Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

I tried to get into Pinterest, I really did, but I could just never figure out how to utilize it like many of my friends and colleagues, so I did what any good lifestyle and tech writer should do when confronted with a service they don’t understand – give up on it. Out of site, out of mind. I obviously understand the benefits of a curation service like Pinterest, but it wasn’t for me.

Why am I talking about Pinterest, you ask? Well, this new app from Jeff Weisbein, called Shout, is kind of like a stripped-down version of Pinterest without the focus on pictures linking you to everything. Available on both iOS and as a Google Chrome extension, the app basically functions as a curation tool that lets you quickly add links to customized lists that you, or someone you know, has created.It’s a breeze to use, and really has almost endless possibilities for personal endeavors, hobbies, and collaborations with other creatives. Or maybe you just want to share some dank memes with your buds.

I had the chance to talk with Jeff to learn more about Shout, as well as the inspiration behind the app and how Shout can even be used for quick newsletter creation. Check it out below!...

What are the hottest marketing tools you should be using in 2017?

As we test out a lot of tools, we are going to share the tools we use on a regular basis. This may not be the definitive list of all the best marketing tools out there, but it is the contents of our well-equipped toolbox, and it’s definitely worth your consideration.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a big growth area and if you haven’t invested in a marketing automation tool now is the time to do so. Let’s look at some numbers.

In just two years, marketing automation has grown from being a $500 million industry to a $1.2 billion one. It can streamline a lot of key marketing functions, and it’s proving itself as a great revenue driver for companies large and small....

The following are some of the best browser extensions for marketers to help them perform all blogging-related work with ease.

Some tasks may include staying up-to-date more efficiently, being able to add images to Pinterest with the click of a button, saving important articles for later, and much more.Let’s dig right in....

Marketers Cruise Capt. Lou Edwards shares a collection of 101 cool tools and technology used and recommended by the biggest names in marketing.

The tools include the following categories: audio, video, communication, social media, management, automation, productivity, content marketing, scheduling, task management, books, and tips. A very useful reference.

As a marketing team spread around the world — from the West Coast in the US to the East Coast in the US to Canada, to the UK and Singapore, we always keep an eye on the latest marketing and productivity tools to help us stay connected and do our best work.

Our team also covers a range of marketing disciplines from social media to community building, to press relations, to content marketing. So we use many different tools to get things done and work towards our goals.

We’ve written about the best free marketing tools and the most popular tools used by content marketers. Today, we’d love to share our marketing team’s favorite tools! We hope that you’ll be able to find a few tools that can help you....

Are you tired of all the fluff you read on marketing?Want a list of tried and tested marketing technology tools and tactics you can immediately implement in your business?

I’m sure you’ll pick off a couple of tips from the list below....

Communications on the Internet started out as simple email conversations. Then came social media, offering new ways of interaction among people from across the world. Email is still the primary mode of professional communication. Yet, over the course of time, one does look for building up (both personal and professional) connections with other people, on social media as well.

Say you have a business email contact, with whom you wish to connect on social media. He or she could be an active user on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or even Google Plus. How do you find out your contact’s social profiles from that? Of course, the easiest way is to just ask. But “asking” might not be convenient in every situation.

Or, maybe you just want to check out a sender’s social profiles before taking any further action. In which case, you have to manually search them on the Internet and also validate whether those social profiles you find are genuine or not. Well, there’s an easier and more definitive way to find out.

Most people have a primary email address, which is used to sign up on all the social networking sites. And thus, in a way, that one email address links all the respective social profile.

Taking advantage of this fact, ManyContacts is an online service that reveals respective social connections based on the email address provided. It is also available in the form of a Chrome extension, and works with Gmail, Google Apps, and other email providers as well....

For all of the greatness that the internet affords -- cute animal videos, GIFs, and interesting blogs -- I think its biggest downside is how distracting it can be. How many times have you sat down to work and been pulled into a pit of procrastination?

Perhaps you get absorbed in updates on social media, or maybe you click through Wikipedia trying to determine what exactly Gina Rodriguez’s first TV role was (it was on Law & Order).

No matter where you click online, it’s easy to be pulled into a black hole of distraction andlow productivity.Enter Google Chrome browser extensions. The Google Chrome web store offers a variety of different tools that help you be more productive with just one click.

We can’t guarantee that they will make YouTube videos less tempting to watch, but we recommend them for busy marketers who want to make their time online more efficient.

We’ve broken them down into different categories if you want to jump ahead:...

Twitter is a fascinating adventure of relationships, entertainment, education, and fun. Now imagine layering on a few dozen power-ups.

That’s how it feels sometimes when you find just the right Twitter tool. And there’s a tool for practically every desire or whim.

Tools for productivity, for efficiency, for research, and so much more. With such a generous API, Twitter tools have become legion—and we social sharers are better off for it.

At Buffer, we tend to come across a fair share of social media tools. We’ve collected a great bunch to share with you!

Here are all the tools we’ve found helpful and many more that we’re excited to try. If there’s a free Twitter tool out there, you’re likely to find a mention here in our list. ...