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Meltwater Pricing – How Much Does Meltwater Cost in 2024?

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Meltwater is PR software that helps PR specialists to track and analyse media coverage, social media trends, and online news. Choosing the right PR tool is challenging, you need to weigh all the pros and cons, features sets and, of course, pricing.

Today, we’ll talk about Meltwater pricing – how much Meltwater costs, where you can find its pricing, and how it compares to other PR tools.

If pricing is your primary concern, consider skipping the comparison and giving Prowly a try for free.

The reason why we’re discussing Meltwater and how much it costs?

There is no info on Meltwater pricing plans on their website, so you have to do a lot of research on your own. We did that research for you.

Meltwater pricing

Unfortunately you can’t check how much Meltwater is going to cost you on their website because there’s simply no information there. To get information about actual Meltwater pricing, you will need to get in touch with their sales team.

Based on our research, Meltwater pricing goes for $6,000-10,000 per year on average.

Key takeaways:

  • Meltwater pricing is not disclosed publicly and every potential customer has to talk to sales to get a custom quote.
  • The cheapest plans start at $6,000 and can go up to $12,000 annually, depending on the feature set and usage.
  • You can only buy Meltwater with an annual contract; monthly subscriptions are not available.
  • It’s not certain if you can access a free trial – but you can request a demo.

How we found this data

To get accurate information about Meltwater pricing, we went into the depths of the Internet to find what real Meltwater users are saying about their monthly costs.

As this user states, Meltwater costs their company around $10,000 per year. However, it seems pretty tame compared to Muck Rack, which comes in at $20,000 annually.

Reddit

Another user states that their annual Meltwater costs are $8,000, which includes the database and monitoring.

Reddit

Here is one more, saying that they pay $6,000 per year:

Reddit

From this account, you can see that the initial price was about $16,000 per year. But there is always a possibility to negotiate a deal and, maybe, to lower the price. 

Powerhouse Pros

Meltwater alternatives

Tired of searching for Meltwater monthly pricing and want a tool that shows you how much it costs right on their website?

Keeping your options open is always a great idea and here are some Meltwater alternatives you should consider for PR.

ProviderPricingContract length# of contactsFree trial
MeltwaterFrom $6,000/yr*Yearly only>380,000No
ProwlyFrom $258/moMonthly or yearly>1,000,000Yes
Muck RackFrom $10,000/yr*Yearly only>300,000No
CisionFrom $7,200/yr*Yearly only>1,400,000No
PropelFrom $9,000/yr*Yearly only>1,000,000No
Agility PRUndisclosedYearly only>1,000,000No
*Estimated pricing based on third-party-data and publically available reviews

How does Meltwater compare to Prowly?

The main contrast is in the pricing plans. Prowly offers flexible pricing options suitable for any organization size, making it a great choice if you’re looking for affordable PR software without compromising on features.

MeltwaterProwly
PricingFrom $6,000/yrFrom $258/mo
Free setupUnknownYes
Media database size> 380,000> 1,000,000
Press release creatorNoYes
Press release distributionYesYes
PR CRMYesYes
Online newsroomNoYes
Media monitoringYesYes
SupportVery responsiveVery responsive

Media database

Both providers offer high-quality media databases with contacts from local and international media sources.

If you’re only interested in finding a media database, check out our guide on picking the best one for PR.

G2

With Prowly, you get access to more than 1 million contacts, Meltwater has about 400 thousand.

The distinctive factors among various media databases lie in their contact quantity, update frequency, and pricing. But it’s crucial to consider not just the quantity but also the quality of media contacts. This can vary based on the location and beat you’re interested in. This can especially be the case outside of the US, where the relevance of contacts may vary. 

To figure out which option suits you best, it’s better to ask for a sample or sign up for a free trial.

With Prowly, you get a free 7-day trial with full search access.

As for Meltwater, it’s unclear if they offer a free trial. And although their product pages suggest you can find out more during a demo call, it’s not clear if this will give you a complete view of their contacts.

Prowly’s Media Database

Media monitoring 

Both Meltwater and Prowly provide essential media monitoring tools for tracking news and online mentions. Additionally, they both include social media listening features.

Here’s a list of the best social media listening tools to choose from.

Coverage reports 

Both platforms provide PR reporting tools, streamlining the creation process for PR reports.

However, user reviews on G2 indicate that Prowly has slightly better results in measurements, monitoring data, and the transformation of media monitoring into visually appealing PR reports.

G2

The availability of a free trial for Meltwater remains uncertain, making it challenging to assess their PR report creation functionality. However, with Prowly, you can take advantage of the 7-day trial period to explore and create your own PR reports.

Additional features

Meltwater doesn’t provide a press release creator or online newsroom, both of which are valuable for businesses of any size. 

On the other hand, Prowly offers an AI-based press release creator, empowering PR professionals to input essential information and generate a polished press release within moments, requiring only minor editing.

Prowly provides an online newsroom, offering a centralized space to showcase key information for both your company and clients. This feature facilitates easy access for journalists and media members when covering stories related to your brand.

Examples of online newsrooms created with Prowly

Conclusion

Meltwater offers a rich feature set for media professionals, be it in an agency setting or as part of a PR team in a business. Unfortunately, without transparent pricing it’s hard to evaluate if you’re on a budget or just trying to compare it to the alternatives, as you have to sit through lengthy sales calls to discover the pricing for your use case.

Prowly offers a media database, press release creator, and media monitoring that let you cover all the aspects of your PR strategy in one place. And all that with transparent pricing that is easy to understand.

We hope that this comparison has helped you with some of your inquiries and simplified your decision-making process regarding selecting appropriate PR software.

If you’re prepared to begin evaluating PR platforms, you can explore Prowly at absolutely no cost for a full 7 days. No credit card information is needed and there are no strings attached.

45+ Best Social Media Management Tools in 2024

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For any business worldwide, using social media is a no-brainer with nearly 5 billion users globally. But with over 20 platforms to pick from, the challenge kicks in!

Which platforms do I use? And how do I manage them all easily?

When it comes to the first question – you can use media monitoring to find where your audience is most active and choose right.

And the second question? Read on and get to know the top social media management tools for 2024 for PR professionals.

Social media management is not just about scheduling posts – it’s also about monitoring your brand presence online. Start monitoring social media for 7 days free.

Why do you need a social media management tool

Here are a few reasons to add a social media management tool to your marketing tool setup:

  • a centralized inbox for scheduling, communication, and control hub of your profiles, allowing multiple users to access all your accounts in one place
  • save time and money by scheduling content ahead of time instead of adding it manually
  • get advanced analytics and gather insights in one place
  • the ability to do content curation
  • monitoring and engagement on your profiles
  • team collaboration, especially for remote and distributed teams

Best social media tools by price

Many budgets got tighter with the economic situation around the world, but the need for outstanding marketing and PR is only rising. So our main categorization factor was – pricing. We’ve prepared a roundup of the best:

👉🏼 Paid social media management tools
👉🏼 Free social media management tools
👉🏼 Social media management tools you have to request pricing for

We’ll cover the social media platforms you can manage, the prices of these tools, the availability of free trials, and more. But once you choose social media management tool that suits you best, don’t forget about monitoring your activities – and users’ replies!

The best social media management tools: paid

Almost every social media management tool on this list has a free trial. However, all of these social media management software providers offer a paid plan. These are the best of the best.

#1 Sprout Social

💸 Starts at $249 per month.

What is Sprout Social?
Sprout Social is a complete media management suite of tools for scheduling, analytics, influencer marketing, and more.

What features does it offer?
Engagement, publishing and analytics, social media scheduling, listening, and influencer marketing, as well as employee advocacy tools.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and internal teams with powerful social media marketing strategies.

Free trial: Available for 30 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Pinterest, Whatsapp, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Pros: Easy to use, advanced analytics capabilities, efficient post scheduling.

🔻Cons: High cost for smaller teams, limited in features compared to some competitors, can have issues with Instagram scheduling.

#2 Napoleon Cat

💸 Starts at $27 per month.

What is NapoleonCat? An all-in-one social media management tool that allows you to connect with all your followers across different platforms all in one place, be it for communication or sales.

What features does it offer?
Social inbox, auto moderation, scheduling and publishing, detailed analytics and reporting, and social CRM.

Who is it best for?
Agencies, internal teams and freelancers.

Free trial: Available for two weeks.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and Google My Business.

✅ Pros: Great for analytics, a centralized location for social media management and communications.

🔻Cons: Reporting can be improved – both the way reports are created and viewed.

PRO TIP: Monitor social media conversations to interact on time

Thing is: if you’re only using a social media scheduling tool, you’re just scratching the surface of what you could do with social media analytics

A monitoring tool helps you discover what people say about your brand, not just on your accounts but across other people’s accounts too.

These tools help you understand how different audiences perceive your (or your client’s) brand or campaign, along with all the key metrics. Followers, shares, retweets, engagement and more.

You can use this information to refine your strategies, validate your ideas, and come up with new ones to drive better results from social media.

For example, Prowly has a media monitoring tool that can help:

  • monitor search queries and get real-time notifications to prevent crises
  • get summaries about mentions daily, weekly or monthly
  • share these summaries or notifications to show the impact of your work and get that buy-in for future campaigns

Social listening paired with a social media planner makes for a powerful combo.

#3 Buffer

💸 Starts at $6 per month for one channel.

What is Buffer? A comprehensive tool for creating content on social media, engaging audiences, and turning them into customers.

What features does it offer?
Publishing, analytics, social media engagement, landing page creation, and an AI assistant for content creation.

Who is it best for?
All types of customers, from freelancers to agencies.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, X, Shopify, TikTok, Google Business Profiles, Mastodon and YouTube.

Pros: You can manage multiple accounts with ease, with a focus on analytics and great social media scheduling capabilities.

🔻Cons: The tool can get pretty expensive if you manage many accounts for different clients.

#4 HubSpot

💸 Starts at $800 for the marketing hub.

What is Hubspot? Hubspot is an entire suite of marketing and sales tools, starting with a CRM, where Hubspot’s social media management tool is just an extra on top.

What features does it offer?
Mention tracking, social media scheduling and posting, detailed analytics, and detailed reporting.

Who is it best for?
Businesses that already use Hubspot for marketing and sales.

Free trial: Not available.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and YouTube.

✅ Pros: Capable tool with the basic features covered.

🔻Cons: Makes sense only if you’re already using the Hubspot toolset.

#5 Hootsuite

💸 Starts at $99 per month for one user.

What is Hootsuite? A complete toolset for social media management, scheduling, engagement, and analytics.

What features does it offer?
Scheduling, reporting, analytics, best times for posting content, social listening, and social inboxes.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and bigger social media teams.

Free trial: Available for 30 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

✅ Pros: Easy to use, especially for multiple social media accounts, with great scheduling features.

🔻Cons: Limitations with some social media networks, such as Instagram, high pricing for smaller teams.

#6 Zoho Social

💸 Starts at 10EUR per month.

What is Zoho Social? An all-in-one solution for managing, scheduling, and monitoring your social media content.

What features does it offer?
Scheduling, a content calendar, media monitoring, and social analytics.

Who is it best for?
Companies that are already in the Zoho ecosystem.

Free trial: Available for 15 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Google My Business, Pinterest, Mastodon and TikTok.

✅ Pros: Solid selection of social media platforms, easy to use, great analytics features, and effortless scheduling.

🔻Cons: Limited features compared to more advanced tools, high pricing if you add a lot of users and platforms.

#7 Loomly

💸 Starts at $32 per month.

What is Loomly? A capable social media management app with workflows designed for busy social media teams, be they agencies or in-house teams.

What features does it offer?
Scheduling, collaboration, and a content calendar.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and in-house teams.

Free trial: Available for 15 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, X, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok.

✅ Pros: Great calendar view, easy collaboration and scheduling.

🔻Cons: Some features are limited and Instagram integration is buggy.

#8 MavSocial

💸 Starts at $78 per month.

What is MavSocial? Social media and reputation management software for physical businesses with multiple locations and franchises.

What features does it offer?
Digital asset management, scheduling and publishing, reputation management and customer engagement, reporting and collaboration, and content curation.

Who is it best for?
Brands that are franchises with multiple locations and in-house social media marketing teams.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google My Business.

✅ Pros: Great for a niche audience, has a rich feature set.

🔻Cons: Expensive for what it offers, the user experience is not the greatest, and there are some issues with Instagram scheduling.

PRO TIP: Gain a better understanding of trending topics

If you offer social media management services, you have to stay up to date with the latest trends, memes, events, and cool things. Doing all of that manually? A LOT of work.

Social media monitoring allows you to spot trends as they’re in the making. You don’t want to be the person stuck creating a meme a week after its cool factor wears off.

Set up alerts for key people and brands in your industry to see what they’re talking about – you’ll never miss another trending topic again.

#9 Sendible

💸 Starts at $29 per month.

What is Sendible? An all-in-one social media management platform with advanced features for in-house teams and agencies.

What features does it offer?
Publishing and scheduling, collaboration, analytics, a white label offer for agencies, dashboards, and reports.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and larger in-house teams.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Google My Business, YouTube, WordPress and TikTok.

✅ Pros: Great for content creation and collaboration in the cloud.

🔻Cons: Features can be limited for some tools and functionalities don’t always work properly, e.g. for Instagram.

#10 Agorapulse

💸 Starts at $49 per month.

What is Agorapulse? An enterprise-grade social media management app with advanced features for larger businesses.

What features does it offer?
A social media inbox, reporting, publishing, a writing assistant, and social commerce tools.

Who is it best for?
Larger businesses and agencies.

Free trial: Available for 30 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and Google My Business.

✅ Pros: Lots of functionalities, great integrations with social media platforms, and good customer service.

🔻Cons: Expensive in most cases, issues with scheduling on some platforms.

#11 eClincher

💸 Starts at $65 per month.

What is eClincher? A social media management app that covers a wide range of features for big and small teams, as well as agencies.

What features does it offer?
Content management, scheduling, engagement and listening tools, and analytics reporting tools.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and in-house teams that rely on social media as their main marketing channel.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google My Business, YouTube, TikTok and others.

✅ Pros: Excellent customer service and great scheduling features.

🔻Cons: Can get pretty expensive and is difficult to use for most newbie users.

#12 CoSchedule

💸 Starts at $19 per month.

What is CoSchedule? CoSchedule is a marketing content calendar and scheduling app that allows you to create, schedule and manage your projects.

What features does it offer?
A social calendar, content calendar for broader marketing activities, and a marketing project management app.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and in-house marketing teams (not just social media teams) that need a comprehensive app for content and project management.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube and others.

✅ Pros: Easy to use and schedule posts, a variety of features that go beyond social media management.

🔻Cons: It’s pretty expensive for teams on a tighter budget. The admin dashboard is complex and requires some learning to navigate properly.

#13 Social Pilot

💸 Starts at $25.50 per month.

