Do a quick Google search for PR Tools and there are many posts devoted to what’s available on line that will help distribute and track PR information or locate new PR outlets. It’s surprising how much there is to discover about PR activities. Even though discussions of content and how to make it better are minimal.
PR Tools for media relations
Many bloggers will tell you the Top 10 PR tools include finding journalists with Muck Rack, BlogDash and Anewstip. Or that contact details are made easy with Connectifier, Sell Hack and Anymail Finder. Or to distribute and monitor releases, go to Agility, PRWeb, or Canada Newswire, PR Newswire, both Cision properties, Business Wire or Marketwired.
PR Tools for SEO
Those more interested in social media will point to SEMrush for key word research (which I use and can vouch for), Ahrefs for backlinks, Moz, an all purpose SEO wizard or FirstSiteGuide for web performance analysis.
There are also many PR tools for writing. But not necessarily for content.
Top PR tools for writing
The most well-known PR Tool for writing is Grammarly. As its website states, “Grammarly is an online grammar and spelling checker that improves communication by helping users find and correct writing mistakes.”
The Most Dangerous Writing App is an odd PR Tool.
Before starting, set a session length –minutes or words. Write and don’t stop. Hesitate for more than five seconds, and it deletes everything. Complete your session, and it saves your work. The idea is to make you write and not stop.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer scores your headline and its ability to convert SEO, social shares, or increased traffic. Write a great headline kicks ass, and your outreach message invites clicks.
The Hemingway Editor App offers an extra and impartial pair of eyes to check work. An interactive editing tool, it highlights grammatical errors, excessive passive voice, complex sentences and common mistakes. Word count and a readability scores are there too. Interestingly, Hemingway, the great author, is undergoing some reassessment in light of #metoo. Why do we still read him, the Daily Beast recently asked.
What’s needed before using those PR tools
At the same time, while there are writing tools, they don’t answer the fundamental question: if you get readers there what are you going to say—and how are you going to say it? Not only that, does it fit within generally accepted character counts for titles, tags, headlines and even copy? Too often all those are ignored, with all the flabby writing out there.
This story about Top 10 PR Tools, from the writing perspective will launch a PR Writer series. It will focus on the content and how to get people to read it before all those other tools, available to all, can be deployed. No one wants to look at big seas of copy and long grey pages. And now that we have Google to contend with in all that we do there are even specific rules to follow.
To make content, shorter and more readable, some simple PR Tools apply. There are different kinds of tools for different types of public relations and we will cover many of them.
Here is the #1 PR better writing Tool
Eliminate extra words is a PR Writer rule
Get to know what they are and find ways to eliminate them. It’s the simplest words that can easily be eliminated.
The first word to eliminate is: You
Writers are very dependent on ‘you.’ It appears to personalize copy, addressing the reader but actually wastes space and time. It is a ‘crutch’ word, one that props up bad writing but is meaningless and can be eliminated.
In this example, focusing on You, 129 words are reduced to 91, a whopping 37% less. Each sentence will be broken apart and then reconstructed.
Original
Event Planners are constantly on-the-go. Travelling is no doubt an exciting part of this career, but it can also be an overwhelming one. Sometimes you have to mentally pack so you spend as little time as possible actually doing it before or after work, with a 50% chance of forgetting a necessity like your toothbrush, comfiest shoes or portable charger. Never mind having time to research “things to do” or “where to eat” wherever you may be going. On the flip side, if you have time, you likely over pack as you dive into your what may seem, bottomless closet and think “I might wear this”, only to end up wearing 25% of what you packed and wishing you left room in your luggage to bring home new things. 129 words
PR Writer edits story
Event Planners are constantly on-the-go. Travelling, an exciting part of this career, can be overwhelming. Mentally packing sometimes and spending less time actually shoving things into a carry-on reduces the 50% chance of forgetting necessities like toothbrushes, comfy shoes or portable chargers. Never mind researching the destination’s “things to do” or “where to eat.” On the flip side, most over pack, diving into what may seem like a bottomless closet, thinking “I might wear this,” ending up wearing little of it, wishing there was more room to bring home new things. 91 words
Story is deconstructed and reconstructed
Sentence one
Original
Event Planners are constantly on-the-go. Travelling isno doubt an exciting part of this career, but itcan alsobe anoverwhelming one.
Edit
Event Planners are constantly on-the-go. Travelling, an exciting part of this career, can be overwhelming.
Comments
The first sentence is left intact. But ‘is, but it, also, an and one’ were eliminated in the second. Some 18 words became 10. How is that possible?
Look at the changes:
A. Travelling is no doubt an exciting part of this career
B. Travelling, an exciting part of this career
The solution:
First, we turned ‘travelling is’ into a comma clause. When there’s an ‘is,’ it almost always can be eliminated.
A. but it can also be an overwhelming one.
B. can be overwhelming.
Here eight words are reduced to three, quite fantastic. The comma clause ‘an exciting part of this career’ then meets up with ‘can be overwhelming.’ It doesn’t need ‘one’ as it’s clear that the ‘career’ is overwhelming.’
Sentence two is reduced from 37 to 27 words
Sometimes you have to mentally pack so you spend as little time as possibleactually doing itbefore or after work, with a 50% chance of forgetting a necessity like your toothbrush, comfiest shoes or portable charger. 37 words
Mentally packing sometimes and spending less time actually shoving things into a carry-on reduces the 50% chance of forgetting necessities like toothbrushes, comfy shoes or portable chargers. 27 words
A. Sometimes you have to mentally pack
B. Mentally packing sometimes
Now that ‘you’ has been cued up as a word to eliminate, clearly ‘you have to mentally pack’ changes to ‘mentally packing sometimes.’ Then the next example becomes clear:
A. you spend as little time as possible actually doing itbefore or after work
B. spending less time actually shoving things into a carry-on
‘You spend as little time’ becomes ‘spending less time.’
Actually doing it before or after work actually shoving things into a carry-on
In this example, the editor took liberties with the copy, as editors sometimes do. ‘Doing it’ is non-specific and needs a detail—into a carryon. And ‘before and after work’ takes in all the free time available and is also non-specific and unnecessary. The time doesn’t matter but shoving it into a carry on provides a detail.
Sentence Three introduces new PR Tools for Writing
A. Forgetting a necessity like your toothbrush, comfiest shoes or portable charger
B. Forgetting necessities like toothbrushes, comfy shoes or portable chargers
This is one of my favourite writing compression tips. Pluralize where possible. It eliminates ‘a’ and ‘your.’ It’s now ‘toothbruses,’ so it follows that shoes, which is already plural is added to charger, which isn’t.
Sentence Four
A. Never mind having time to research “things to do” or “where to eat” wherever you may be going.
B. Never mind researching the destination’s “things to do” or “where to eat.”
The point of these exercises are to say the same things in fewer words. Note how ‘never mind having time to’ becomes ‘never mind researching.’ And ‘wherever you may be going’ is simply implied, based on the research.
Sentence Five
A. On the flip side, if you have time, you likely over pack as you dive into your what may seem, bottomless closet and think “I might wear this,” only to end up wearing 25% of what you packed and wishing you left room in your luggage to bring home new things. 52 words. Eight uses of ‘you’ or ‘yours.’
B. On the flip side, most over pack, diving into what may seem like a bottomless closet, thinking “I might wear this,” ending up wearing little of it, wishing there was more room to bring home new things. 38 words. Not one ‘you.’
Additional thoughts and final remarks. Extra words mean extra characters and more time reading the essential marketing message. Start with ‘you.’ To see how it’s done, go to The PR Writer blog and look at all the other exampl
