In today’s digital age, there is a major overlap between PR tools and marketing technology. At BCM Public Relations we use a variety of softwares, technologies and apps to help strengthen our organisation, planning and communication both internally and externally.

As you’ll no doubt be aware, the PR profession isn’t always at the forefront of technology. According to a global survey by Talkwalker and YouGov, 85% of PR practitioners are missing out on effective tools and techniques. Most tools will have superior alternatives in years to come, but for now, here’s our run down of a few programmes that provide indispensable help.

Monday.com – Jane Proctor, Head of Operations

My role is to oversee the operations of BCM, which can be challenging as we have global clients and offices internationally. The work management platform we use, Monday.com, is a user-friendly interface that does not require hours of training to use and has helped streamline working together from around the world. 

The platform’s unique board concept enables us to provide in-depth insights into projects or tasks in real-time, as well as the team’s overall performance, which can be shared with colleagues and clients. This allows users to add tasks, comments, ask questions and start discussions which improve team collaboration. This also makes the exchange of information easy both internally and externally. Another key highlight for me personally is the system allows the tracking of holidays, employee information, and performance development, all within a board which can be kept confidential. 

Qwilr – Stephen Ballard, Managing Director

For years and years, we have used, and been frustrated by, PowerPoint in all its numerous versions. My own personal annoyance was the auto-resizing of text to ensure that the content was contained within the screen size. Templates also proved to be difficult with text moving position subtly between each slide. ‘Slide’ – that proves just how long I’ve been using this software!

Thank goodness that is now a thing of the past because we discovered a fantastic product that just makes creating presentations so much easier. In fact, it is so good half of me thinks that I should not mention the brand name at all, in case you start using it too. The product is called Qwilr and is run by our cousins down under in Australia. I strongly suggest you, “Have a Captain Cook” at this software, it simplifies presentations and has increased our productivity no end. Easy to access libraries for templates and all content then served up on the web – perfect.

Cision – Priya Sharma, Senior Account Executive

Cision is a must-have programme for any PR agency. It’s a user-friendly platform with a number of practical features such as media
monitoring, press release distribution, audience research, and reporting. This enables you to build custom media lists across all industries, follow specific keywords to monitor coverage, and measure the impact from the share of voice and a variety of other key metrics. Cision is a very effective tool to help you reach, target and engage your audience.

Microsoft Teams – Hemant Deswal, Account Manager

Microsoft Teams is the evolution of Skype for Business and Microsoft’s determination to improve the in-house product instead of an acquisition of the competition, Slack. Microsoft Teams has it all, encryption, ease of use, and efficiency. Completely transforming workplace collaborations, confidentiality, and connections. The intelligent third-party integrations allow you to feed the information from other platforms directly via ‘connector’. If you take the current workplace transformations owing to the pandemic as criteria, it would not be wrong to say Microsoft Teams was, and is, several years ahead. What’s more? It’s a lot of fun!

Trello – Sophie Wood, Account Manager

Are you tired of making many to-do lists? I was too until I found Trello, a web-based list making application to help you manage projects and generally organise anything. The free platform gives the user complete flexibility to set up a dashboard in a way that suits them with labels, checklists, deadline dates, descriptions, attachments and the option to add other members. For me personally, this is how I keep track of my daily tasks, reminders, call notes and personal development. I recommend this platform to anyone who is looking for structure and planning tools even when the job requires flexibility!

Canva – Sophie Fenton Hobbs, Intern

During my insightful internship at BCM Public Relations I have been introduced to many programmes which help with the day-to-day operations. One of the most useful tools in my role has been Canva, a graphic design platform, used to create social media graphics and visual content with access to millions of images, clipart, shapes and easy to use templates.

Once you have made an account it stores all your creations online, with the option to share with others to view or edit. This platform is also free to use with additional functionality to Premium users. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a user-friendly tool to create visual content to Photoshop standard.

RingCentral – Shreyasi Bhaumik, Director

Working from home has become the new normal for millions of workers thanks to the ongoing pandemic. RingCentral, as a leading business cloud communications solutions provider, has made working from home seamless and stress-free.  Servicing clients across the globe entails numerous conference and video calls everyday and our business conversations have been streamlined with the help of RingCentral. When faced with issues, the contact centre agents can assist across channels, and the platform also offers the flexibility to collaborate via any device.  If you are looking to upgrade your legacy telecom systems, RingCentral could be your answer. 

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