After some not so subtle hinting, I finally received an iPad last week as an anniversary gift from my husband. While the personal features are great, I started exploring how I can use the device as a PR tool since there are many news, social media and business apps available. Here are a few of the best apps for public relations professionals.
Flipboard easily organizes my favorite media outlets, Twitter users and groups – as well as my personal social media feeds – in a magazine-style format that is very pleasing to the eye. You can share articles socially and provide comments. The free app is beautifully designed and fully customizable.
I’ve also been impressed with apps from Mashable, The New York Times and The Washington Post (just launched last week). These apps are a cross between the online and print publications because the app gives a more authentic paper-reading experience but without the clutter. You can read a headline and lead paragraph and then choose whether or not to read the full article. You can also jump quickly from one beat to another.
For organization, Instapaper saves articles to read later when you are offline. This app is also helpful for sorting research, collecting several articles related to a beat or written by a specific reporter for future reading.
Dropbox syncs documents in real-time between desktops, laptops, mobile devices and your iPad. It also helps you easily share and store files including documents, music, photos and videos. All files can be accessed from any web browser.
Bad memory? Try Evernote, an app for saving notes in text, jpg, or video format and syncing them across all platforms. The coolest feature — Evernote allows you to tag notes by client or project name for organization and automatically makes text (even in snapshots) searchable.
What are your favorite iPad apps? Please post in the comments below.