What is Social Pilot?
Social Pilot is a social media management tool built for teams that want cloud collaboration, scheduling, and analytics in one app.

What features does it offer?
Customizable branding, post scheduling, social media integration, content management,
engagement tracking, multi-campaign and multi-account management from one system.

Who is it best for?
Primarily agencies, but suitable for in-house teams too.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, VK, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Business Profile and X.

✅ Pros: Great pricing and easy to use, especially when you have multiple clients and accounts.

🔻Cons: Sometimes problems occur with some features and functionalities, such as linking. Scheduling does not always work as intended.

#14 Kontentino

💸 Starts at $53 per month.

What is Kontentino?
Kontentino is a content collaboration, scheduling and engagement platform for social media teams.

What features does it offer?
Content creation, publishing and scheduling, approval processes, and detailed analytics.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and dedicated social media teams.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Google Business Profile.

✅ Pros: Ease of use, suitable for agencies dealing with multiple accounts, great for content creation.

🔻Cons: Instagram and LinkedIn integrations could be better, analytics are not as functional as with some other tools.

#15 Brandwatch

💸 Pricing not publicly available.

What is Brandwatch?
Brandwatch is a suite of tools with a dedicated social media management service.

What features does it offer?
Social media management and collaboration, engagement through a social CRM, brand monitoring and analytics through dashboards.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and in-house teams.

Free trial: Not available.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp, Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Reddit and Tumblr.

✅ Pros: Great centralized management and statistics reporting, easy to use with superb customer service.

🔻Cons: Some features and functionalities don’t work as intended, some integrations break often.

PRO TIP: Transform mentions into actionable business insights

Most social media marketing tools can’t tell you if something’s gone wrong. But media monitoring can.

With media monitoring tools for social media managers, you can scour the web for reviews, mentions, rants, comments, and all types of feedback.

You can turn these insights into business opportunities, getting the knowledge to pivot your product and messaging, or just to get in touch with the people behind the accounts and find a way to help them out.

#16 Sprinklr

💸 Starts at $249 per month.

What is Sprinklr?
Sprinklr is an enterprise-grade social media management tool for businesses with complex approval and security standards.

What features does it offer?
Enterprise-grade custom approval processes, integration with customer experience tools, publishing and engagement, a centralized dashboard for teams, social listening, analytics and benchmarking.

Who is it best for?
Enterprise-level companies.

Free trial: Available for 30 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn and 20+ other channels.

✅ Pros: Focused on analytics, great for bigger companies, the centralized dashboard is top-notch.

🔻Cons: Complex to use, requires a lot of learning, and is very expensive.

#17 Later

💸 Starts at $16.67.

What is Later?
Later is a social media management app that helps publish and schedule content and turn followers into customers.

What features does it offer?
Publishing and scheduling, content creation, caption writing, and a mobile app for management on the go.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and functional social media management teams.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube.

✅ Pros: Ease of use and time saving, great scheduling features.

🔻Cons: Pricing and plans are very limiting and you have to upgrade to get the best features.

#18 HeyOrca

💸 Starts at $59 per month.

What is HeyOrca?
HeyOrca is a social media powerhouse offering creation, collaboration, and community building in one app.

What features does it offer?
Client approval, client-specific content calendars, AI caption writer, suggestions for the best times for post-scheduling, and more.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and larger social media teams that need many seats.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, Google Business Profile and Pinterest.

✅ Pros: Great customer service, fairly easy to use, agency-friendly features.

🔻Cons: High pricing, some features do not work as intended, Instagram integration is not the best.

#19 UpContent

💸 Starts at $95 per month.

What is Upcontent?
A content curation platform with AI-powered features that helps you select the best third-party content for your marketing channels.

What features does it offer?
AI content curation, collaboration on a common dashboard, integration across various digital marketing channels.

Who is it best for?
Freelancers, in-house teams and agencies.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
None – just works with other SM tools such as Buffer, Hootsuite and others.

✅ Pros: Ease of use and collaboration features, the search function works flawlessly.

🔻Cons: Not a proper social media tool, and the integrations can sometimes break down.

#20 Post Planner

💸 Starts at $7 per month.

What is Post Planner?
Post Planner is a comprehensive scheduling tool that covers the most important SMM features for smaller teams and freelancers.

What features does it offer?
Content creation, scheduling and design, post curation and discovery, and post analytics.

Who is it best for?
Freelancers and in-house teams.

Free trial: Available for 7 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Business and TikTok.

✅ Pros: Content creation features, built-in designer, good automation setup, relatively affordable.

🔻Cons: There can be issues with scheduling on some platforms.

#21 ContentStudio

💸 Starts at $25 per month.

What is ContentStudio?
An all-in-one content creation, scheduling and management platform for agencies and brands.

What features does it offer?
An AI writer for content creation, publishing and scheduling, analytics, social inbox, engagement and content discovery.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and in-house teams.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Google My Business, X, Pinterest, Linkedin and Tumblr.

✅ Pros: Great for content creation, especially if you don’t want to pay for an additional AI tool.

🔻Cons: Chat integration is mostly broken, some features do not work as intended.

#22 Planable

💸 Starts at $11 per month.

What is Planable?
A content planning, approval, and scheduling tool ideal for busy marketing teams or agencies.

What features does it offer?
Social media management tools, marketing calendar, and post analytics.

Who is it best for?
Multi-location brands and companies, agencies.

Free trial: Available for 30 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Google Business Profile, TikTok and Pinterest.

✅ Pros: Easy to use, great social media integrations.

🔻Cons: Limited features for some use cases (such as agencies), and pricing can get very high if you need a large number of platforms.

#23 Statusbrew

💸 Starts at $69 per month.

What is Statusbrew?
An all-in-one social media management tool for agencies, freelancers and in-house teams.

What features does it offer?
Publishing (creation, scheduling and management), engagement through a common inbox, and social media marketing reports.

Who is it best for?
Freelancers, in-house SMM teams, and smaller agencies.

Free trial: Available for 7 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google My Business, X and Whatsapp.

✅ Pros: Saves time and works well for social media scheduling and management.

🔻Cons: Instagram integration is not the greatest, AI features experience lag.

#24 PromoRepublic

💸 Starts at $49 per month.

What is PromoRepublic?
A social media and marketing management tool for franchise businesses with multiple locations.

What features does it offer?
Paid and organic media management, content library, scheduling, and paid and organic post analytics.

Who is it best for?
Franchise businesses that have more than one location and need to manage multiple social media accounts.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X and Google Business Profile.

✅ Pros: Easily handles multiple accounts, generally easy to use, content library is super useful.

🔻Cons: Does not support a large number of social media networks and integrations often break down.

#25 Iconosquare

💸 Starts at $49 per month.

What is Iconosquare?
An advanced social media management tool for businesses of various sizes.

What features does it offer?
Post scheduling, AI-powered content creation, cloud collaboration, content performance analytics.

Who is it best for?
Freelancers, internal teams, and agencies.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and LinkedIn.

✅ Pros: Easy and user-friendly interface, great for beginners, superb analytics.

🔻Cons: Not a huge selection of social media platforms.

#26 Lately

💸 Starts at $49 per month.

What is Lately?
Lately is a social selling tool that learns your content patterns and tone of voice and helps you sell more through your social media channels.

What features does it offer?
AI content writer, social media marketing, social selling, video auto generator, employee advocacy, social analytics.

Who is it best for?
In-house teams and agencies.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube.

✅ Pros: Time-saving features, easy scheduling and content management.

🔻Cons: Limited customization options compared to some other tools.

#27 Tailwind

💸 Starts at $14.99 per month.

What is Tailwind?
An easy to use social media management tool for Pinterest and Instagram.

What features does it offer?
Content creation powered by AI, scheduling, content research through hashtags, ecommerce ads, and a Smart Bio writer.

Who is it best for?
Internal teams and freelancers.

Free trial: Not available – there is, however, a free forever plan.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Pinterest and Instagram.

✅ Pros: Great AI features and interesting Pinterest features.

🔻Cons: Does not cover many social media channels, customer service is not the best, and integrations can break down often.

#28 Oktopost

💸 Pricing is not publicly available.

What is Oktopost?
A capable B2B social media management tool with a centralized publishing and analytics dashboard.

What features does it offer?
Publishing, scheduling, analytics, customer care, social listening, and employee advocacy.

Who is it best for?
B2B businesses and agencies.

Free trial: Not available, you can only book a demo.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, X and TikTok.

✅ Pros: Great scheduling and calendar view, capable content creation features.

🔻Cons: Pricing lacks transparency and the UX could be better, especially in the analytics part of the app.

#29 Khoros

💸 Pricing not publicly available.

What is Khoros?
An omnichannel marketing and sales tool that allows you to engage with customers across touchpoints.

What features does it offer?
Social planning and publishing, social listening and monitoring, and social measurement and governance.

Who is it best for?
B2B businesses and agencies.

Free trial: Not available, you have to book a demo.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Whatsapp and others.

✅ Pros: Good customization features, solid calendar view, and an omnichannel approach.

🔻Cons: Users complain about the poor UX and complex functionalities.

PRO TIP: Get real-time social listening mentions and act immediately

If a crisis is looming, you’ll want to know immediately.

Media monitoring tools like Prowly can notify you instantly if an avalanche of negative comments starts coming in. This can help you react immediately and avoid a crisis before it bursts.

Nowadays, social media works at the speed of light, and being in the moment is more important than ever before.

#30 SocialHub

💸 Starts at 199EUR per user per month.

What is SocialHub?
An all-in-one tool for creating, scheduling, and analyzing content and its performance.

What features does it offer?
A content planner and scheduler, an AI content creation tool, and post analytics.

Who is it best for?
Internal teams and agencies.

Free trial: Not available.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and X.

✅ Pros: Fairly easy to use, great content calendar.

🔻Cons: Very expensive.

#31 Social Studio by Salesforce

💸 Starts at $1,000 per month.

What is Social Studio by Salesforce?
A social media management tool that covers some platforms and helps Salesforce users integrate social media into their sales efforts.

What features does it offer?
Workspaces and work calendars, content promotion and running paid ads, and real-time post analytics.

Who is it best for?
Companies that already use Salesforce as their CRM.

Free trial: Not available.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn.

✅ Pros: Superb analytics features.

🔻Cons: Very expensive considering the feature set, only useful for Salesforce users.

#32 Social Champ

💸 Starts at $26 per month.

What is Social Champ?
A comprehensive social media management tool for agencies and in-house teams.

What features does it offer?
Social publishing, a calendar, customer engagement tools, and analytics.

Who is it best for?
Primarily agencies, but can also be used in-house.

Free trial: Available for 7 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Google My Business, LinkedIn, Mastodon and TikTok.

✅ Pros: Great pricing, a wide array of social media platforms, an intuitive interface.

🔻Cons: X integration is not the best, some issues with previews.

#33 MeetEdgar

💸 Starts at $24.91 per month.

What is MeetEdgar?
A social scheduling tool for small businesses, entrepreneurs and freelancers. 

What features does it offer?
A content library, real-time analytics, scheduling, publishing, content automation, and suggestions for the best times to post.

Who is it best for?
Small businesses and freelancers.

Free trial: Available for 7 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google Business Profile.

✅ Pros: Great scheduling features, automation capabilities, and suggestions for the best times to post.

🔻Cons: Pricing can be on the high side if you have a large number of channels.

#34 Panoramiq Watch

💸 Starts at $8 per month.

What is Panoramiq Watch?
An Instagram hashtag tracking tool with advanced analytics, built for Hootsuite.

What features does it offer?
Hashtag tracking, competitor analysis, post management, and complex stream creation.

Who is it best for?
Teams that already use Hootsuite for social media management.

Free trial: Not available.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram.

✅ Pros: Very simple and easy to use, transparent pricing.

🔻Cons: If you already use Hootsuite, the added cost makes sense, but if you don’t, it’s better to find a solution that has everything in one tool.

#35 Heyday

💸 Starts at $40 per month.

What is Heyday?
A chat-based community app for influencers who want more engagement.

What features does it offer?
Community creation, AI-based content suggestions, and real-time chat.

Who is it best for?
Influencers, agencies and brands.

Free trial: Not available.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, Facebook Messenger and TikTok.

✅ Pros: Niche tool for community creation and engagement, unique features.

🔻Cons: The platform is still a work in progress, some features are slow or break down often.

#36 HopperHQ

💸 Starts at $16 per month.

What is HopperHQ?
A tool for brands relying heavily on Instagram as their preferred social media channel.

What features does it offer?
A visual planner and scheduler for a variety of social media platforms, bulk post creation, and Instagram-specific features such as reels and stories.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and in-house teams.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with? Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Facebook and X.

✅ Pros: Superb Instagram features, fairly easy to use.

🔻Cons: The features for other tools (such as scheduling) are just average.

The best social media management tools: pricing upon request

For every social media management platform below, you have to reach out to get a pricing quote tailored to your needs.

#1 Slate

💸 Pricing not publicly available.

What is Slate?
An easy to use tool for creating visual content for brands.

What features does it offer?
Content creation and collaboration in the cloud, image and video editing, brand asset management, content scheduling, and post analytics.

Who is it best for?
In-house teams that struggle with producing visual content.

Free trial: Available for 14 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Snapchat.

✅ Pros: Great assistant for teams that don’t have a designer with a functional mobile app.

🔻Cons: Some features can be more user-friendly and lacks advanced design features found in other tools, like Canva.

#2 SocialFlow by Piano

💸 Pricing is not publicly available.

What is SocialFlow?
An AI-powered social publishing and content creation tool for brands and agencies.

What features does it offer?
This tool analyzes post performance to determine the best times to post a certain type of content.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and larger in-house teams.

Free trial: Not available, you have to book a demo.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

✅ Pros: Excellent optimization features, easy cross-platform posting and scheduling.

🔻Cons: Very complex dashboard, not for beginners.

#3 Adobe Express/ContentCal

💸 Starts at $9 per month.

What is AdobeExpress?
AdobeExpress (previously known as ContentCal) is a simple social media management tool for businesses of all sizes.

What features does it offer?
Content planning, creation, scheduling, AI-powered content suggestions, content templates, and image editing.

Who is it best for?
Freelancers and in-house teams.

Free trial: Available for 30 days.

What social media platforms does it work with?
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

✅ Pros: Like most Adobe products, it is super easy to use.

🔻Cons: Features feel a little bare-bones compared to major competitors.

Free social media management tools

These tools are completely free to use and you don’t have to grab a paid plan to enjoy most of their features.

#1 Notion

💸 Starts at $8 per month.

What is Notion?
Project and document management tool for teams of all sizes.

What features does it offer?
Notion offers a versatile, all-in-one workspace for teams and individuals, featuring features such as note-taking, task management, database organization, and collaboration tools like shared documents and calendars.

Who is it best for?
Teams that already use Notion and want to use a free social media calendar.

Free trial: No, but there is a forever free plan.

What social media platforms does it work with?
None, directly.

