We're baaack! Join Marla as she gushes over her favorite tools for content creation. From designing to writing to trusting that little voice inside your head, here's what you need to take on the new year.
The 6 Content Tools You Need:
1. Wannabe Design Wizards - Canva 2. PR PRos - Coverage Book 3. Visual Storytellers - InShot 4. On-Camera Work Cultures - LED Portable Camera Light 5. The Editor's Editor - Grammarly 6. Social Media Scrollers - LinkedIn
The 3 Tools You Have: 1. Gut - trust it. 2. Rest - take it. 3. Time - use it wisely.
We're baaack! Join Marla as she gushes over her favorite tools for content creation. From designing to writing to trusting that little voice inside your head, here's what you need to take on the new year.
The 6 Content Tools You Need:
1. Wannabe Design Wizards - Canva 2. PR PRos - Coverage Book 3. Visual Storytellers - InShot 4. On-Camera Work Cultures - LED Portable Camera Light 5. The Editor's Editor - Grammarly 6. Social Media Scrollers - LinkedIn
The 3 Tools You Have: 1. Gut - trust it. 2. Rest - take it. 3. Time - use it wisely.
Hello everyone, welcome back. Happy new year. This is not your parents PR. I am your host, marla, kicking us off for the year. I hope all of your breaks were lovely. I hope you had time to rest and relax. I spent the break as I normally sprinted my Christmas break, which is eating lots of cheese and wearing the same pair of sweatpants multiple days in a row. So I am ready to get back to work. Needless to say, this is the time of year that everyone is ready to circle back on items we did not hit in Q4. So, whether that brings you panic or excitement, I am here to help you through it all.
Speaker 1:
So this episode is one I've been cooking up for a while, but I'm really excited to get into it. I am going to run through the six best tools for communications professionals. These are tools that really helped me last year and that I am taking in my toolbox for the new year. And then, at the end, we will go through a fun little exercise on the tools you already have and then we will wrap it up. So let's get to it.
Speaker 1:
So, kicking us off, number one for the wannabe design wizards, of course I have to go with Canva. I have mentioned Canva on previous episodes. Canva is a phenomenal design tool. Whether you're an amateur or an expert, I go to it for social media posts, one pagers, media kits, all of the things. I love it so, so much, and I've been working in it for I guess maybe like I don't know five plus years now. It's awesome. So, going off of that, let's get into Canva. So I just want to talk about two tools that I have really been enjoying. Number one they recently launched their Magic Studio, which incorporates AI, and you can tell the software what you're designing a little bit about the project and upload your media and it'll turn it into the designs that you need and then you can tweak from there. But they really tapped into the power of AI here and I am so thrilled that they did that. Number two this is just a tool that I've found to be pretty handy. They have a series of templates when you go to design a new project so let's say it's an Instagram post and in the templates you can peruse, like what they have to offer right off the bat, and usually you can find one that meets exactly what you're looking for. But what I found it to be very helpful is that if I'm going for a certain aesthetic so let's say I really want a clean, simple post I'll type in the word minimal or simple or clean, and it'll generate templates that meet the vibe. So I would definitely give it a go. Especially if you wanna focus on a certain color palette, maybe you type in purple templates. One thing that's helpful is if you give it specific instructions, such as I want graphic with person and that way you can like pop in a headshot, it's really awesome. So, canva templates, I love you. I will be using you a lot this year.
Speaker 1:
Okay, number two for the PR Pros coverage book. If you're not using coverage book or you don't know what it is, it's a really simple software. You can input media clips from your clients and you can aggregate them into a beautiful book where it shows you the preview of the clip itself and it'll spit out stats like audience reach, which is always helpful for clients as they're pulling together, they're reporting to show the true value of PR. One way that I used coverage book this past year was with one of my clients. I was submitting an award for them and the award program requested media clips. So instead of just giving them a simple word document with some links. I decided to use Coverage Book and it made it so much easier for me and I really liked seeing how it all came together as a book and it was shareable, simple, easy. Love it. So, coverage Book, you have my heart.
