A Look Into Our PR ‘Toolbox’
This is an example of one of the templates available on Canva. They
are easy to access and edit.
By: Julia Gibson
There are many useful tools available for PR students and practitioners to do their work more efficiently and effectively. These tools can be applied to many different aspects of public relations work from graphic design, to communication, to style and usage.
Graphic Design:
Graphic design is a skill necessary for many PR tasks, and it is great to have these tools in your back pocket. Canva is a good option for people with any experience level in graphic design. It is very easy to navigate, and you can create professional and appealing design products. You can upload images, add text to photos, insert icons and perform many more functions. This can be used to create infographics, social media posts, presentations and more.
Unsplash is another website that is crucial for graphic design. Here you can find photos taken by professionals which can be downloaded for free. There is a very wide range of photos and you can find almost any picture you need in high quality.
Adobe:
Adobe software is also useful for PR purposes. It can be important to employers that you are well versed in these platforms. Adobe InDesign is great for page layout and design work. Adobe Photoshop is a tool used to edit photos and create professional graphics. This software can be difficult to master, but there are many helpful tutorials available to get the hang of it. For example, there are Essentials Training online classes for both InDesign and Photoshop available on LinkedIn Learning, which is a great way to get started.
Contact tools:
Trying to make a media list and have no idea where to start? There are many tools online to help you with just that. Cision and Muckrack provide journalist and news outlet contact information based on what you need. You can search contacts by name or use keywords based on the type of outlet you’re looking for your press release to be published in. This can be especially helpful if your press release is particularly niche and you need it to reach a very specific audience.
Whether you’re a student just starting out in introductory PR classes, or working in the real world, these resources can help make any PR task a little less daunting and help you get the job done. Proficiency in some of these tools could even be required by your future employer, so it’s important to start getting familiar!
