Level Up: Essential Communications Tools Not on Your Radar… Yet!
Putting in the work so you don't have to.
Hi all. Today is all about tools. Testing out new platforms, resources and tools that serve the PR industry is one of my favorite things to do.
As a subscriber of this newsletter I inherently know that you’re champions of progress and innovation. While we may get temporarily distracted by bright, new, shiny tool, ultimately, we are investing time in finding the best resources to make our jobs better, not harder.
I’ll get right to it and you can thank me later. Side note… I’ve been using all of these tools since they were in beta, so have pretty in-depth knowledge in case you have any questions.
(I actually feel like I’m giving away the keys to the castle sharing all of my new faves.)
LuciHub
Lucihub allows brands (or publicists or media) to capture user generated content on their PHONES, and this includes multiple collaborators, and outputs professionally edited videos in hours.
This is going to be a key player in eliminating the video content creation backlog. They’ve taken everything from brand guidelines to AI generated storyboards into account.
If you don’t have the budget for Lucihub, I have you covered. I purchase video packages for our clients and will share individual ones with you (because it’s the right thing to do).
PR Monkey
This is one of those tools where once you use it, you’ll get it. PR Monkey is homegrown by PR whiz Nima Olumi.
Upload your sources. Pitch. Track results.
I typically grab a client’s Linkedin URL and drop it into PR Monkey. It pulls everything I need and creates a beautiful “source page,” (that can be public or private) and then I can share it embedded in emails (with unique tracking by media outlet or journalist).
Simple, and changed how I share sources.
SUPER HACK: I also add journalists whose stories I want to monitor. PR Monkey’s “alert” function is faster than Google Alerts, so I’m winning across the board.
It says something when a new tool makes it into my top list of must-haves.
Backtrack
My personal memory ally in my Mac menu bar! I have mentioned Backtrack before, but it’s so good that I may mention it a few more times.
I have tried every “recording” tool — and this is the ONLY one that has integrated into the way I work.
Here’s my top 5 list
Never have to remember to hit record, because Backtrack’s prompts me to pull a recording AFTER a call.
Can pull up to 5 hours of post-event recordings (and it gets auto-deleted at that time).
NOTHING gets shared to the cloud or to anyone else without my permission.
Choose between screen content, microphone inputs, and speaker outputs (or all three) to give me transcripts, audio only or the full meeting.
No more lost information and wasted time.
Snooze or News
Direct from the Zen Media team, Snooze or News is a handy tool to help you grade the news worthiness of your next press release.
Paste your press release into the AI-powered prompt box and it will assess how likely it is to generate media attention.
Do know about a new(ish) tools, resource or product for the communications industry? Send it my way. I regularly share tech stack recommendations.
In service,
Sarah