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The Public Relations Professional’s Tech Toolbox

Posted by on Monday, May 13th, 2013

Today’s public relations professionals do so much more than prepare press releases. Busy PR people have to be prepared to handle a number of situations. A core qualification of a good PR person is organizational ability. The secret is counting on innovative software to help achieve that goal.

What People Think We Do

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A good public relations professional knows that you have to be able to prioritize and deal with client emergencies that pop up while still focusing on your regular duties. Scheduling is extremely important. Many PR people use Excel to help keep track of the overwhelming amount of information that they have to deal with on a daily basis.

A good PR person can assist a start-up on the path to success. They can help manage a company’s reputation when they have been hit with bad publicity. A public relations professional has to plan events, send out notices and press releases, engage the community and work with a variety of people including the press, marketing and advertising and other public relations people.

You have to be a go-getter and an extrovert, but you also have to be able to sit down and plan everything to the last detail. You should probably have a number of spreadsheets to keep yourself on track.

10 Rules for PR Pros

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Editorial Calendar

You have to be able to gauge when the correct time is to release information, and you will probably have some releases planned months in advance. The last thing you want to do is forget an important date. You may have pitched an idea for a story to a publication and you are waiting to hear back.  You could have an embargo on a story that you have shared with your contacts but don’t want released until the launch of your client’s product. Keep track of these important dates with Excel.

 

Outreach

Build your contact list on a spreadsheet. PR people are networkers by trade, and you probably have hundreds of business cards in your desk drawer. By using a PDF to Excel converter, you can scan those cards into your database so you have a constantly updated spreadsheet instead of having to sort through all those cards. You have to be able to reach the right reporters instantly. Highlight the contacts you use most frequently.

Events

Managing the minutiae and seeing the bigger picture takes planning. The perfect PR event requires that you don’t miss even the tiniest detail if you want your event to go off without a hitch. You have to ensure that contractors who are working with you are keeping pace with your busy schedule. You may have things like menu planning or location scouting for an event. By using a PDF to Excel converter you can easily add information from PDF files or brochures to your spreadsheet so you have all the information in one source.

Financials

Budgets play a big part in your client relations, whether you work for an agency or are an independent. Going over budget will never endear you to anyone. PR people have to be multi-talented, but great people persons don’t always make good bookkeepers. You also need to get paid. You may be just starting out in your career and don’t have a full time bookkeeper or accountant. Excel is the go-to tool for tracking expenses and invoicing.

Public Relations: What People Think I Do

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You may be a whiz with Twitter and Facebook. Your digital address book may be overflowing with names of important contacts, but if you can’t manage all of that, you’ll be renovating your own reputation.