Another day, another tool or app is introduced in the name of productivity and making lives easier. Sometimes we find a gem and sometimes we grasp at a shiny new app only to find out the old one does it better. When it comes to public relations, what's truly useful out there?
We asked SHIFTers about some of the must-have tools they'd have a hard time living without:
LinkedIn and X/Twitter: These social platforms are great for a few reasons. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is that it's a great way to monitor what people are talking about.
You can quickly get a pulse for what certain buying audiences, ICPs or industry influencers are paying attention to. It's also a great way to check out what reporters are working on; it's not unusual for a journalist to post or tweet out an ask for a source on a particular story.
We like to use both (and more so LinkedIn these days) to build relationships with reporters, both from national/trade publications and independents. We're not talking about hounding them with pitch ideas, but rather supporting and re-sharing their writing.
Feedly. When Google Reader faded out of our lives and it came time to find a new RSS feed reader, Feedly became our favorite. The interface is customizable with various options for how your stories are laid out. The mobile app is rather seamless and makes for easy reading on the go.
The bottom line is that it can be challenging to stay on top of everything going on in the media, let alone the individual industries of clients. But it's crucial to our success as PR professionals. A reader that aggregates everything in one simple place is a godsend.
Techmeme. Reddit. We're kind of cheating here because these are two tools. However, they fall into the same bucket and are great for enabling you to think like a journalist or target buyer.
Not only can you use these sites to check out what stories are being covered but also those that haven't been covered. Often times, reporters will visit sites like Reddit to get other ideas for new articles based on what people are asking/sharing. What's stopping you from doing the same?
Muck Rack. Over the years, Muck Rack has built out a really robust platform that goes beyond a press database. Now it includes tools for most of the PR workflow, including AI monitoring and analytics. Plus, they put out great thought leadership and industry insights.
Today, we use it to find press/creator contacts, see what they're interested in/talking about/working on, monitor press mentions, and more.
Meltwater. Breaking through the noise is hard. It requires a unique narrative and POV, and we often use Meltwater to uncover those white space opportunities for clients.
Their Media Intelligence tool lets us sift through content to find trends and hot spots or gaps in media coverage, then slot our clients into conversations they can lead and own. With both AI-generated and very customizable Boolean search, along with endless filtering options, we can really dig down into coverage/media conversations to get the insights we need.
What other tools and tech are invaluable in your PR toolkit?
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
