They can help you do the same.
Management
- Asana. A great tool for managing your daily tasks as a team. Collaborate with colleagues and keep all of your communications in one accessible place. Asana is available as an excellent phone app so that you can keep up while you're on the go.
- Rapportive. Do you have endless email lists of clients and can't put a name to face? Rapportive helps you see all of your clients details directly in your Gmail. By knowing who your clients are, you are more likely to have better communication with them.
- Hootsuite. No one working with social media can be without Hootsuite. By allowing you to schedule your tweets, Facebook posts, and ad campaigns in advance, it helps you maximize your exposure at different times of the day.
Content-Sharing
- HARO. Help a Reporter Out connects media and experts/sources with each other; it's a free resource that serves as a social networking tool for sources and reporters alike.
- BlogsRelease. Sent a press release? Why not send a BlogsRelease to thousands of bloggers! Targeting bloggers all over the world will enable you spread your content through other people's blogs. (This is the company I work for.)
- Scoop.it. Similar to Pinterest, Scoop.it lets you create information boards that you can share; get inspired and re-create interesting content to publish online.
Engagement
- Mention. Never miss a thing online about your audience. Mention enables you to view the source of any name across the Web and social media. This is a great tool to learn what people are talking about and to reply immediately to maintain engagement.
- PicMonkey. We all know visual media is huge for engaging with your audience. Picmonkey makes turning normal photos to exciting and, more important, shareable images and infographics. A must-have tool for anyone in marketing.
- Powtoon. An excellent platform for creating dynamic and impressive presentations, Powtoon helps you find different ways to grab attention through visual, audio, and graphical options.
That Little Bit Extra
- Mindmeister. A great place to brainstorm your ideas for upcoming press releases and get advice from your colleagues, Mindmeister is creative and flexible. This is the place to be to share your ideas and create new ones.
- Phonto. This is a genius phone app that allows you to put text on photos easily. When you're out and about, you can discover new ways of using visual media to inspire your upcoming campaigns.
- Free Digital Photos. If you need professional business photos for free, this is the place to go.
It would be great to hear how these tools help you and whether there is an "ideal" tool you need that is not available yet on the market.