✅ Pros: Very easy to use, completely free, allows for cloud collaboration between team members.

🔻Cons: Lacks advanced social media management tool features.

#2 Canva

💸 Starts at $119 per year for one person.

What is Canva?
An easy to use design tool that allows anyone to create great content for social media, websites and more.

What features does it offer?
Design templates and an easy to use drag and drop editor.

Who is it best for?
Freelancers, agencies and small in-house teams without a designer.

Free trial: No, but there is a forever free plan available.

What social media platforms does it work with?
None, directly.

✅ Pros: Super easy to use, chances are that you already have someone on your team who is familiar with it. Rich template library.

🔻Cons: Cannot replace an actual designer and does not have social media integrations.

#3 Preview

💸 Starts at $6.67 per month.

What is Preview?
An Instagram planning and scheduling tool for brands and agencies.

What features does it offer?
Post planning, support for stories and reels, hashtag analytics, caption ideas, and post presets.

Who is it best for?
Brands that rely heavily on Instagram as their main channel and agencies.

Free trial: No, but there is a forever-free plan.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram.

✅ Pros: Advanced Instagram features rarely found in competing tools.

🔻Cons: You still have to post content manually.

#4 Pallyy

💸 Starts at $18 per month.

What is Pallyy?
A simple and easy-to-use social media management tool that covers the most basic features in one app.

What features does it offer?
A social inbox, planning and scheduling, post analytics, drag and drop scheduling, media library, and cloud collaboration.

Who is it best for?
Small businesses and freelancers.

Free trial: No, but there is a forever free plan.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, Pinterest and TikTok.

✅ Pros: Affordable, a clean user experience, and a visual planner.

🔻Cons: Focuses heavily on Instagram and lacks advanced scheduling features.

#5 Followerwonk

💸 Starts at $23 per month.

What is FollowerWonk?
An X-focused social media management tool that allows brands and agencies to track and analyze their performance.

What features does it offer?
Content publishing, scheduling and analytics, and social listening.

Who is it best for?
Agencies and in-house teams.

Free trial: Not available, but there is a free plan.

What social media platforms does it work with?
X, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

✅ Pros: Advanced AI-backed X analytics.

🔻Cons: Heavily focused on X, hard to justify costs compared to other tools that cover different social media platforms.

#6 Crowdfire

💸 Starts at $7.48 per month.

What is Crowdfire?
A content discovery, curation, and publishing platform for brands.

What features does it offer?
Content discovery and curation, publishing and scheduling, performance analytics, and social media monitoring.

Who is it best for?
In-house teams.

Free trial: No, but there is a free version of the tool.

What social media platforms does it work with?
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest

✅ Pros: Detailed real-time analytics, easy to use.

🔻Cons: The free version is very limited.

Extra example: X Pro (TweetDeck)

💸 $84 per year.

What is X Pro?
Formerly known as TweetDeck, X Pro is a tool that allows users to organize and customize multiple Twitter/X feeds at the same time.

What features does it offer?
Viewing and customizing more than one X feed at a time.

Who is it best for?
Freelancers and in-house teams.

Free trial: Not available.

What social media platforms does it work with?
X (Twitter).

✅ Pros: You pay for the blue checkmark and X Pro is an extra.

🔻Cons: High cost for having access to just one platform. 

💡 Besides managing social media platforms and adding posts, take care of those mentions, which come from other users. To do so, try social media monitoring and engage with audience under their own posts.

Find and track brand influencers & advocates

Social media monitoring tools are not only great for engaging with the audience, spotting early trends – and preventing crises.

They can also you find influencers and advocates who can promote your products or services. You can monitor specific keywords, brand names, individuals, and just about anything that’s relevant to your industry.

You can use social listening to find influencers who are great for your niche, as well as those who like your industry but don’t particularly care about promoting something. You can also do a deep dive to find out whose reputation is not that great and who won’t make a great partner.

Last but not least, you can discover communities and industry-specific industries that you might otherwise miss in your standard research process.

FAQ: All you want to know about social media management tools

💬 What is the most effective social media tool?

It depends on your needs and budget. There is no such tool that works best for all users, but Buffer, CoSchedule, Hootsuite, and other Hootsuite alternatives are good choices.

💬 How do I choose the best social media management tool?

Consider what platforms you use every day and then narrow your choice down. Then consider the budget you want to set aside and the key features you require. Last but not least, dig into reviews on websites like Capterra and G2 to find what tools that users similar to you recommend.

💬 What is the best social monitoring tool?

Here’s a full comparison of the best media monitoring tools available in the market. And if you’re wondering if social media monitoring is for you, try Prowly for 7 days free.

Combine social media management with monitoring

It’s hard to choose the best social media management tool since all of them have similar features and pricing.

However, we hope that our rundown of the very best social media tools on the market has given you some food for thought and helped you choose the one that best suits your needs and budget.

And if you need more than social media scheduling – Prowly offers media monitoring (and many more features not only for PR pros). Stay on top of your clients’ mentions, monitor social media in real time, and never lose another brand mention again.

13 Best Brand Monitoring Tools for PR Managers Compared (2024)

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Brand monitoring helps to track online brand mentions to assess public perception, pinpoint trends, uphold reputations and evaluate PR campaigns.

Understanding who’s discussing your brand or your client’s and their sentiments, remaining well-informed, swiftly addressing issues, and fostering a positive brand image are key tactics in PR. 

In the first part of this article, we describe the top 13 brand monitoring tools that let you track brand mentions:

  1. Prowly
  2. Semrush
  3. Brandwatch
  4. Brand24
  5. Sprout Social
  6. Mention
  7. Google Alerts
  8. Talkwalker
  9. Hootsuite
  10. BuzzSumo
  11. Awario
  12. Keyhole
  13. X Pro

In the second part, you’ll find answers to the following questions:

Prowly lets you monitor press hits and social media mentions online using advanced filters and AI. Try it for free for 7 days, discover insights about your brand, and see Prowly’s full PR potential.

Best brand monitoring tools

We’ve included some popular brand monitoring tools – but not just that! Find the one that best suits your needs.

1. Prowly

  • Price: starting from $258 monthly
  • Free trial: Yes
  • All-in-one PR tool: Yes
Brand monitoring tool: Prowly

Prowly is the only tool on our list that’s focused entirely on a PR specialist’s needs. It covers your entire PR workflow – with an online newsroom, media database, AI press release creator, and, of course, tracking brand mentions.

Track brand mentions

Prowly’s Media Monitoring tool helps you track brand mentions and analyze metrics that are PR-specific, like AVE, SOV or outlet reach. Together with regular metrics, like reach or sentiment, you can estimate the effects of each campaign.

Prowly’s AI detects the context, sentiment, and over 15 other attributes of every press hit and social mention. Leverage this data to establish tailored filters for viewing only the mentions that matter most to you.

Examples of filters:

  • Keyword combinations & context
  • Topic of each mention and website (1000+ available)
  • Estimated mention reach
  • Region and language
  • Platform (Instagram, X, Facebook, Tiktok, Youtube)

Build custom reports

The top brand tools make your life easier with clean and neat reports. In Prowly, you can generate a coverage report whenever you need it – to sum up a particular month or a full campaign. Create coverage reports tailored to what you need with multiple metrics, chart types, and filters. Show how your outcomes correlate with business objectives and save the time needed to fill the report manually.

2. Semrush’s Brand Monitoring App

  • Price: $59 for the add-on
  • Free trial or demo: you can try the tool for free and schedule free training
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Brand monitoring tool powered by Prowly

Semrush is a comprehensive tool for online marketing – from SEO and content to paid promotion and PR. It’s often chosen by agencies and huge players, and that’s why it made our list.

If you work for an agency or a big company, chances are you already use Semrush. If your company already uses several marketing tools, you might consider switching to an all-in-one solution.

Then, for brand monitoring purposes, you can add the Brand Monitoring App, developed by Prowly. It covers the entire media monitoring functionality from Prowly’s original platform.

3. Brandwatch

  • Price: pricing available upon request
  • Free trial or demo: you can book a meeting
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Brand monitoring tools: Brandwatch

Brandwatch is one of the most advanced brand monitoring software offers on our list. Brandwatch tracks brand mentions both in online and offline areas. For example, you can access paywalled news, broadcasts, YouTube, or TikTok – with datasets going back more than 10 years.

To manage this impressive list of data sources, you get advanced analytics solutions, backed by machine learning algorithms. Also, you can track your data on real-time dashboards.

4. Brand24

  • Price: starting from $79 monthly
  • Free trial or demo: you can try it for 14 days
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Online brand monitoring services: Brand24

Brand24 is focused solely on your brand’s online presence. You can analyze all publicly available data coming from web pages, social media, or – and this is pretty unique – podcasts and newsletters.

With sentiment analysis, estimated awareness metrics, and alerts, you’ll be the first to find out about an upcoming crisis.

5. Sprout Social

  • Price: starting from $249 monthly
  • Free trial or demo: you can try it for 30 days or get a demo call
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Brand monitoring tools: Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a complex social media management platform. It offers social listening features that you can use to monitor brand reputation, like profile or location monitoring.

For each query, it retrieves all historical data, so you can start your analysis right away. With complex queries and filters, you’ll get valuable results.

For PR purposes, you can also use trend identification and influencer recognition.

6. Mention

  • Price: starting from $49 monthly 
  • Free trial or demo: there’s a 14-day free trial available and you can book a demo call
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Brand monitoring tools: Mention

Mention is another tool for social media management, combining social listening with post-scheduling. You can track brand mentions from blogs, online news, social media channels and videos (including YouTube and TikTok).

What’s more, you can track chosen review pages (like Booking or G2) and social media accounts to make sure you don’t miss new content.

Mention also lets you evaluate each hit with sentiment, reach and influence score. In higher priced plans, it also offers insights and more advanced analytics.

7. Google Alerts

  • Price: free
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Free brand monitoring tools: Google Alerts

Google Alerts is the only free tool on our list. It’s popular, really easy to use, and (again) free, but you might struggle with getting actual value out of it.

When Google indexes a new page that mentions a phrase you wish to observe, you get an email notification. And basically, that’s it. If you need a simple tool or you’re just getting started, it can be enough.

For professional PR purposes, it’s pretty limited. You get the results with a delay, it doesn’t cover sources like social media channels, and it might not send you all relevant results. Plus, you don’t get analytics, like sentiment info, reach, or trends in your data.

If you want to learn more, check out our article on Google Alerts alternatives. It covers in detail why it is worth making the switch.

8. Talkwalker

  • Price: available upon request
  • Free trial or demo: you can book a demo call
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Brand monitoring tool: Talkwalker

Talkwalker is one of the most comprehensive brand tracking tools on the market. It covers over 30 social media channels and 150 million data sources, giving you insights into even the most niche topics.

It provides your PR campaigns with sentiment, reach, and engagement analytics. You can use the advanced Boolean search to get only relevant resources. What’s more, Talkwalker also tracks visual content, meaning you get information from images and videos.

You can compare your brand reputation with the competition based on sentiment, engagement and reach. Also, the tool will assist you in finding appropriate influencers.

9. Hootsuite

  • Price: starting from $99 monthly, though Social Listening is an add-on
  • Free trial or demo: a free 30-day trial (or up to 60% off the plans if you skip it)
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Brand monitoring tools: Hootsuite

Hootsuite was created for social media management – with post scheduling, the best time for posting indicators, and a social media inbox. It does offer some social listening options that can help you with brand monitoring.

Hootsuite analyzes most major social media sites; monitoring mentions, keywords, and hashtags. It also integrates with other brand monitoring tools, like Talkwalker or Brandwatch.

10. BuzzSumo

  • Price: starting from $199 monthly 
  • Free trial or demo: a free 30-day trial
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Brand monitoring tool: BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo gives you tools to make some buzz about your company or client – either via PR or marketing strategies. It has a wide range of tools to get content ideas, spot influencers, or support content research.

In terms of brand monitoring, you can track brand mentions for you or your competitors. Something else interesting, you can get alerts when given authors or outlets publish something new. If your PR outreach strategy involves engaging with specific people, this option can prove valuable.

11. Awario

  • Price: starting at $49 monthly 
  • Free trial or demo: free trial available
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Brand tracking software: Awario

Awario is a full-time brand monitoring tool. They have their own web crawler that analyzes over 13 million pages daily, together with social media channels. You can look for results in given locations and use the Boolean search to refine your query.

To analyze the data, you get a simple dashboard with the crucial information at hand. In higher priced plans, you can download white-labeled reports with brand mention analysis.

12. Keyhole

  • Price: starts at $179 monthly
  • Free trial or demo: free trial available
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
Online brand monitoring for social media: Keyhole

Keyhole was designed with social media platforms in mind. It lets you analyze profiles, hashtags or phrases across different social media channels.

If you run lots of PR campaigns on social media channels, this solution is your ally. You can get insights on your performance, see the most engaging post for your searched term, or find the best influencer for your campaign. What’s more, it comes with detailed reports and comparisons.

Apart from the social listening options, you can use it as your social media planning tool. With scheduling and profile analytics, Keyhole helps you squeeze more from social media – both in marketing and PR-wise.

13. X Pro (formerly TweetDeck)

  • Price: included in the X (Twitter) Premium subscription
  • Free trial or demo: No
  • All-in-one PR tool: No
XPro – X (Twitter) management tool

X Pro – formerly called TweetDeck – used to be one of the most useful free tools for heavy Twitter users. It lets you open a few X threads on one screen and follow the conversations simultaneously.

Although it’s not full-time brand monitoring software, we decided to include it here for those of you who already spend hours on X threads. It’s definitely a nice addition to keep the conversations flowing!

Nevertheless, it won’t be enough for more advanced insights. For example, it lacks social media reach or sentiment analysis.

Right now, it’s available only with an X Premium subscription.

What is a brand monitoring tool used for? 

Short answer: it lets you evaluate the effectiveness of your PR efforts.

Brand monitoring tools can help you to:

  • Measure PR effectiveness
  • Prevent PR crises
  • Look for partnerships
  • Watch your competition and industry
  • Discover new sales opportunities
  • Take care of customers
  • Plan PR Strategies
  • Get context for product development

Brand monitoring brings in important intel for your company – not only in the PR area. And that’s an argument you might use when requesting a budget for a brand monitoring tool. Your brand monitoring efforts can bring serious results in areas developing the business.

Measure PR effectiveness

Each PR campaign costs your company (or your clients) money – even if the only resource you use is time. Brand monitoring tools help you assess the impact and effects of your campaigns, putting real numbers and value on them.

When you have tools to talk about the tangible effects instead of perception and subjective opinions, it gets way easier to improve your actions. And show the effect of the money invested.

This is just a brief intro. For more in-depth analysis, you can see our article on how to measure PR success.

Prevent PR crises

Sudden drops in brand reputation could often be prevented in hindsight. Tools used for monitoring brand sentiment allow you to notice the first signs of threat, like the first negative post or wave of criticism hitting the industry.

