Public relations professionals are tasked with delivering results-driven solutions to promote news and feature stories on behalf of our clients. Beyond mastering delivery of quality content, we must use creative elements to help tell a story – today’s digital news landscape demands it. At Breakaway, we challenge ourselves to stay creative and up-to-date with the latest resources and tools to make this happen.
We’ve put together a list of apps that PR professionals should take advantage of to reach their full creative potential while delivering quality information that gets attention.
Price: Free
Download at the App Store or Google Play
Instagram is an essential tool for all PR professionals. It allows users to connect with more people, build influence, and create compelling, branded content. Instagram’s visual feeds allow users to make an impact on their audience, elicit a response and engage in conversations. Instagram can help businesses build brand identity, awareness and influence with existing and new target audiences.
Social media literacy has become imperative for anyone in the public relations sphere and Instagram is among the top social media apps. Connections on Instagram can result in earned coverage from traditional media as well as from the ever growing pool of Instagram influencers.
VSCO Cam
Price: Free
Download at the App Store or Google Play
There are several tools that make posting professional-looking content on Instagram even easier such as Boomerang or Layout. Our favorite, and the one we’ve found the most useful, is VSCO Cam. This free app allows you to adjust brightness and contrast on photos to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward with the most high-quality images. VSCO cam allows users to create new filters or choose from available filters.
Using the same filter on all photos can be a strong branding tool. Just like a website or any other brand platform, your Instagram should have a consistent, identifiable theme that is easily associated with your brand and makes your business stand out. VSCO Cam allows you to post photos that are pleasing to look at while enhancing your brand’s theme.
Canva
Price: Free or get Pro starting at $12.95/month
Access online here
Canva is one of our best friends at Breakaway. It can be used to add flair, customization and branding to everything from Instagram graphics to client presentations. A big aspect of our job is creating smart assets for our various audiences: traditional media, influencers and clients. Canva makes it easy to deliver pieces that stand out and look professional.
The app comes with preset sizes and templates for almost any need, making it easy to get started. Canva also makes it easy to work as a team with multiple contributors, allowing users to leave notes and comments. It’s easy to upload the graphic elements you’ll need such as client logos and photos.
Procreate
Price: $9.99
Download at the App Store
Procreate takes graphic design to the next level. This drawing app for the iPad makes it easy for anyone to act as a full-fledged graphic designer creating professional looking logos and other custom branding elements. Procreate is full of helpful and intuitive features that allow users to draw up completely customized designs for clients.
PR professionals can easily create a digital masterpiece with this user-friendly app.
TikTok
Cost: Free
Download at the App Store or Google Play
Tiktok is a fast-growing, new social media app that allows users to create short video content. Using this app provides businesses with the potential to reach a wide audience, especially their main demographic of 16-24 year olds. Tiktok has surpassed Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, making it the most downloaded social media app to date.
For teen and adult users alike, sharing video snippets has grown into an essential platform for sharing content. Whether a brand’s niche is fitness, fashion, food or anything else, TikTok can connect it to a specific and desirable audience quickly and efficiently with its strong algorithm.
To achieve best results for clients, today’s PR pros should incorporate the latest creative apps into their expanding PR toolkits. Utilizing these user-friendly platforms no longer requires a designer or background in graphic design. Put yourself in the driver’s seat and create content that gets the attention it deserves.