Katelynn Sortino of Prezly talks to communications expert, entrepreneur, podcast host and award-winning writer Christopher Penn.

Find the right tools for your needs

There’s a lot of software out there, which can make getting started feel overwhelming, and most teams go through some growing pains as they try one tool, outgrow it, try another tool, rinse, repeat. Unfortunately, there’s a necessary degree of trial and error that comes with the territory.

Take data. It allows us to track our metrics, see our engagement in real-time, and report on it. But it is only meaningful when linked to a thought-out strategy, and used to measure and adjust that strategy as it develops.

Google Search Console is a favourite tool, not only for its usefulness and cost-friendliness, but also because it connects us to the biggest search engine in the world. Knowing how your website is indexed and crawled by Google is great for guiding content creation. But that’s not all it’s good for – seeing the number of people who arrive at your site after searching your brand’s exact name is a solid indication of brand awareness.

What other software should you use? That’s a tricky question since each team’s strategy, tactics and measures of success will be different.

A good place to start looking is a tech comparison and review site like Capterra or G2. Both have a handy section on Public Relations software for all your data, metrics, and CRM needs.

Automate what you can

Thanks to the power of the internet and AI, we don’t need to spend nearly as much time doing mundane tasks as we did previously. Christopher spends just a few minutes scheduling his social media content for the entire week every Monday.

He even suggests using AI to craft the rough draft of content or pitches. While AI is by no means ready to take over your content creation full-time (yet – it’s still limited and awkward), machines can outline the bullet points of a story for us to go through and fill in the details.

Software like Nexis Newsdesk does the tedious task of combing through endless news articles for mentions. Other tools. like Buffer. help schedule social media posts for future distribution.

If there’s a boring or repetitive task eating up your time, odds are there’s software ready to tackle that task.

Go where your audience is

You can use audience-research services like Sparktoro or Audiense to get an idea of the keywords, communities, websites, and social media that will resonate with the people you want to reach.

Other great places to find your audience include:

• Reddit: A series of community forums based on general or niche interests. Users can share resources, links, photos and videos as well as engage in discussions.
• Discord: Imagine Slack, but for everyone – not just your colleagues. It allows for real-time discussion about a huge range of topics organized by community and channel.
• Twitter: A platform to start conversations, share content, and interact directly with their audience

It’s an exciting, weird, interesting time for the comms profession. The internet is constantly evolving the space in unexpected ways, and we have more tools and resources at our disposal than ever before. But it takes a lot of trial and error to figure out what will work best for you. Embracing the shift to a more data-driven, automated, and interpersonal PR future will help your brand’s communications stay relevant.

Curzon PR is a London-based PR firm working with clients globally. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Business Development Team [email protected]