If you want to learn more about dealing with this challenge, read our PR crisis management guide.

Look for partnerships

Brand tracking software is the perfect tool to assess your cooperation opportunities – from partnerships with companies to influencers. Check out their brand sentiment and reputation, and in what contexts they commonly appear.

It’s also a great way to find out who would make the perfect partner for your strategy. Brand monitoring tools let you spot the most influential person in a given niche.

Watch your competition and industry

Brand monitoring simplifies competition research. With notification digests, you can stay on top of what’s going on in the industry. With changes in brand reputation, you can analyze the situation and prevent some industry crises from hitting your company.

Discover new sales opportunities

Is your sales team on the lookout for potential leads? Your brand monitoring tool, set up for relevant phrases, can point out new sales opportunities. They can get notifications for all posts on social media channels where people are looking for recommendations.

Take care of customers

Some brand mentions on social media posts are, in their nature, customer complaints. When your customer service finds out about them in time and reacts, your brand can get additional points. Also, you can use it to celebrate some of the positive reviews and mentions of your customer service team!

Plan PR Strategies

Brand monitoring tools play a crucial role in shaping PR strategies by providing insights into how a brand is perceived in the market. These tools help track brand mentions, sentiment analysis and competitor activities, allowing PR professionals to:

  • make informed decisions 
  • identify trends
  • engage with their target audience effectively
  • manage their brand’s reputation
  • respond to emerging issues swiftly and ultimately enhance their overall PR strategy

Get context for product development

Usually, there are just too many ideas for product development. An additional, automated source of feedback – like brand mentions – can help the team in prioritizing features. They can also track new ideas or the reasons why some users choose to go with competitive brands.

How do you monitor a brand?

Brand mention monitoring is essentially gathering all the relevant mentions in a way that lets you turn insights into actions.

You could do it manually, searching for your brand name, or using easy-to-set-up tools like Google Alerts. Yet this is tedious and time-consuming. Apart from the fact that you’d surely miss at least some of your mentions, in a much worse case, you might even misjudge your brand reputation.

Or, you can use software for monitoring brand mentions and other relevant keywords. The best brand monitoring tools catch mentions even before they get indexed in Google search!

What is a brand tracking tool?

What are monitoring tools? They are based on crawlers – robots that go through (crawl) the Internet, looking for specific information. Depending on the tool or technology it uses, you may access varied sources; like forums, websites, social media or offline news; in search of people mentioning your brand.

When you set up a project, choosing keywords, geographical area, or other factors that are important for you, the brand tracking software starts to gather information. In most online monitoring tools, you can get alerts when relevant brand mentions are found.

Most monitoring tools give you access to analytics. These often consist of one main brand tracking dashboard and more detailed views. This way, you can easily compare data for given campaigns or timeframes.

Beware, though, that keeping data for a long time is costly. That’s why some news monitoring tools start gathering data only after you set up a project and store it only for a fixed period. Tools that let you go way back in time usually reflect it in higher pricing.

What is a brand monitoring tool used for?

Basically, you can use it for three things:

  • analyze what has happened
  • monitor what’s going on
  • and foresee events

Each approach works for several areas, like PR, marketing, product development, or sales and customer service. That’s why brand tracking software is widely used across modern organizations.

How to choose a brand monitoring tool?

There’s no simple answer, but a few tips can make the process easier.

Your company needs

As you’ll see, the tools on our list address different use cases. Prowly is highly focused on the PR side, as it provides you with complimentary PR tools, whereas Hootsuite or Mention are focused on marketing. You can try to look further than the PR team. Also, you might find out that your company already uses a tool with a brand monitoring app, like Semrush.

Your company budget

This one goes without saying, but there’s one point to think about. Brand monitoring tools are useful not only to the PR team. If you can prove the benefits go company-wide, you can actually get a higher budget to allocate.

The look and feel

If it’s possible, go and test a few solutions before sticking with one. This way, you can check to be sure it fits your team’s needs – in terms of the UX, functionality and overall feel.

The best brand monitoring tools offer you a free trial period or demo call.

Choose your solution

The choice might be difficult, but it’s well worth implementing a brand monitoring tool in your daily work. With this kind of intel, you’ll be empowered to make better decisions and improve the quality of your PR results.

Read a few more comparisons, try a few chosen platforms yourself, and get the benefits rolling in from brand monitoring. Good luck!

How to Measure Brand Equity: Step-by-Step Guide

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No matter what industry you’re in, one thing is certain in 2024: budgets are getting tighter and you need to do more with less.

While it may sound counter-intuitive, investing in your brand is the smartest thing to do at the moment.

But to find out if your efforts are paying off, you need to see that ROI. Today, we’ll talk about measuring brand equity – what it is and how it’s done.

What is brand equity in simple words?

Brand equity refers to how your customers, both potential and actual, perceive your brand and what kind of associations they have once they hear your name.

As the “hard sell” era is long gone, paving the way for generating interest in ways that are not as invasive. This is where brand equity comes into play.

Now is the right time to invest in reputation, as 30% of B2B buyers consider brand reputation to be a crucial factor when purchasing B2B services.

💡 Businesses with great brand equity can command higher prices, better customer loyalty, and stand out in the market.

For example, if a brand has a positive reputation and equity, customers will be more inclined to pay extra for it. Customers would rather purchase a luxury Audi or BMW compared to a newcomer on the market, even if they offer better features and pricing.

Brand equity vs. brand value

When measuring brand equity, the term “brand value” is often mentioned and used interchangeably. However, there are some differences to keep in mind.

Brand equityBrand value
What does it focus on?Perceptions and intangible brand assets – attitudes, perceptions, associations and loyalty.Financial measures of success, the worth of a brand as a company asset.
How do you assess it?Through brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations, customer lifetime value, and other metrics.Through financial valuation methods, like market research or financial analysis.
What is it used for?To determine the value that brand’s name, logo etc. (items that go beyond functional attributes) brings to a product/ service.For financial reporting, in cases such as mergers and acquisitions, and in assessing the overall portfolio of a brand.

Four components of brand equity

There are four key components of brand equity to keep in mind:

1️⃣ Brand awareness

How aware customers are of your brand and how easily they can recall it. Great brand awareness means that your brand is easy to recognize and remember, making it effortless to get more sales in your target market.

2️⃣ Brand association

The mental and emotional connection that a consumer has when they hear about your brand. This helps you stand out to your target customers compared to your competitors, builds trust and credibility, and enhances your perceived value.

3️⃣ Brand perceived quality

How consumers perceive your overall quality and position in the market, especially compared to alternative choices. Well perceived value and quality help you stand out against competitors and give potential customers reasons to purchase.

4️⃣ Brand loyalty

How attached customers are to your business, products or services, and how likely they are to shop with you again. With high brand loyalty comes decreased marketing costs and a strong word-of-mouth reputation, and it’s easier to win new customers through awareness.

Why does brand equity matter to PR?

Building high brand equity is one of the key tasks of great public relations.

PR is the tool that shapes the public perception of your brand, helps you manage crises, makes your brand more credible, and helps it stand out against the competition, among many other things.

In short, brand equity is crucial in the context of PR, and PR plays a pivotal role in improving brand equity metrics.

So high brand equity is good for PR, we get it. But how can you influence it as a PR professional?

Brand building through PR – key strategies

You can use a variety of methods for brand equity building, such as:

Crisis management

PR protects a brand’s reputation when times get tough. When marketing campaigns go south or the brand receives negative publicity, PR preserves brand equity.

Social listening helps with crisis management as you can get notified about brand mentions in real-time.

It’s a part of media monitoring which you can automate, instead of doing it manually. With Prowly you can track mentions 24/7 without the irrelevant noise.

Brand image building

PR shapes a positive brand image through various methods and tactics, such as media relations, partnerships with brands and influencers, community building and engagement, and more.

All to weave a positive, compelling narrative around a brand.

Building trust and credibility

Brand power comes from consumer perception and that is built on trust and authenticity. PR helps show brands as transparent, authentic, and ethical, winning trust and credibility with both stakeholders and customers. This is why measuring PR success is a necessity.

👉🏼 Differentiation: PR improves a company’s success and sales performance by highlighting the key attributes that make that brand different from the competition. Whether it’s in its features, price differences, or something else, PR helps brands stand out.

👉🏼 Strategic partnerships: public relations professionals collaborate with other organizations and brands, helping create strong brand equity through increased visibility. By partnering with influencers, content creators, journalists, and others, PR pros help build brand equity by improving reach.

And building strong brand relationships is an integral part of media relations.

How is brand equity measured? 6 effective strategies

If you want to measure your brand strength and equity from positive brand associations and more, you should know that there are multiple ways to measure success. Here are some of the most common ways to measure brand equity.

#1 Share of Voice

Share of voice, or SOV, is the percentage of all the brand mentions your brand has in your market.

For example, if you’re selling phones, your SOV would be your percentage of mentions compared to Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, and others.

An important distinction is that SOV includes the organic mentions of your brand in media such as blogs, social media platforms, review websites, and others.

To measure brand equity, you need to measure your share of voice, as it’s a pretty good indicator of how your brand ranks in the competitive landscape.

Looking for the best way to measure your Share of Voice? Read this article on how to calculate your SoV.

Compare online and offline Share of Voice

Your brand relevance and equity don’t exist only in the online world. Offline, people talk about your brand in various places and it’s important to consider both types of SOV.

Some of the ways you can measure your share of voice offline includes media impressions, mention frequency, media mix, market surveys, interviews, partnerships and sponsorships, and others.

Since offline publications are getting less and less popular, it might be quite easy to do it manually – unless you’re an industry giant that gets tons on coverage, of course!

Compare the results of your online and offline campaigns to determine brand equity accurately and analyze what brings the most impact.

#2 Brand loyalty and engagement

💡 Brand loyalty and brand engagement cannot be measured through a single metric.

There are multiple KPIs all meant for measuring them, such as:

  • Customer retention rate (the number of customers retained over a specific period)
  • NPS score (Net Promoter Score, calculated on a scale from 0-10)
  • Customer satisfaction score (CSAT, also calculated on a scale of 0-10)
  • Repeat purchase rate (the percentage of customers who return to shop again)
  • Average order value (the cash value of a typical order your customers make)

Loyal customers are a great brand equity measurement because they contribute positively to your overall brand equity.

And if you want to find out how loyal your customers are, social listening can prove an accurate method, too.

#3 Market share and price premium

Market share is how much of your existing market belongs to you and your products.

For example, Apple’s market share in the final quarter of 2023 was 24.7%. This means they sold about a quarter of all new phones sold in this period.

Price premium is a KPI that shows how much higher a price customers are willing to pay for a particular brand compared to other entries on the market.

The higher the price premium, the higher the perceived value.

#4 Brand associations and perceived quality

Brand associations are mental connections that customers make between a brand and their experiences, values, emotions, and attributes.

👉🏼 You can measure brand associations through surveys and questionnaires, running focus groups, performing social media monitoring, and hosting brand equity studies, among other things.

On the other hand, perceived quality is the subjective perception of the quality of your products and services by your customers.

👉🏼 Measuring perceived quality can be done through surveys, attribute analysis, brand reputation surveys, customer reviews, and ratings.

#5 Brand awareness, recall and perception: sentiment analysis and surveys

Brand awareness is just that – how aware your potential customers are about the space you take up in your target market.
Brand recall is the ability of those potential or existing customers to remember your brand without assistance or prompting.

👉🏼 You can measure both through surveys and studies to access metrics such as unaided brand awareness, brand recall, and recognition.

  • Surveys can help you tap into these metrics by showing you product quality, relevance, and differentiation metrics.
  • Sentiment analysis helps you analyze where and how people talk about your brand online. And you can now quickly analyze thousands of brand mentions for their sentiment with just a few clicks.

#5 Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the amount a customer spends over their total period of being your customer.

Higher customer lifetime value indicates a strong brand equity through brand loyalty and affinity.

#6 Brand Equity Index

Brand equity index is a proprietary metric that some brands develop to measure brand equity.

The index typically combines multiple metrics and dimensions into one score that gives the business a bird’s eye view of the health of their brand.

Improving brand equity with PR – case studies

Public relations can be a lifesaver when it comes to improving brand positioning, brand consistency, and overall brand equity metrics.

Here are some examples of brands that pulled it off well, as well as cases of why you should regularly do PR reporting for your campaigns.

🙁 Negative brand equity turned positive: Ryanair

Ryanair is a prime example of a company that turned its brand perception upside down. They are typically known as cheap, uncomfortable, and as a company that treats passengers poorly. Instead of trying to defend themselves, they decided to own it and build their communications based on this identity.

Nowadays, they are open and transparent about what they can (and cannot) offer, using humor and sarcasm to create strong equity for their brand. And it’s working.

Lessons learned: build a communication plan and monitor conversations

The secret behind Ryanair’s success is not just transparency. They embraced who they are after listening in on online conversations about them. They even share these posts and other (potential) customers engage with these reports.

The PR lesson you can get from this is: monitor the web for your brand mentions, prepare a communications plan, and stick to it. Make it controversial, but not so controversial to where it’s off-putting.

Also, make sure to have a crisis plan in place to act immediately if things go south. If a crisis does arise, you’ll be prepared thanks to social listening.

😊 Positive brand equity example: Coca Cola

The battle of Coke vs. Pepsi is one of the most interesting brand standoffs in the past century. Both brands have amazingly successful campaigns, as well as some ideas that never worked out, such as Pepsi’s commercial with Kendall Jenner, or Coke’s Real Magic ad from 2022.

The two products have very similar ingredients and yet, Coca-Cola is now the 47th most valuable global brand on Brand Finance’s Global 500. Meanwhile, Pepsi places down at 95.

There are many reasons why Coca-Cola is more successful. Much of it boils down to customer engagement – they engage with their followers across many channels. Social media, loyalty programs, online and in-person events. They nailed down their consumer preferences – their customers love the brand interactions they have with Coke.

One such example is the wildly successful #shareacoke campaign, which spread like wildfire across social media and internationally.

Lessons learned: increase customer advocacy & build partnerships

Consumers gravitate towards brands that listen to them and interact with them. To succeed like Coke, create interactive campaigns that require your customers to get in touch with you, offline and online.

Social listening is the key piece to this puzzle, as it allows you to run campaigns and capture what people say about you, but more importantly, track how they respond.

These campaigns also allow you to partner up with other brands, media outlets, journalists, content creators, and influencers.

What connects the success of Ryanair and Coca-Cola is – monitoring what’s being said about the brand, drawing conclusions and responding strategically.

You can use Prowly to monitor what’s being said about your client’s brand, measure their Share of Voice and other key PR metrics.

Monitor your brand equity and make data-driven decisions

In an age where advertising is getting increasingly expensive, investing in your brand is a smarter, long-term alternative to paid advertisement efforts. A brand’s equity is a powerful tool that can help win more customers at a lower price point.