Speaker 1:
Number three for my visual storytellers out there. I am going to go with InShot and I was toggling back and forth between InShot and CapCut as my favorite tool. Both are great. I just happened to prefer InShot a little bit more because I have recency bias where I started using that one first, and I'm someone as one of my hobbies I love to make food videos. I love to make TikToks. I feel like InShot is just where I love to create. So I'll upload all of my clips and then I'll shorten them. Sometimes I cut the sound and do a voiceover. I just believe it's really simple to use. And one thing in general I'll say whether you're using CapCut or InShot or another app I'm sure there's a ton out there is the benefit of using these types of apps.
Speaker 1:
When you're creating videos, I feel like it's so important to give yourself time to edit, because you might want to have several rounds of an edit and sometimes building natively on the Instagram or TikTok platform can be challenging, and you can also accidentally delete a draft and there's nothing worse than knowing you got the perfect shot and then it is disappeared and nowhere to be found after. So I really like InShot, capcut, but InShot is going to be my number one pick here. One thing I'll say if you're doing a story telling clip like, let's say, you're doing a food video where you're like showing someone how to do a recipe or you're doing a walkthrough of a new restaurant, I like keeping each separate clip between 0.6 to 0.8 seconds. I feel like that's the sweet spot, where the audience stays engaged but gets the gist of each clip. So that's my recommendation there. Okay, moving on to number four, for my folks with on-camera culture if your office environment whether it be remote or in person you're on camera, you want to make sure that shot looks good. So I'm going to go with the Amazon clip on camera light. I will link it in the show notes. Most people right now are calling it the Alex Earl light because she's promoted it a ton on her TikTok.
Speaker 1:
But I bought it because I live in a small studio and that means that my recording space is limited or where I can kind of plug in my laptop, my big screen. If you live in a small apartment, you know the drill there's only like two places where you can successfully set up your work area. So unfortunately, while I love my setup, the background is less than ideal. It kind of looks like I live in a dungeon at times. The lighting's not great. I would love it if my landlord could give me more aesthetically pleasing white bulbs, but like, not in my lease. So I've just been noticing that my face looks really dark on camera and I just want to make sure that people can see me, especially when I'm podcasting. So bought the light. I love it. I think it's great for meetings. I think that it is great for any type of video content too. Like again, if you're going out and filming, it's great to have that handy. So love the camera light.
Speaker 1:
Number five I call this the editor's editor because I believe every writer needs an editor and every editor needs an editor. So Grammarly, I love you. So the way Grammarly works is you install the plug in and then it does its magic. So it'll highlight in red words to correct the spelling on. It'll even suggest places to cut copy. So if you ever run on sentence, it'll tell you just slash these words out of the picture. And it's so helpful so I feel like I'm also becoming a better writer because of it and, again, really simple to install. Once I installed it, I didn't realize this was going to happen, but it started correcting things on not only my Google Docs on my browser, but my Microsoft Teams app, emails, all the things. It's so helpful, grammarly, you win, and it's free. It's free. Did I mention that it's free? You can upgrade to a higher version so you can get a little bit more in depth with your grammar smarts, but the free version works awesome. Okay, I can't believe we have already reached the end of the list Number six for the social media scrollers.
Speaker 1:
My favorite app right now, and has been for a little bit, is LinkedIn, I feel like for business. Obviously, we love LinkedIn. I think it is the tool for thought leaders and it's really easy. As a social media manager myself, I feel like the analytics has have always been so easy and simple to pull, and one thing that I will say as a tool that I recently discovered is I was also pulling together an award for one of my clients and I had to submit their resume, but they were kind of an established C-suite leader and they had been at the company for a while, so, understandably, I wasn't sure if they had the most recent updated version of their resume. So, to make it easier, I went on their LinkedIn and I realized you can PDF their resume and it'll spit out a pretty decently formatted resume. It's nothing fancy, it's pretty bare bones, but it's really helpful, especially if you want to beef up your LinkedIn profile. You can PDF your profile and see what you might want to change. So love this tool.
