Providing social media communications services requires a number of PR-related skills, including strategic program development, relationship management and message/content development.
It also requires that the PR pro is experienced with a number of tools and on-line resources that enables her to develop and manage high-impact social media campaigns efficiently and cost-effectively.
It can be a challenge to find the best tools for the job, especially when something new appears on the horizon just about every day of the week, promising more functionality, better performance and new capabilities.
There are literally dozens of tools that I personally use as a PR and social media professional on behalf of my clients, but I wanted to share just a few ones that you may not be aware of:
- NetVibes - One of the biggest challenges is keeping track of the huge volume of news and information about your client and its target markets. Netvibes is a free RSS reader that makes tracking news feeds and blog posts a snap. It's powerful and very customizable, enabling you to sort news any way you wish in a tab-based format. You can also develop a custom "dashboard" that will allow your clients to view key social media and news feeds in real-time.
- KompoZer - As I've noted before, today's PR pro needs to have a basic understanding of HTML to get the most out of a variety of social media platforms, including blogs and even Facebook. But, for most people, learning a programming language is about as uncomfortable and boring as a dental cleaning. Thankfully, there are a number of tools that enable you to create HTML code and Web pages using a friendly WYSIWYG editor, that functions much like a word processor. I just discovered KompoZer, which I really like for it's ease-of-use and intuitive design.
- Facebook FBML Test Console - If you're helping clients develop custom Facebook pages/tabs to promote new products or special events, this is a very handy tool. Facebook uses a subset of HTML, called FBML, or Facebook Markup Language, and this tool enables you experiment with designs and code and view how your FBML code will actually look on a Facebook page before publishing. A very handy tool indeed...and it's free!
Well, there you have it. Just a few tools that can help the PR pro improve his skill-set and help him more effectively create top-notch client social media programs.
Any additional thoughts or feedback are welcomed!
Geo.