To start measuring your brand equity today, taking a look at your PR metrics is an excellent starting point. With Prowly, you can measure just about any aspect of your PR and marketing strategies in minutes.

How to Write a Great Press Release: Best Practices, AI Tips & Examples

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They say all press is good press, but is it really?

“All publicity is good publicity” supposedly comes from the 19th century circus owner, Phineas Barnum. And that’s exactly where we should leave it. In the 19th century.

In reality it is crucial to shape your narrative and deliver it to the right media, not just anywhere. And to get your spotlight, your press releases really have to be top notch.

In this article, you will find press release best practices and learn how to use AI to ease the creation process.

If you don’t want to wait, start writing your press release with AI support right away to create well-formatted and engaging material in just a few minutes.

15 best practices to get your press release noticed

Feeling like your press releases are gathering dust in editors’ inboxes? It’s time to transform your announcements into newsworthy gems that grab attention and earn press coverage.

Well-written press releases can get you the buzz you (or your client) dream of. And with the right tools, you can create a newsworthy press release in almost no time and benefit from it for weeks or even months.

Ready? Let’s get to the essentials – press release tips:

#1 Use visual storytelling

Words are powerful, but visuals can be downright magical.

In today’s attention-grabbing world, only a press release rich in captivating images, infographics, and videos can break through the noise and leave a lasting impression. Make it catchy but keep it in line with your brand’s messaging.

Check out the visuals from the press release example below:

Although ChatGPT is one of the big topics recently, many have used it to catch attention.

And Klarna clearly knows that words might not be enough.

Takeaways: In the example above, Klarna not only says it “brings smooth shopping to ChatGPT,” but also uses a photo at the very top of the press release to illustrate how it works, catching the attention of the reader from the very first moment.

#2 Utilize Interactive Content

Have you ever tried interactive content? In the dopamine rush era we live in, it can make sharing news more engaging for your audience. We’ve all seen press releases with a normal photo already, so try giving your recipients something more.

Takeaways: Try exploring interactive content formats, such as interactive graphics or multimedia experiences. Such content will surely stay with your audience longer.

With Prowly’s Press Release Creator, you can easily embed your social media posts instead of using basic screenshots or add your videos straight from YouTube with a single click. Just choose the right block, add a link, and you’re all set!

Prowly Press Release Creator screenshot using the an art exhibition press release template

#3 Optimize for Mobile Devices

Take care of your press release distribution as well as creation. Before you submit a press release, ensure that it will look good on mobile.

Truth is: most of us check the news via smartphones, so make your content responsive and fast-loading. This also happens to be one of the press release UX best practices you should keep in mind.

#4 Include Visualizations of Your Data

Complex data and statistics can make your press release more trustworthy, but at the same time it may feel like a snoozefest for readers, burying your message under a mound of raw data.

But fear not, there is a way to have one’s cake and eat it too! Transform numerical clutter into visually captivating charts and graphs that inform, impress, and leave a lasting impact. Easy as that.

Here’s how we visualized data for the article “How US Media Covered Depp vs. Heard Defamation Trial In 2022“:

Bonus points? If your infographic covers a hot topic, other people might share it in their posts or articles, giving you greater reach. Just make sure to add your logo to the visual, because sometimes people forget to tag the information source.

#5 Personalize Outreach

Speaking of personalization – when crafting a press release keep both your readers and journalists in mind.

You should tailor your message and outreach efforts to specific journalists or media outlets.

This way you can demonstrate a genuine understanding of their interests and preferences. This is not just our opinion – PR pros surveyed in the State of PR 2024 study stressed personalization as one of the key trends of 2024.

#6 Offer Exclusive Content

Feeling like one in a million is great, isn’t it? So before you submit a press release, add a special touch.

Exclusive content and insights are your secret weapons for securing coverage and building strong relationships with editors and journalists.

Takeaway: When distributing exclusive content, try pitching directly to journalists instead of using newswires.

#7 Deliver Social Proof

Consumers rely more on regular people’s testimonials than some experts, which confirms the rising demand for UGC content.

So while creating your press release structure, try to cover social proof to back up your words. It can be a testimonial, user review, or a quote from an industry expert.

#8 Highlight Human Interest Stories

Numbers and facts are important, but they rarely stir our souls.

In today’s information overload, capturing your audience requires a spark of humanity. And storytelling isn’t dead, quite the contrary – building great narratives it’s one of the rising trends mentioned in both the State of PR 2023 and 2024 studies.

Takeaway: Include a space to show the human face of the organization in your press release template. Include the story of an employee or a personal anecdote. People will appreciate it.

#9 Address a Current Problem

Connect with people on the level of their daily concerns. Just like Starbucks did in the news release example below.

What’s great about this press release?

  • Starbucks declares its dedication to achieving “resource positivity,” with goals to sequester more carbon than it releases, eradicate waste, and preserve more water than it consumes. This establishes an ambitious standard for sustainability within the coffee sector.
  • Notice that they use very specific numbers.
  • They also address the current issue which is balancing economic growth with environmental responsibility. It is a critical issue for many businesses, and Starbucks’ efforts to do so resonate with a wide audience.
  • Plus, they also used a decent press release headline. It might not spark curiosity, but it’s short, sweet and straight to the point.

#10 Offer a multimedia press kit

Offer some extras, ie. comprehensive multimedia press kits encompassing a range of assets.

It can include images, videos, fact sheets, and quotations to equip journalists with all necessary resources to thoroughly cover your story. This can also be a way to deliver some exclusive content.

You can add all this and more to your press release easily with the Press Release Creator or go one step further and add a presskit to your Online Newsroom – where journalists can find trustworthy resources about your client.

#11 Utilize Influencer Partnerships

Engage in collaborations with social media influencers, industry personas, or brand ambassadors to extend the reach and influence of your press release across their platforms. Use any shoutout you can possibly get.

#12 Monitor Hot Topics

Keep your finger on the pulse with what’s new across the web. How to do it?

social media monitoring flow for PR social listening flow

Check out our Social Media Monitoring Guide and stay informed about all the trendy topics. Incorporate them as a cherry on top and boost your press release’s relevance and visibility.

#13 Emphasize Your Statement by Leadership

Readers and media crave deeper insights, informed perspectives, and genuine leadership. So engage the C-level people. This way you can get your audience “behind the scenes” information as well as insightful commentary or analysis on the topic.

Check out how Under Armour used quotes and more tactics in their press release.

#14 Highlight Diversity and Inclusion

Guarantee that your press release underscores a dedication to diversity and inclusion by showcasing a variety of voices, viewpoints, and representations in both content and visuals. Everybody wants to hear their representative’s voice.

But remember to make it a part of your PR strategy and show that it truly is your core. Don’t do it just to make your client look good. Someone would eventually see it was just a PR game and you shouldn’t risk such a crisis.

#15 Monitor and Measure Results

You can only show stakeholders that the time you spent on creating and distributing press releases was well invested if you track their perfomance.

Monitor and assess critical metrics like media exposure, domain rank, backlinks, social media interactions, and sentiment analysis to gauge the impact of your press releases. Add these metrics and PR Clippings to your PR Reports with just a few clicks.

Keep an eye on your campaigns and media mentions to measure your PR success. While the client might want to see the vanity metrics such as advertising value equivalency or UVPM, we recommend their alternatives – all of which you can easily track with tools such as Prowly.

💡 Advanced tip: Optimize for SEO and Voice Search

Do you use Siri or Alexa?

Consider optimizing your press release content for voice search queries.

Include natural language phrases and answer common questions that users may ask virtual assistants. This could be particularly necessary if you intend to publish on your personal Online Newsroom as well.

Press release don’ts: examples

How to write a media release and avoid common mistakes that may diminish its success?

Take a look at this list of practices you should stay clear of when you draft a press release:

Hidden Lead

Stay focused on your topic and do not conceal the most crucial information deep within your press release. It may result in journalists losing interest before they uncover the vital details. Use the inverted pyramid method.

Too Salesy

Journalists may disregard press releases that appear too promotional or sales-oriented, perceiving them as biased or lacking credibility.

Neglect Personalized Pitches

As mentioned, distributing generic pitches to journalists without tailoring them to their beat or interests can lead to low response rates and minimal media coverage. You can easily personalize your material with Prowly’s pitching features.

Forget Multimedia Assets

Failing to incorporate pertinent multimedia elements like images or videos can lessen the visual attractiveness and shareability of the press release, thereby diminishing its overall impact.

Miss Out on AI

Make use of some help and get the benefits of an AI assistant. With Prowly’s AI, you can draft your press release or a pitch in just a few clicks.

Take your press releases to the next level with AI

So, how to create a press release that will make you reach your goals? How to submit a press release to the right media outlets?

We (and artificial intelligence) have got your back.

1️⃣ Writing a draft

Sometimes creating your first draft can take you hours. And it’s just the beginning.

To deliver insightful and quality content, as well as overcome writer’s block, you can easily use AI.

It can help you cover all the most important aspects of your story and take care of crucial aspects, such as press release quotes or not-so-salesy language.

2️⃣ Delivering the message

It’s common to lose sight of the primary goal amid various other pieces of information you want to share. AI can help you to stay on track.

With Prowly, all you need do is to write down your three key messages and you can be sure your story is clear.

Ready to see if Prowly’s AI suits your needs? Try it for 7 days free.

3️⃣ Answering crucial questions

To enhance the informativeness of your content, Prowly’s AI utilizes the initial information you provide and prompts you to answer a series of questions to deliver key details for users.

4️⃣ Adjusting the Tone of Voice

The way you speak with your audience also depends on the message angle.

Being coherent with your ToV is crucial for your brand PR. You can adjust this by simply choosing the option that’s the closest to your own, just like is shown below.

For example, a press release of an upcoming charity event can sound:

👉🏼 more friendly and excited about event’s activities (evoking positive emotions, such as hope, which makes people more eager to participate), OR

👉🏼 more empathetic and highlight the event’s importance (evoking emotions such as sadness, which makes people more generous).

Examples of great press releases by type

Product press release

  • The press release example from Apple is written in a concise yet informative style.
  • It follows the press release structure and thus effectively generates hype and anticipation.

Here’s a full guide that will show you how to write a new product press release step by step.

Book press release

  • This book release gains points for storytelling which engages recipients.
  • Moreover, it ends with a thought-provoking question so it stays in readers’ minds longer.

Check out this article and see how to nail your book press release.

Sample album music press release

  • Here we have a clear statement endorsed with some numbers.
  • There are also links to other materials if one wants to explore the topic further.

Need more examples of music press releases to get inspired by? Check out this guide.

Send press releases using personalized pitches and AI

Once you create your press release there is one crucial question which may still be on your mind. How to send out a press release?

Draft pitches with AI, add human touch, and connect with journalists with enhanced personalization.

📝 Step one: Craft the pitch

Navigate yourself to the “Emails” section, choose the recipients you wish to pitch, and either attach or embed your press release.

While you have the option to craft your pitch from the very beginning, AI can generate an email for you based on the content of your press release. You can consider this a preliminary pitch.

The email will feature four key messages presented in bullet points, making it easier for journalists to quickly scan and identify the most newsworthy aspects.

✍🏼 Step two: Choose a catchy subject line

In the last step, AI assists in creating compelling subject lines and preview text.

Choose from various suggestions and customize them to fit your press release.

This not only saves time but also enhances recipient engagement by utilizing an algorithm designed to capture journalists’ attention.

Who wants to spend hours crafting the perfect subject line? With AI-generated suggestions, you’ll stand out in any crowded inbox, minimizing the struggle of generating fresh ideas.

✉️ Step three: Find the right media contacts

You may have a list of media outlets in mind but there is no harm in expanding it. How to do so?

You can use one of available media databases on the market, such as Prowly. Then manually search through our database of 1 million contacts. It’s a wide range of choices that you can filter based on language, topics they cover, and more.

However, it may take some time to find the perfect ones. AI can take care of that for you with smart suggestions and accelerate the process.

Simply type the first 100 words of your pitch and Prowly’s AI will start suggesting journalists you can pitch to based on the keywords found in your press release. It’s just as easy as it sounds.

Start crafting your best press release ever

Appreciate the power of a well-crafted press release. It can boost your brand, drive traffic, and build trust. But creating them can feel overwhelming. Fear not! Press release creators and distribution tools are here to help, not to replace your expertise. Use them to craft captivating headlines, optimize your pitch, and track results.

So share your incredible story and let the world know all about it!

Top 10 Social Media Monitoring Tools for PR Pros – a 2024 List

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PR pros have a complex and difficult task – to increase visibility and improve communications for their clients. But how do you prove the effects of your hard work?

There is one thing that works very well – social media monitoring. A social media monitoring tool can show you the immediate effects of your campaigns in a clear, measurable way.

Want to start monitoring social media right away? Try Prowly and get your first seven days free.

What is a social media monitoring tool?

Social media monitoring tools are software applications that track and analyze conversations online in order to find mentions of specific terms.

You can use them to track your brand name, hashtags, specific campaigns, industry terms and more. They typically come with features such as mention tracking, sentiment analysis, detailed analytics and reporting.

What is social media monitoring?

Social media monitoring is the process of watching and analyzing online conversations.

🎯 The goal is to determine what others are saying about your brand or industry online and then use those insights to create better PR and marketing campaigns, improve your product or service, and more.

What does social media monitoring mean to PR?

Social media monitoring is helpful for all aspects of running a business. From marketing to sales to customer support, everyone benefits from real-time social media insights. But here are some practical benefits that relate specifically to PR professionals:

1️⃣ Identify new opportunities

You can see which journalists and media outlets cover your or your client’s brand and reach out to build meaningful relationships with them. In the same way, you can find journalists who cover the industry but have not talked about you yet – and pitch them to get the conversation flowing.

2️⃣ Track social share of voice

Get an accurate representation of your client’s social share of voice. Unlike overall brand sentiment, mentions of brands or campaigns are easy to track and quantify.

3️⃣ Monitor competitors

Good social media monitoring tools can track many terms at once, including your competitors’ brands and campaign keywords. Use this to get a better understanding of how your or your client’s brand stands against the competition.

4️⃣ Verify strategy

Get immediate feedback about the performance of your PR campaigns. You don’t have to wait months to analyze campaign ROI – simply tap into your social mentions.

5️⃣ Reputation management

Get real-time notifications about negative brand mentions. Solve problems before they escalate into full-blown social media crises.

6️⃣ Turn mentions into business insights

Each mention is a chance to promote your client and boost their social media performance, as well as turn opportunities into closed revenue.

7️⃣ Understand the conversation surrounding your client’s brand and products

No more guessing about how the public feels about a client’s brand, campaign or product. Get detailed insights and sentiment analysis for each mention.

8️⃣ Make more data-driven decisions

Understand your most relevant mentions and find out which campaigns drive results. Invest PR and marketing dollars more effectively.

