What Really Matters: Knowing How to Use What’s in Your PR Toolbox
It’s not the high-tech tools in the communication consultant’s toolbox that matter most. It’s knowing which tools to use at the right time and how to use them efficiently that makes the difference for both you and your client.
That’s the message guest speakers Marisol Barrios, APR, director of communications at Hillsides, a child welfare services agency, and Jessica Payne, founder of STRATEGY FOR IMPACT, shared with 20 solo public relations pros at PRSA-LA’s Independent Practitioners Alliance luncheon held November 19 at The Farm of Beverly Hills at L.A. LIVE.
One of the key points they made was that delivering on your client’s expectations doesn’t always mean using the cheapest tools or services. Here’s their advice for choosing the best resources:
1. Pause. Focus on the bigger picture. Don’t let the tools drive strategy.
2. Recycle. Reinventing tools costs time and money.
3. Invest. The right resources may not always be free, but they always work.
The hour-long roundtable discussion also focused on some of the cutting-edge apps that are enabling solo consultants to expand their capabilities and deliver results that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Behance, Canva, Dasheroo, Fivrr, 99designs, 24hrdesign and Thumbtack are quickly becoming go-to additions to staples such as HootSuite, HubSpot, TweetDeck and TweetReach. They’re easy to learn, affordable and deliver lightning-quick results. High-tech automation – sometimes combined with the creative talents of other professionals – offers cost-effective alternatives to what traditionally had been longer, more complicated and sometimes highly manual processes, particularly in graphic design, data management and social media analytics.
While the ever-increasing speed of tech innovation challenges communicators to stay abreast of the products and services that can make their efforts easier and more effective, technology also has provided a solution for ongoing professional development. Attendees recommended several online resources, including:
- Entrepreneur on Fire, an award-winning podcast and training site featuring “Kate’s Take,” an audio podcast offering entrepreneurial advice, as well as webinar and other online workshops;
- Social Media Examiner, which helps businesses master social media marketing across a variety of platforms;
- Hubspot, an inbound marketing platform that offers a public relations and branding blog and newsletter; and
- Lynda.com, a subscription-based online learning service whose offerings include tutorials on Google Analytics among thousands of other classes and downloadable video courses of interest to nonprofits and small businesses.
