The Martin Waymire team is constantly looking for ways to be more productive in our personal and professional lives. While smartphones and other forms of technology often get a bad rap for zapping productivity and wasting time, these applications and digital tools have made our collective lives easier and helped us get more done, faster.
Snagit
Clippings and screengrabs are arguably the most convenient ways to showcase PR impact with digital media — and the most tedious to compile and organize. TechSmith Snagit, software specifically designed for capturing screenshots and recording video, has revolutionized the process. Whether you are collecting video media clips to save for your records, or want to show examples of social media posts, Snagit makes it simple. Additionally, you can highlight and take notes on top of the image you capture, which is a great feature to have when you are working on a report and want to point to a specific data point in a chart.
LastPass
LastPass and the LastPass Chrome extension are lifesavers around Martin Waymire. Organizing and keeping track of all of our product logins and passwords is no easy task. Thankfully, LastPass does all the legwork for us. All logins and passwords are saved in the LastPass vault for easy organization and access, while the Chrome extension uses that information and autofills the fields with the saved information. We no longer have to worry about remembering passwords, so we can focus our time and attention on our clients.
Slack
Email isn’t dead at Martin Waymire, but Slack is certainly giving it a run for its money. Slack, a team messaging and collaboration tool, allows Martin Waymire staff members to communicate with each other in one space, either directly or in small teams — a chat room, of sorts. In addition to streamlining communication into one user-friendly, easily-searchable program, Slack has nearly infinite custom integration possibilities, allowing us to personalize the tool for our team by incorporating other web-based services we use daily, including social media feeds, Dropbox, and, of course, gifs.
Asana
There are countless different to-do apps but, in our humble opinion, none quite measure up to Asana. More in-depth than your typical, run-of-the-mill to-do list — while simultaneously being intuitive and easy to navigate — Asana is a task-based project management tool that allows you organize tasks into manageable lists, create due dates and stay on top of impending deadlines. Whether you’re using Asana individually or on a team, the software makes staying organized and on-task a breeze.
Paying attention to the news is an imperative part of being a well-rounded PR professional. In today’s 24/7 news cycle, staying on top of stories and trends can be a difficult task. Pocket makes an otherwise overwhelming process significantly more manageable. The app allows you to save articles and pages from websites to read offline later — on any device. By tagging each item you save, all of your articles are compiled in one neatly organized reading list.
When used properly, technology has the power to simplify tasks and boost productivity rather than being a distraction. The Martin Waymire team believes in using all available resources to be a well-rounded person and PR professional.