10 best social media monitoring tools in 2024

Finding the ideal social media monitoring tool can be challenging – with so many different features and pricing plans. Here are some of the very best social media monitoring platforms on the market:

#1 Prowly

💸 Pricing: starts at $258 per month in the Basic Annual plan

What is Prowly?
Prowly is a media relations tool built for PR professionals looking to have all their most important apps in one place. With Prowly, PR pros can find journalists, create pitches, send custom emails, and track social media mentions all in the app.

What features does it offer?

You can go from start to finish with Prowly, the tool that lets you manage your entire PR campaign from one spot. You can find journalists, pitch them, and then use monitoring to see the impact of your campaigns in real time.

👉🏼 What sets Prowly apart is that it is built for PR.
This means that every tracked mention arrives with relevant PR metrics, such as AVE, sentiment, outlet reach, backlinks acquired for your domain, and more.

👉🏼 Prowly can also filter mentions according to region and language and gives you a mention reach for each entry.

If you’re looking for the one tool to give you laser-precise insights about your clients’ campaigns and online presence, Prowly is the right choice.

Who is it best for?

PR agencies and in-house PR teams looking to find relevant media contacts and build relationships with them, as well as pitch them and track the mentions that come up as results of campaign efforts.

Free trial: available for seven days

Pros: great value for money as you get 10,000 tracked mentions per month in the cheapest plan, the ability to manage PR campaigns from start to finish, detailed analytics and reporting, and the ability to track relevant PR metrics.

🔻 Cons: unlike some other tools on this list, it does not offer social media management and scheduling, which PR pros don’t need. On the other hand it offers a range of tools and features necessary to PR tasks.

#2 Metricool

💸 Pricing: starts at $18 per month

What is Metricool?
Metricool is a social media management platform that allows you to control your clients’ organic and paid online presence in one place.

What features does it offer?

Metricool has quite limited monitoring features. Unlike the other competitors on this list, it can only track hashtags, and only on Twitter and Instagram. You can track hashtag performance in terms of movements and the audiences that use them.

Who is it best for?

PR professionals that have clients predominantly on Instagram and X/Twitter.

Free trial: available, forever free plan

Pros: very affordable compared to the competition.

🔻 Cons: only useful for hashtag tracking, supports just Twitter/X and Instagram.

#3 Hootsuite

💸 Pricing: starts at $99 per month but social listening is only available in the Enterprise plan, which does not have publicly displayed pricing

What is Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is a social media management and analytics tool that businesses and agencies can use to schedule posts and analyze their overall social media performance.

What features does it offer?

Like some other tools we’ll cover in a minute, Hootsuite lets you get mentions directly on your dashboard. From there, you can reply to them immediately and engage with them. There are AI analytics in place, spotting negative comments and questions and urging you to respond promptly.

👉🏼 One unique feature is that you can integrate other social media monitoring tools if you don’t like Hootsuite’s.

For example, you can connect Brandwatch and Talkwalker and use them for listening while Hootsuite does the management and analytics.

Who is it best for?

PR and social media marketing agencies that use scheduling, analytics, management and listening in their day-to-day work.

Free trial: available for 30 days

✅ Pros: unified dashboard for mentions that allows you to respond directly from the app.

🔻 Cons: you have to go for the Enterprise plan to get access to social listening.

#4 BuzzSumo

💸 Pricing: starts at $199 per month

What is BuzzSumo?
Buzzsumo is a media database that lets you get in touch with over 700,000 journalists. Thanks to advanced analytics, you can spot which journalists are likely to pick up your stories and give you media placements. On top of their media database, they have a range of other features, including media monitoring.

What features does it offer?

👉🏼 With Buzzsumo, you can monitor your brand mentions, specific keywords, topics, products, and campaigns, as well as those of your competitors.

One thing that makes Buzzsumo unique is that you can set up alerts for influencers, journalists, and authors and get notified as soon as they post or publish.

Also, you can get notified about new backlinks to your website, with a little twist. If someone mentions your brand but does not give you a backlink, you can use Buzzsumo to get in touch and ask for a link.

Who is it best for?

PR and marketing agencies looking to increase visibility for their clients.

Free trial: available

Pros: a great mix of features for PR and marketing use cases, backlink notifications, and outreach.

🔻 Cons: might get expensive if you need to track a large number of terms for your clients.

#5 HubSpot

💸 Pricing: starts at $800 per month for the Marketing Hub

What is HubSpot?
Hubspot is a sales CRM, a content management system, and a marketing hub which allows businesses to run all of their operations from a single dashboard. As a part of its Marketing Hub, it offers a social media management tool as well as an option for tracking keywords.

What features does it offer?

The biggest benefit of Hubspot’s keyword monitoring is how well it’s connected to the rest of the Hubspot setup. When a new mention of your keyword comes in, social media and sales teams get an alert. Mentions are tied to specific accounts in the CRM.

👉🏼 This allows you to get precise analytics and show which keywords, mentions and accounts bring in the most revenue.

Who is it best for?

Companies that are already deeply embedded in the Hubspot ecosystem and use all of the other tools in their tool stack.

Free trial: not available

✅ Pros: detailed analytics, deep integration with the sales CRM.

🔻 Cons: quite expensive, but might be more useful if you’re already using Hubspot for sales and marketing.

Looking for a tool that gives you social listening tailored to PR needs?

#6 SproutSocial

💸 Pricing: starts at $249 per month but social monitoring is only available in the Enterprise plan, which does not have publicly disclosed pricing

What is SproutSocial?
One of the most popular tools for social media management, SproutSocial launched a feature for social listening to stay competitive with social media monitoring companies. However, this social media tool does not toy around with monitoring – it brings a range of advanced features.

What features does it offer?

With SproutSocial, you can track your brand mentions on a global or campaign level. You can use it to not only identify sentiment but also dig into customer preferences and behavior to determine who your target audience really is. Competitive research is a separate feature in the tool, allowing you to add competitors and track your share of voice in your industry.

Thanks to advanced AI algorithms, you can not only identify trends but also find influencers in your industry to connect to.

Who is it best for?

PR agencies that dabble in social media marketing and management, in-house marketing teams.

Free trial: available for 30 days

✅ Pros: an advanced toolset that combines management with monitoring.

🔻 Cons: even if you don’t need the management features, you still have to pay for the Enterprise plan just to get access to social media monitoring tools.

#7 Buffer

💸 Pricing: starts at $6 per month for one channel

What is Buffer?
Buffer is primarily a social media management tool that has a large variety of features for social media managers. However, there are also some features that PR professionals can find handy, and you can find them in the Buffer Engage tool stack.

What features does it offer?

👉🏼 The biggest advantage of having Buffer in combination with your social media tracker is that you can respond to comments as they come in.

Buffer sends real-time notifications to your dashboard where you can see them and respond to them from the app, instead of logging into each individual social media platform.

There is some sentiment analysis because the tool can alert you if you get a sudden avalanche of negative comments or questions. However, there is no detailed sentiment analysis or the reporting options that you can find in dedicated online monitoring tools.

Who is it best for?

Social media marketing teams that already use Buffer for management and scheduling and find the monitoring feature to be a nice extra.

Free trial: not available for the Engage part of the tool

✅ Pros: easy to use, you can respond to comments from Buffer.

🔻 Cons: the features are rather basic compared to the competition.

#8 Synthesio

💸 Pricing: not disclosed publicly, but our research shows it starts at $1,200 per month

What is Synthesio?
Launched by the market research firm Ipsos, Synthesio is a popular tool for tracking social media mentions.

What features does it offer?

There are three different types of data that this tool can capture (social-declarative, digital behavior, and digital surveys). There is also a Noise Reducer that filters the mentions you get so you can only see the most relevant ones for your brand and campaigns.

👉🏼 In combination with its parent company Ipsos, Synthesio provides AI-based trend detection.

Who is it best for?

PR agencies with lots of skilled professionals on board and a sizable budget for PR tools.

Free trial: not available

✅ Pros: easy to use, plenty of customization options.

🔻 Cons: customers complain about the look and UX of the dashboards, and the sentiment accuracy. Plus – the tool is quite expensive.

#9 Quid

💸 Pricing: not disclosed publicly

What is Quid?
Previously known as Netbase, Quid Monitor is a suite of Quid products dedicated to social media monitoring and analytics.

What features does it offer?

👉🏼 Quid offers the typical tools to monitor social media: real-time analytics and detailed reporting with visualizations and dashboards.

You can look into not just mentions, but also the people behind those mentions. Then you can filter and sort them according to sentiment.

With features such as individual campaign monitoring, as well as disaster alerts, it’s a good choice for PR agencies and in-house teams.

Who is it best for?

PR agencies and social media marketing teams with a dedicated PR person.

Free trial: not available

✅ Pros: granular content monitoring and analysis of social mentions.

🔻 Cons: can be quite difficult to use for beginners, often misses mentions from some platforms (e.g. TikTok and X/Twitter).

#10 Brand24

💸 Pricing: starts at $99 for 2,000 mentions per month for one user

What is Brand24?
Brand24 is a social media listening and monitoring tool hailing from Poland. It offers a range of social media tracking tools, as well as detailed analytics that help PR professionals analyze the effectiveness of their campaigns.

What features does it offer?

Once you set up your most important keywords, you can have them show up in your mentions feed listed one by one. Alternatively, there is a discussion volume chart where you can see more context behind each mention.

The influence score assigns a numerical value to each mention to determine how important it is to your client’s brand. You can also use sentiment analysis to understand how their customers feel at scale. To top it all off, there are advanced filters and reports, making it easy to aggregate and understand campaign data.

Who is it best for?

PR agencies and larger businesses with strong PR and marketing teams.

Free trial: available for 14 days

✅ Pros: a great mix of valuable features.

🔻 Cons: if you want real-time updates and you need to track many brands and terms, it becomes more expensive.

Social media monitoring FAQs

💬 What are the most valuable social media monitoring features for PR professionals?

It depends on your clients’ needs. However, here’s what you should look for: real-time notifications, the ability to set up custom alerts and notifications, great analytics and reporting, as well as coverage of your clients’ most relevant social media networks.

💬 Why is social media monitoring important for PR?

Because it’s an effective way to prove the results of your campaigns. Mentions are a tangible way to prove campaign performance across different platforms.

💬 Is there a way I can monitor social media for free?

Yes, tools such as Prowly have generous free trials that allow you to see how media monitoring works in practice. However, if you want to do it without a tool, you’d have to go about it manually – which costs a lot in terms of time spent.

You can also do basic social listening with Google Alerts, which is a free tool. You can find out more about Google Alerts and its alternatives in these articles:

Start monitoring social media conversations

Social monitoring tools are one of the most valuable assets PR specialists have at their disposal.

These social listening tools can not only track conversations and provide real-time insights about brand mentions. They can also help PR agencies win a seat at the table by giving accurate information about campaign performance, backed by real data.

And if you want to have it all in one place, there is no tool better than Prowly.

Find journalists and reach out to them, create pitches and then use social media monitoring software to track the results of your campaign. And all of that in a single tool.

15 Brand Story Examples to Get Inspired By (w/ Tips & Templates)

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Jimmy couldn’t really tell if he had opened his eyes, that’s how dark it was. In fact he wasn’t even sure he was still alive. All he could remember was the bloody red dress of that “something” which definitely wasn’t his date and certainly was not a person.

Wondering what comes next?

Next is your turn to create a well-written and show-stopping brand story for your client. One that catches the attention and connects with the audience’s shared experiences, aspirations, and values. 

Learn how to do it from the 15 best story examples from top brands:

What is the brand story of a company?

A brand story is a narrative that covers the essence of your brand. It connects with its target audience on an emotional level. You can say it’s the heart and soul of a brand, defining its identity, values, and purpose.

A strong brand story goes beyond the functional aspects of a product or service:

  • It appeals to the essence of a company and helps customers understand its mission and why it exists.
  • It often includes elements such as the brand’s founding story, core values, USPs, and the impact it aims to make globally.

And how to amplify your brand’s presence after crafting captivating brand stories? With personalized pitching and Online Newsrooms.

Brand story vs. brand storytelling

Leading industry studies show that the importance of PR storytelling is only rising each year. So what’s the difference between these two ideas – brand story and storytelling?

Imagine your brand as a person. 👨🏾‍🦱

👩🏻‍🦰 Brand storytelling is like your personality. It reflects your way of communicating and interacting with the world.

🧒 Your brand story, on the other hand, is your backstory. Your origins, your values, and your purpose. All the events that have formed the way you are.

Think of brand storytelling as your overall communication strategy.

🫀 And your brand story is the heart of that strategy.

When you combine them, you will gain a powerful tool for building relationships with your audience and achieving your business goals.

Check out our piece about data-driven storytelling to learn more about this method.

Why does a brand story matter to PR?

Isn’t brand storytelling a task for well – the brand teams? Not really.

As experts in communication and messaging, PR professionals are uniquely equipped to help develop and convey a cohesive brand story. And they know what shouldn’t be said to avoid reputation crises better than anyone.

When you have strong story branding, you can more effectively reach your target audience, build loyalty, and stand out from the competition. Thus your PR gets better and differentiates you from the crowd. It is an investment that will pay off in the long run. 🏃🏼‍♂️

Use these 8 elements to craft a compelling brand story

1️⃣ Founding Story

Tell people how the brand was created. Cover its origins, including the vision and motivation of its founders. This can add a human touch and authenticity to the brand.

2️⃣ Values and Mission

Explain what drives the brand, its core values and beliefs. This helps consumers align themselves with the brand’s ethos.

3️⃣ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

What sets the brand apart from its competitors? Point out all of these aspects. These could be features, high quality, or even a variety of shapes and colors.

4️⃣ Brand Personality

This is the collection of characteristics and traits that define the brand’s overall image. Make them fun, innovative and easy to relate to.

5️⃣ Customer Success Stories

Show some real-life examples of delighted customers. This adds credibility and builds trust.

6️⃣ Visual Identity

Use visual elements associated with the brand. This means logos, colors, and design that contribute to the overall brand story.

7️⃣ Cultural Impact

Address how the brand contributes to larger cultural trends and to society at large.

8️⃣ Future Vision

What is your brand up to? Tell your audience about your aspirations and goals for the future.

The Don’ts of brand storytelling

Being too self-promotional. Avoid sales talk.
Being generic or unoriginal. The audience wants something new and fresh.
Not being authentic. People don’t like fake.
Not being consistent with your brand messaging. Your brand story should align with other messages you send.

To get more details about building stories, you can look here The Elements of Storytelling.

15 brand story examples of big PR concepts to inspire you

Learn how to write a brand story from the best. Below you can find well-known and even better-written narrative examples.

#1 Apple

A tech giant known in every corner of the world. Started “in the basement” by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.

This story is about innovation and thinking big about the future from day one. Plus – Apple’s logo and claim show they truly are rebels in the industry.

#2 Coca-cola

Isn’t the Coca-Cola Christmas advertising already legendary?

This is a brand story example that shows how consistency in messaging can create a great storyline for years.

