In the world of public relations, things are always changing. New trends pop up and disappear every day. Information is constantly shared and as a PR professional, it's imperative to stay aware, act swiftly, and formulate subsequent steps wisely. In an industry that never sleeps, here are five tools every PR practitioner should use to stay ahead.
Everyone makes mistakes, and public relations practitioners are held to a higher standard. At a minimum, practitioners are expected to not make simple grammatical errors. Lucky for us, Grammarly can be that second pair of eyes that spots any typos that may tarnish credibility or hinder your reader’s understanding.
This mini copy editor also offers additional suggestions, such as alternate word choices and sentence structures. Grammarly not only tells users what to fix but why it needs to be fixed, allowing users to learn and grow professionally with every proofread passage.
However, don’t rely on Grammarly to fix your AP writing mistakes.
No longer are thought-provoking words enough to capture a reader's attention. In a digital world, people now seek eye-catching images or videos before deeming any passage worthy of their time.
On average, more than 94% of total views are attracted by content containing compelling images. Therefore, graphics have become a staple in the PR industry, required with almost every social media post and squeezed into every article.
Although a PR professional’s gift is storytelling, not all of us are handy with graphic design. With Canva, you don’t have to be. Any stick-figure artist can transform into a graphic design savant with ease.
On Canva, the opportunities are truly endless. Canva allows users to make a variety of personalized graphics with over 2,386 templates, offering free images and a variety of additional elements to bring your vision to life. Create social media posts, YouTube thumbnails, even report covers with ease and free of charge.
Building relationships with the public is crucial, and the first step in creating a strong relationship is increasing awareness. This process is not easy; however, SEMrush provides all necessary tools to help you increase online visibility and personally manage marketing insights across multiple channels.
SEMrush helps PR professionals analyze their markets. It offers resources to help identify and monitor various digital platform audiences and traffic sources, geography, and audience behavior. It provides coverage of more than 450 million domains and, based on 200 million actual users, gains insight from their clickstream data.
Users can enhance SEO with their keyword magic tool, analyzing more than 10 billion keywords and allowing you to formulate high quality and focus-driven content. This can be done while also managing social media campaigns and examining competitors' tactics.
SEMrush takes the guesswork out of inbound marketing to help users increase their connections.
Copyright: a legal scare that can hit you if you’re not careful.
If you want access to over one million high-quality images for social media or blog posts, Unsplash is a valuable resource. All photos on Unsplash can be used at your discretion without fear of any copyright issues.
Also, all photos are free and easy to download, perfect for any PR professional looking for alternative photo options to make their digital platforms pop.
Making content is easy; the actual difficulty lies in producing content that resonates with your audience. To help you decipher what content is working versus what content falls short, BuzzSumo uncovers the best content for users and promotes increased content exposure.
The secret lies in the research. There’s no need to take the trial and error approach anymore. It’s time to start understanding the ‘why’ behind creating content before identifying precisely what you want to create.
BuzzSumo provides various forums to help users best identify the answers different audiences seek or specific material they want to see, offering a more profound audience understanding.
Platform users have access to more than 5 billion articles to gain a greater understanding of the market, monitor trends in real-time, and identify areas of less saturated content. This highlights areas of opportunity for leading content creators, which is just one of the numerous features at your disposal.
For additional public relations resources, visit Axia’s e-book library and gain access to many valuable insights from PR professionals.
Jada Crespo is a summer intern at Axia Public Relations. Jada studies at the University of Florida, majoring in public relations and minoring in event management. She loves impromptu adventures with friends and having a good laugh with her family.
Featured image credit: Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash
Topics: public relations, PR tips
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