Speaker 1:
The second tool I want to mention is the trending articles on the right hand column that it'll appear on your news feed on LinkedIn, and what I often do is if I see an industry article that's trending, that relates to one of my clients or that they can speak to, I will send them the article and then they can leave a comment so they can increase their engagement and grow their following. So, linkedin, you're amazing. Keep up the good work. Okay, now that we're done with the six tools you need, I want to talk about the three tools you already have and you might not realize. So, madeline, help me with one of these.
Speaker 1:
So number one is your gut. So Trust your intuition. I think this is something that I am leading with this year, like my. I did a little bit of a vision board exercise because I'm like that and my words for the year are intuition and intention. So I Just I find throughout my life professional, personal, following my gut always the right answer. It might not always be clear right away, but following your gut always helps. So if you're stuck on giving a client a recommendation, or you're stuck on a word or maybe how you're pitching something, trust your gut and Just follow what you already know deep inside of like what the right next thing is to do. It really is so powerful and I think clients I know clients really appreciate it when you are Speaking authentically and that can only happen from your gut.
Speaker 1:
Number two rest. You can close your eyes at any time, preferably not during the workday, but you know what I mean. Rest is productive, which is another one of my mantras for the year. Rest is Actually a tool if you view it wisely, because Rest is required to be creative, which is something I'm always continuing to learn. I'm someone who always likes to be on the go, working on a million things, but I'm realizing that when you work on a million things at once, you probably are not doing those a million little things well. So Use your rest really Strategically. Take a five minute break here and there. Get a good night of sleep. If you can rest is Awesome, use it.
Speaker 1:
Number three time. Another thing to use wisely our time. You've probably heard this before our time is a precious resource, so Make sure that you are using it well and whether you have Five minutes an hour of downtime, think about how you want to be using that. Like. Sometimes, when I jump off a meeting, my immediate thought is like let me grab my phone, see if anyone texted. Or look at this social thing and I am a social media manager, so I will give myself grace. I'm supposed to be on social media, but my mantra this year is to create more than I scroll, and while scrolling can be amazing for finding inspiration, honestly turning your brain off a little bit I've noticed that I feel more productive when I am using that time that I have to like Read an article that is in my clients industry, or learn something or create myself. So Use your spare time wisely. That also goes for learning outside of work.
Speaker 1:
So, whatever your passion is that you're like I wish I had more time for blank you should Do the thing you've been putting off. For instance, I think I've talked about this before, but I Used to take writing classes at night, which, just, yes, was it sometimes tiring? Did I sometimes not want to, like, leave my cozy little apartment, of course, but got myself up. Invested in my passions, has been all the well worth it. So, whether you can squeeze in a full course after work or Going back to LinkedIn, linkedin has this amazing platform called LinkedIn learning, where you can learn stuff on your own time and get a certificate Added to your profile, and I've done a few of these in the past and they've been awesome. I feel like I own my schedule and I can learn in bite-sized chunks. It's great. So Three tools you have one more time, you have your gut, you have your ability to rest and you have time.
Speaker 1:
I Hope that all these tips were helpful. I hope this is your best year, yet I'm really excited to continue talking to you all about all things communications. We have a lot of fun stuff planned for this year, so stay tuned. That is the only teaser I will give, and With that I think we have to take it to our sponsor. So, new year, new fake sponsor. This episode was brought to you by Timeout team, a plug-in to teams zoom Google Meet that lets you freeze the meeting and have a two-minute Timeout with your team. So if your client is Presenting a problem and you're looking at your team and you're like I want to have a quick huddle, you can freeze the meeting in real time and Put the meeting back on and then give your client the recommendation so you can go to the app store to download this fake app if it were real. That's it, everyone. Have a great, happy new year, enjoy your January and we will talk to you soon. Have a good one, bye.