As you can see – they don’t even talk about the drink itself. Coca-Cola has been quenching thirsts and bringing people together for over 130 years. They focus on the friendly picture it creates as an essential part of social gatherings. 

#3 Disney

Quite simply, the narrative of Walt Disney and his aspiration to build an enchanting realm of entertainment and imagination.

If you are searching for an answer to “What is a storyline that touches the human soul?” here it is.

#4 Nike

Founded as “Blue Ribbon Sports,” Nike’s journey mirrors the relentless pursuit of athletic greatness, encapsulated in its inspiring motto “Just Do It.”

#5 LEGO

With roots in a Danish workshop, LEGO’s narrative is a testament to creativity, imagination, and the power of endless possibilities. They stress that they are inspired by children, but aren’t only a company for kids.

#6 Harley-Davidson

This iconic American motorcycle manufacturer has become synonymous with a rebellious spirit and the thrill of the open road.

Their brand story is about perseverance, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to quality. Riding a Harley-Davidson isn’t just about transportation, it’s a way of life.

P.S. If you’re into storytelling based on specific characteristics, Harley-Davidson is also an Outlaw brand archetype.

#7 Patagonia

This brand is an icon of sustainable practices in the outdoor industry and exemplifies the harmonious coexistence of commercial success and environmental stewardship.

Their brand story is about a deep love and respect for nature and a commitment to using business as a force for good. Wearing Patagonia isn’t just about fashion, it’s a statement of values.

#8 Amazon

Jeff Bezos’s company’s story is about evolution. From a humble startup to a revolutionary e-commerce giant. Their brand story is about constant innovation, customer obsession and global expansion.

#9 Ben & Jerry’s

This ice cream company has made a name for itself by combining its passion for social justice and environmental stewardship with its dedication to crafting unforgettable flavors.

The brand story features grassroots activism, fair trade sourcing, and community involvement.

#10 IKEA

IKEA’s story is one of defying expectations, transforming furniture from a luxury item into an affordable necessity. The brand has become synonymous with modern, functional design and has a strong focus on sustainability and social responsibility.

#11 Microsoft

Microsoft’s success story is a captivating tale of innovation, ambition, and the realization of a groundbreaking vision. The brand story of Microsoft is all about how a small startup evolved to become one of the most influential and successful companies in the world. With a strong focus on technology, Microsoft has revolutionized the way we work, communicate, and live our daily lives.

#12 Porsche

This brand’s identity was forged in the fires of motorsport, the precision of engineering, and the aspiration of automotive refinement. Thanks not only to the product, but mostly the narrative, Porsche’s name has become synonymous with high-performance, luxury cars.

#13 Airbnb

From roommates sharing space to global connections, Airbnb empowers travelers with unique experiences. Their brand story centers around creating a sense of belonging, connection and community through travel.

#14 Under Armour

Under Armour’s story started in its founder’s, Kevin Plank’s, grandmother’s basement. Over the years the brand rose to become a global sports apparel giant, proving dreams can start anywhere. Brand stories created by Under Armour highlight the importance of determination, hard work and perseverance to achieve success.

#15 Tesla

Tesla’s mission, fueled by Elon Musk’s ambition, is to catapult the world towards sustainable energy. With electric vehicles and renewable solutions leading the charge, we are slowly getting there. Tesla’s brand story is all about challenging the status quo and paving the way for a better, more sustainable future.

To explore this topic you can also check out the 8 Most Impactful PR & Marketing Campaigns During the Pandemic.

Where to publish your brand stories

98% of journalists think it’s somewhat important (15%), important (33%), or very important (49%) for a company or organization to have an online newsroom available to the press.

An online newsroom is a centralized and easily accessible repository of information for journalists, media professionals, and the public.

With tools like Prowly, you can create and customize your own online newsroom easily, without the need to code. Just add your visuals, add the company’s data, optimize the content, and let the world enjoy your story!

ONLINE NEWSROOM FOR PR STORIES AND PRESS RELEASES

Publishing brand stories in an online newsroom offers a long list of advantages, so to name just a few:

  • Controlled Messaging. When you release your brand stories in an online newsroom, you retain complete control over the messaging.
  • Timely Updates. Publishing in a newsroom is quick and easy, so you can deliver tiny updates to your audience from time to time.
  • SEO Benefits. Releasing your story in an online newsroom can improve your search engine optimization efforts.
  • Credibility and Transparency. Such publications can help to establish your brand as a credible and transparent organization.
  • Multimedia Integration. In such publications, you can incorporate multimedia elements like images, videos, and infographics, making your brand stories even more catchy.

You can add all the key information so that journalists can download all the assets in seconds. Sharing your compelling brand story is easier than ever.

Here are more tips and tricks on how to create an online newsroom.

3 ready-to-use brand story templates

Looking for a brand story template? We’ve got you! Below you can find three and adapt them to your needs however you want.

Template 1: The Origin Story

▪️ Introduction:
Introduce the founders and the initial inspiration behind the brand.

▪️ Founding Vision:
Share the vision that led to the creation of the brand. What problem were the founders trying to solve?

▪️ Early Challenges:
Describe the challenges and obstacles faced during the early stages. This adds authenticity to the story.

▪️ Defining Moments:
Highlight key moments that shaped the brand’s identity and values.

▪️ Values and Mission:
Clearly articulate the core values and mission that drive the brand.

▪️ Customer Connection:
Share anecdotes or testimonials that illustrate how the brand has positively impacted customers.

▪️ Evolution and Growth:
Discuss how the brand has evolved over time and talk about its growth milestones.

▪️ Future Vision:
Conclude with the brand’s vision for the future and the impact it aspires to make.

Template 2: The Transformation Story

▪️ Introduction:
Set the stage by introducing the brand’s current identity and positioning.

▪️ Origins and Pivot:
Briefly touch on the brand’s origins and any significant pivots that led to its current form.

▪️ Defining Features:
Highlight the unique features, products, or services that define the brand.

▪️ Customer Journeys:
Showcase real customer stories or experiences that reflect the brand’s value.

▪️ Innovation and Adaptation:
Discuss how the brand embraces innovation and adapts to changing market dynamics.

▪️ Community and Impact:
Illustrate the brand’s role within its community and the positive impact it has had.

▪️ Collaborations and Partnerships:
Mention any notable collaborations or partnerships that have contributed to the brand’s success.

▪️ Future Direction:
Conclude with a glimpse into the brand’s future direction and goals.

Template 3: The Values-Driven Story

▪️ Introduction:
Introduce the brand by highlighting its core values and principles.

▪️ Social Responsibility:
Showcase the brand’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility.

▪️ Ethical Practices:
Discuss any ethical practices or sustainable initiatives that set the brand apart.

▪️ Customer Empowerment:
Share how the brand empowers its customers and contributes to their well-being.

▪️ Transparency:
Emphasize transparency in the brand’s operations, fostering trust with customers.

▪️ Impactful Campaigns:
Highlight any impactful campaigns or initiatives that align with the brand’s values.

▪️ Employee Stories:
Share stories about employees who embody the brand’s values.

▪️ Continuous Improvement:
Discuss the brand’s commitment to continuous improvement and positive change.

▪️ Future Commitments:
Conclude by outlining the brand’s future commitments to its values and to make a societal impact.

Make your own story

What is a brand story? You already know it. You have also learned how to create one and have read some good examples. 

As a next step, make your own story. Let the people see your company’s soul. Share it with the world via the Prowly Online Newsroom and get  your story heard. 

What is PR Newswire and Should You Use it in 2024? (with Pricing)

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Newswires are one of the oldest relics of the old world of public relations. They were once the most effective way to get a story noticed by media professionals.

But do they have any merit in 2024? How much do they cost and is there a better alternative?

These are just some of the many questions we’ll answer today.

What is a PR newswire?

PR newswire is an organization that collects and distributes news and information to media outlets, journalists, newspapers, radio stations, and anyone who might want a new story to cover.

In the days of old, journalists had to search for sources for their stories.

A newswire service delivered the most important press releases directly to them so that they could pick the stories they wanted to cover. In the modern age, journalists can browse the web and find their next story in minutes, making newswires a bit obsolete – but more on that later.

Types of newswires

There are several main types of newswires:

▪️ News agencies (such as Reuters or AP): traditional agencies with original content

▪️ PR distribution services (e.g. PR Newswire, Business Wire): services that distribute press releases on behalf of organizations and companies

▪️ Financial newswires (e.g. Bloomberg, Dow Jones): newswires focusing exclusively on financial news and updates

▪️ Industry-Specific Newswires (e.g. Techcrunch, Medical News Today): which focus on specific industries

▪️ Regional or Local Newswires (e.g. APAC Newswire, Latin American News Agency aka LANA): cover topics related to specific areas

And besides that there are also media databases and tools that help pitch journalists personally and foster better media relations, such as Prowly.

Newswires evolution

From traditional media to the age of the internet, newswires have gone through many changes. Here are some of the milestones that changed the PR game:

  • 1846: Associated Press is founded; they used the Pony Trail to deliver news during the Mexican War
  • 1860s: The transatlantic cable is used to communicate globally
  • Late 1800s – early 1900s: Press release distribution services move to phones and away from telegraphs
  • Late 20th century:
    • Shift to digital technologies, replacing analog communication
    • Newswires add multimedia elements
  • 21st century: 
    • The internet creates a revolution in news distribution, making newswires digital
    • The globalization of newswires – they reach worldwide audiences and cross borders

PR newswires in the PESO model

After Gini Dietrich came up with the PESO model, which categorizes media into four types: paid, earned, shared and owned, all PR pros and marketers included it into their strategies.

Naturally, newswires also fit into that framework, more specifically: into the earned media category.

As a part of the PESO model, newswires help businesses get coverage through PR efforts. This includes news articles, media features, interviews and other media formats a business can get through media relations.

PR newswire vs. media outreach vs. online newsroom

If you want to get eyeballs on your press release, you might consider these three choices.

👉 PR newswires help get earned coverage that is not paid for (directly). However, it’s not free of charge either.
Newswire services cost considerable money and their effectiveness can be questionable, which makes this choice not an easy one to make.

👉 PR outreach means building personal relationships with journalists, bloggers, influencers and other content creators through PR.
It’s a great long-term strategy because you don’t just publish stories – you build relationships.

👉 Online newsrooms are places where a brand controls and publishes content such as press releases, company materials and information.
As this falls under the Owned category in the PESO model, these channels are secure and give you more freedom in choosing what to publish.

ONLINE NEWSROOM FOR PR STORIES AND PRESS RELEASES

All three methods have their pros and cons and, ideally, you want to use a combination of them all to maximize the reach and impact of your press releases.

Pros and cons of using a newswire

Using a newswire service in 2024 has its upsides and downsides. And while many journalists don’t use newswires anymore, that doesn’t mean they don’t have a place in modern journalism and reporting.

What are the possible pros of newswires?

Newswires ensure broad reach and visibility: as there are still many journalists using these services to get targeted stories.

Efficient media outreach: your business newswire is going to the addresses of real journalists and you don’t waste time knocking on the wrong doors.

➕ Industry relevance: your news stories show up at the addresses of media specialists covering your specific industry.

Reputable newswires have editorial processes in place: which make sure all news is fact checked, which gives you an additional layer of safety.

Supports integrated media strategies: a press release wire lets you cover a lot of ground at once by providing a centralized way for media outlets to access information about a business or event.

Newswire downsides:

High volume and competition: with so many PR newswires being released daily, you’re fighting for journalists’ attention in a tough, competitive crowd, and if journalists don’t know you personally, they might be less eager to cover your story. 

No one can guarantee you coverage: just because you pay a few hundred dollars for a PR newswire press release, it does not mean that journalists will pick it up – you need to use other methods besides newswires for a bigger reach.

High costs: not only do you not have guaranteed reach, but you also pay steep prices for newswires, going into the hundreds of dollars – without certain ROI.

Risk of overlooking genuine news: when sources post press releases on newswires, the platforms get flooded, and journalists can miss actual news.

Strategic considerations: if you want to send exclusive pitches and embargoed releases, this won’t go well with the nature of newswires. You should only use newswires when they align with your overall campaign goals.

When shouldn’t you use a newswire?

While there are circumstances that might call for using a newswire, there are also specific cases when using it can hurt your PR efforts, such as:

1️⃣ When you have an exclusive story

Instead of pitching to a hand-picked number of journalists, a newswire spreads your story to everyone who is subscribed to it. Also, if you’re giving one journalist an exclusive story, publishing it on a newswire will spoil trust.

2️⃣ When you have niche or localized news

In these cases, a global newswire will be a poor move as a global audience won’t be interested in niche bits of news.

3️⃣ When newswires are proven to be ineffective for your industry

For example, in healthcare and similarly regulated industries which don’t fare well with newswires.

4️⃣ When you have limited resources

As you’ve seen above, using a newswire can get very expensive. If you don’t have an endless PR budget, consider more cost-effective methods, such as personalized outreach with tools like Prowly.

5️⃣ When you want to focus on building relationships with journalists

Media outreach tools let you nurture relationships with individuals rather than blasting your messages into the void.

How much does it cost to distribute a press release with a PR newswire?

A press release distribution service does not come cheap. Here are some of the most popular choices and how much they will set you back.

Newswire examples and costs

First of all, to get to know all about the best newswire websites, their features and pricing, make sure to read this piece on the Best Press Release Websites,  it’s a great starting point.

TL;DR here are some of the most popular newswires and how much they cost:

  • Presswire: from $250 /release
  • Newswire: from $349.00 /release
  • 24-7 Press Release Newswire: from $29 /release
  • PR.com: from $60 /release
  • eReleases: from $399 /release
  • PRfree: offers both free and paid options (from $19 /release)
  • PRLog: offers both free and paid options (from $29 /release)
  • PRLeap: offers both free and paid options (from $135 /release)

However, it gets more tricky when you try to compare the price of a specific service, such as a PR newswire, and the cost of media outreach through different channels.

PRNewswire pricing vs. media outreach cost

Primarily, this is because you need to add the extra costs on top of the costs for the paid plans for your releases.

Also, pricing isn’t often transparent and precise information is hard to find. 

👉🏼 You can’t just count the price per press release.

You have to pay annual membership fees and then a specific amount of money for each press release that goes out. And you need to keep word count in mind, because you need to pay extra if you exceed set limits.

Want to include media such as images or videos? That will be another extra cost per press release. And to include a logo, the annual price goes up again.

For more details, take a look at the infographic below and this article on an Effective PR Newswire Alternative & Price Comparison.

The bottom line? PRNewswire pricing isn’t easy to eastimate. And it’s not tailored to specific journalists like personal pitching. But if it aligns with your goals, you can consider testing it out in your strategy.

Newswire alternatives

On the other hand, you have tools that let you pitch journalists and media such as Prowly.

For $369 per month, you get access to Prowly’s media contact database (with 1,000,000+ journalists), can send 1,000 emails, and create press releases with unlimited words which include your logo + photos, videos and social media posts at no extra cost.

