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According to the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of Americans own a smartphone. For businesses big and small, this means that a valuable tool for public relations is in your pocket. You can independently access helpful tools in the palm of your hand. Here are three pro-tips for getting work done on the fly.
You’ve got mail
The email app is a tool all professionals should learn to love. Beyond business-to-business use, 94 percent of journalists prefer 1:1 email instead of phone, social media or other channels. Email contacts can usually be found on outlet or station websites. Providing access to content creators everywhere and the ability to share your pitch with journalists right from your pocket.
Keep pitches direct, short and sweet. Check alerts daily and respond to inquiries within the day for best results. Also keep in mind 90 percent of journalists say one follow up email is acceptable. Don’t be shy when it come’s to ensuring they received your message!
On the fly and when working on various communication projects, it can be helpful to create different mailboxes to help keep yourself organized. You can use your inbox as a to-do list. Do this by leaving emails that still have action items in the inbox and dragging emails related to completed tasks to designated folders.
Get social
Social media isn’t just for the kids anymore. In 2019, 90 percent of millennials, 77.5 percent of Gen X and 48.2 percent Baby Boomers used social networks at least once per month. As of 2020, the average daily social media usage worldwide was up to 145 minutes per day. With apps optimized for mobile use, platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are easy to manage on a phone for free. However, paid options for platform management are out there for those looking for an all-in-one approach to social media marketing management. Features of these programs include post scheduling, engagement analytics and more.
Social media is also a great tool to keep your finger on the pulse of your target audience. Websites are still the most common way people digest news, but 53 percent of folks say they get their news from social media. Social media makes it possible and easy to stay in tune with consumers, competitors and even reporters or writers all in one feed.
Picture perfect
Cameras on smartphones are better than ever. Adding to their awesomeness, you can take advantage of built-in apps that can be used to edit photos, correcting things like blurriness, red eye or closed eyes.
From there, you can utilize Dropbox – or a similar file storage/sending service – to send photos, videos and pdf files in bulk without compromising quality.
So, do you have a big-time event you want to spread the word about? Take pictures or record video on your phone, edit as desired and add to Dropbox to share with the rest of your team or prospective audiences. On the traditional media front, news station television crews can easily be busy running around to cover oodles of current events on a daily basis. By capturing your own video and/or pictures and optimizing them for sending, you can get them in the right hands and in the right format.
Beyond what’s in your pocket, if you’re looking to take your PR efforts to the next level, contact The Firm Public Relations & Marketing today at newbusiness@thefirmpr.com or 702.739.9933.