👉🏼 This gives you a clearer expense and ROI estimation for your PR campaigns and a chance to make a real impact with each press release.

So after creating your press release (with the help of AI), you can easily distribute it to journalists with laser precision.

This brings us to our next question.

What is more effective: a targeted media outreach or a newswire?

Long story short: traditional newswires distribute your press release to a wide audience, hoping that it sticks somewhere. Today’s PR industry is shifting to a different approach: targeting a smaller, more relevant group of journalists and content creators to get better results with each campaign.

With a targeted media outreach platform on the other hand, you don’t blindly blast press releases into the void. You target journalists and outlets that might be genuinely interested in your story.

You can then send personalized media pitches based on previous interactions with them. 

Here are some other things you can do after investing in a PR tool instead of a newswire:

#1 Creating press release drafts and pitches with AI

If you don’t know how to get started with your next press release, AI press release creators help overcome writers’ block so you can go from a blank document to a finished press release in minutes.

Just give it some input: answer the questions, add your details, and you can see the press release come to life in front of your eyes in real time.

The only things left are: polishing it and pitching the right media.

And you can also draft of your pitch with AI based on your press release – just like in the photo above.

#2 Pitching journalists more efficiently

With Prowly, you get recommended contacts for your press release so you can send targeted pitches that get results. You also get tips on how to avoid spam filters in email inboxes and ensure your messages get seen. Plus you can personalize your emails and schedule follow ups. All in one place.

#3 Posting to your online newsroom

Besides relying on getting coverage from the media, you can upload press releases straight to your Online Newsroom as well, and make use of a channel you own with just a few clicks.

This is a tool you get in the price of your Prowly subscription, so you can treat it as a place for extra exposure where you set the rules. While it’s easy for false narratives about your brand to form in the online world, your newsroom can be a reliable source of your or your client’s news for journalists.

Should you still use a PR newswire in 2024?

There is no definitive answer, but our latest research in PR trends for 2024 shows that PR specialists now prioritize long-lasting, strong relationships with journalists. Also 37% of respondents said investing more into strategic partnerships will be key.

And the fact that 14.2% recommend abandoning mass media emails entirely underscores the importance of personalization in today’s world and shows what traditional methods are falling out of favor.

That doesn’t mean you should drop using PR pitching tools now. Most of them, including Prowly, allow personalization even if you’re pitching a few journalists at once – and you can schedule follow up emails in advance if they don’t reply to the first pitch!

Using newswires is the exact opposite of these trends, as you’re shooting news out to the masses, hoping for someone to grab onto your story.

The modern PR pro puts importance on creating data-driven strategies and fostering relationships through personalization. They want to join communities and create narratives instead of having one-off encounters with journalists.

And getting the attention of journalists is a rising challenge. Having amazing subject lines no longer cuts it. You need to know the right people, send the right message at the right time, and sometimes wait for months to see the fruits of your labor.

Choose your method

We can’t tell you whether you should or shouldn’t use a newswire. For some goals they might work, for others they aren’t a good way to go.

However take into the consideration the points mentioned in this article when choosing your distribution strategy, such as:

  • Costs vs. features you get & probable outcomes
  • Mass distribution vs. personal pitching

And if you want to get advanced features along with a media database and a pitching tool, invest your money in software that lets you do targeted media outreach, such as Prowly.

How to Introduce Public Relations Sustainability into Your Brand or PR Agency

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Your client is devoted to sustainability and follows the latest trends in corporate responsibility – and you have no idea how to bring those sustainable business practices into the spotlight. Or – the client doesn’t want to act sustainably, and you don’t know how to persuade him to incorporate it into strategy.

Which of these stories is about you?

No matter the situation, we’re about to answer your questions right away.

And when you’re ready, create your sustainability story easier with Prowly’s AI Press Release Creator and show it to the world.

What does Public Relations sustainability mean?

Public relations sustainability means using sustainability principles in PR communications strategies, be it an agency doing PR work for a client or a brand doing it for themselves.

It’s a broader set of strategies that allows brands to be recognized as sustainable, eco-friendly, and socially aware.

👉🏼 For example, if a company decides to stop using plastic straws in its chain of fast food restaurants, this could be a simple CSR campaign as well as a set of sustainable business practices. 

When you add public relations to the mix, this means creating press releases, social media campaigns, and a wide range of content formats to make sure that the chain of restaurants is perceived as eco-friendly by customers, investors, and the broader public.

And then, you can put all of your sustainability PR materials online in one place, to help journalists publish the story.

How does PR sustainability differ from ESG, CSR and greenwashing

ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), and greenwashing are three common terms that are often confused in PR contexts.

Here’s what they mean exactly and how you should use them:

PR sustainability vs. greenwashing

PR sustainability entails that a brand is actually doing something to become more sustainable.

For example, reducing their carbon footprint, recycling materials, saving on electrical energy, and others.

Greenwashing is when a company does not do any of these things but uses PR to show itself in a positive light. In other words, they may not actually be recycling materials but they will create PR campaigns to say that they do.

For a brand’s image, PR sustainability makes all the difference while greenwashing is a short-term publicity stunt that often does more harm than good. And it is a lie.

P.S. If your client or brand is all about true sustainability, you have to make the first move to let the world know about it. Craft a press release about it manually or with AI Press Release Creator. No matter the way – you can do it all in Prowly.

CSR vs. ESG activities

To help you prepare better sustainability PR campaigns for your brand or clients, let’s make another distinction between these important terms.

ESG focuses on the three main factors for measuring sustainability and the ethical impacts of how a business invests its money.

As such, it’s primarily important for investors and financial stakeholders.

CSR is broader and includes all the voluntary actions of a company when it comes to taking responsibility for their impact on society and the environment as a whole.

It goes beyond the legal obligations of a company as an entity. 

As such, CSR is important for the broader public as a framework for corporate responsibility. Here is a good example on how to communicate CSR initiatives to the public.

Why does sustainability matter to PR agencies?

As consumer preferences shift and change, PR agencies need to be aware of sustainability trends. Even more so, they should be educated on the topic and guide their clients on how to take a stand on PR topics and present themselves to the public.

Here is why sustainability is becoming an increasingly important topic for PR agencies and their clients.

1️⃣ Reputation management

PR agencies should set up transparent communication about the sustainability practices in their clients’ companies so they can build trust and credibility with customers, partners, employees, the media and the broader public.

2️⃣ Consumer expectations

Today’s consumers expect brands to care about sustainability and take a stance on important topics such as pollution prevention or water conservation. It is up to the PR agencies to help brands align with these customer expectations and inspire them to take on new sustainable activities.

3️⃣ Crisis management

When things go south, PR agencies should come up with sustainable PR campaigns to help their clients not only save face but show their commitment to sustainability as a company value.

4️⃣ Media relations

Media outlets pay attention to the attitude that brands have on sustainability and it’s common for journalists to cover these stories in their day-to-day jobs. A PR company can help set up foundations and create sustainability PR campaigns.

5️⃣ Stakeholder engagement

Sustainability is not just about environmental practices, but encompasses a broader commitment to stakeholders, including employees, communities, and investors. PR agencies play a key role in facilitating transparent communication with these stakeholders

6️⃣ Differentiation and competitive advantage

If your client is in an industry where it is hard to stand out based on features, pricing, innovation or customer experience, sustainability may be the differentiating factor that helps them win new business.

7️⃣ Investor relations

Investors may be more likely to trust and spend money on companies that have long-term plans around sustainability. It is up to the sustainability PR agency to create this trust.

8️⃣ Employee relations

Sustainability public relations can help boost your client’s employer brand and make them a more desirable employer in the eyes of candidates. In a competitive market, sustainability is important as a way to stand out and get the best candidates on the job market.

9️⃣ Regulatory compliance

Having policies on sustainability might be required by the law for clients working in certain fields or industries. Sustainability PR can be a great first step in that direction.

13 reasons to introduce sustainability into your clients’ brands

If you already manage a portfolio of clients, you may be wondering if it makes sense to pay attention to sustainable PR. It’s important to bear in mind that sustainability is not just a moral or ethical imperative – despite studies showing that CSR initiatives are slowing down, it’s become a necessity for modern businesses that want to thrive.

#1 Consumer expectations

Younger generations such as Gen Z expect brands to be dedicated to sustainability. In fact, research shows that 90% of Gen Z make changes to their daily lives to live in a more sustainable way.

#2 Competitive advantage

When your competitors have a better product, more affordable pricing, or better brand presence, sustainability PR campaigns can help you stand out so you can kill two birds with one stone.

#3 Regulatory compliance

There is a good chance that your clients’ local, federal, or country laws have a word or two about sustainability for their industries. By investing in sustainability PR, you can help your clients stay compliant and avoid hefty fines.

#4 Risk mitigation

You lower the chance of your client receiving negative PR at some point in the future as you’re helping them address those issues ahead of time.

#5 Employee engagement and talent attraction

People want to work for companies that share their values. Sustainability can be a huge asset for winning over great job applicants.

#6 Long-term viability

Sustainability PR helps your clients’ brands in the long run, as opposed to short-lived PR campaigns around launches and similar events.

#7 Investor confidence

As investors know that your client is devoted to sustainability, they are more likely to spend more money with them.

#8 A long-term rise in recognition

Marketing and (most) PR campaigns are short-lived, while sustainability public relations campaigns make a long-lasting impact on your client’s brand.

#9 Increased website traffic

Besides journalists, your potential customers will want to learn more about your clients’ businesses. This means more traffic to your clients’ websites and, potentially, more conversions.

#10 Brand loyalty

There are very few customers who will leave your clients behind because of their commitment to sustainability. There are, however, many more who will remain customers because they share common values with your clients.

#11 Heightened social interactions

Your clients can expect more engagement on social media thanks to their interest and dedication to sustainable PR.

#12 A larger share of voice

With sustainability public relations, your clients can stand out in competitive industries without spending tons of cash on expensive campaigns.

#13 Greater media coverage 

With a higher focus on sustainable PR, your clients are more likely to get picked up by news outlets, magazines, bloggers, and content creators.

To gain coverage you can use PR newswires, media pitching and…

Use your owned channels. Share the most important client PR materials in their own Online Newsrooms.

Get your clients noticed with compelling press releases

Are your clients are investing time and money in sustainability? It’s hight time to show this to the world.

The first step is creating an amazing press release. With Prowly, you can create one in minutes.

You can go with one of three ways 👇🏼

Option A:

Write a press release from scratch, using intuitive blocks that suggest what you should write and format it automatically.

Option B:

Use one of the handy templates for various industries.

Option C:

Let AI help you create a press release draft. After that, you just need to tweak it, adjust it and make the final touches.

If you go for the third option (which can save you time and writer’s block frustration) you don’t need to write anything from scratch. Simply load up the AI Press Release Creator and answer the questions to generate your first draft full of detailed information. Wait just a moment and your press release is almost done!

And if you want to keep your clients’ press releases, logos, fact sheets, and other information in one place, you can use Online Newsroom to communicate your CSR activities.

Wrapping up

Having said all of this, it is important to note that there is a significant drop in corporate social responsibility activities in different industries. As a global crisis is ongoing, many clients see CSR as something that is nice to have rather than a necessity.

However to be on top, it’s better to oversee the changes and do things that can make you a leader in a long run. So don’t neglect the CSR importance based just on 2024 trends.

Once you’re done, it’s time to start creating and promoting your press releases to get your sustainability initiatives seen.

And with Prowly, you get all the tools to create amazing press releases, pitch them to journalists, and create amazing newsrooms for your clients or brand.

9 Digital Storytelling Examples You Should Know If You Work in PR

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We still get involved in great stories. We live characters’ lives, root for them during their journeys and development. And most of all – when they take up a challenge, fail and get back up.

Now that is the secret sauce to lifting your PR campaign from simply good to terrific – digital storytelling.

Sounds great, but how to rock it, to really stand out?

Get inspired by nine digital storytelling examples below and learn how to work with digital stories to make the most of it.

Looking for a way to research your competitor’s work stories? Check out Prowly’s monitoring tool and keep your fingers on the pulse.

Telling your own digital stories requires you to follow a few rules. But first, let’s focus on its core – what is it?

What is digital storytelling?

Digital storytelling uses technology and all of its advantages to share your story with a wide audience.

Instead of traditional methods like books or oral tales, digital storytelling combines words, images, sounds, and videos to create a more engaging and interactive digital story.

Digital storytelling examples and types

What type of content can you choose to create your digital story? The sky’s the limit but below you can check out the several most common types:

  • Brand Narratives through Visuals
  • GIFs and Memes
  • Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
  • Podcasts
  • Behind-the-Scenes Content
  • Data-driven Stories
  • Press Releases and News Updates

Why does digital storytelling matter to PR?

Emotional Connection

Via your digital story you can create deep emotional bonds, enhancing message retention and brand loyalty. When it comes to PR, it’s all about connections.

Personalization

Craft stories customized to a particular audience to enhance relevance and resonance. Tailoring narratives to specific groups ensures a more personalized and impactful connection with more diverse audience groups.

Real-Time Updates

You can provide live story updates to promptly respond to unfolding events. Keep your audience updated, but in a fun and interesting way.

Interactive Experiences

Quizzes, polls, and virtual reality help make narrative and immersive journeys that invite people to actively interact with your content. By delivering quizzes and polls, you can stimulate real-time involvement, encouraging audiences to reflect on the narrative. All while virtual reality adds a layer of experiential depth, transporting them into a dynamic and memorable storytelling environment.

Data-driven Storytelling

Improve your message’s credibility, tailor communication to your target audience, and measure its impact for strategy optimization. By integrating data into their narratives, PR professionals can build trust, tailor messages effectively, and demonstrate the tangible value of their efforts.

9 real-life digital storytelling examples of big PR campaigns

1️⃣ Rebuild the World by LEGO

digital storytelling by Lego

Launched on September 20th, 2021, the LEGO Group’s Rebuild the World campaign is all about celebrating kids as creative problem-solvers.

The heart of the campaign is a cute video showing a Knight’s journey, where a diverse town works together to overcome challenges and bring friends together. The focus is on how playing with LEGO sparks creative problem-solving skills, teaching important life lessons like resilience and effective communication.

The campaign is full of funny visuals that showcase clever solutions using LEGO bricks, highlighting the awesome power of playing together. It’s one of those digital stories that’s enjoyable for both kids and adults!

Storytelling lesson: Use hashtag campaigns to engage social media users. Make a buzz about your story and let people create some of their own social media storytelling connected to your tale.

2️⃣ Monty the Penguin campaign by John Lewis

digital story about Monty

Have you met Monty? It is an adorable penguin, the best friend of a young boy, and the main character of the campaign. And an icon of John Lewis’ storytelling.

The story unfolds as the boy observes Monty feeling lonely, leading him to realize that Monty needs a companion. The heartwarming tale culminates in a Christmas morning surprise when Sam (the boy) introduces a female penguin named Mabel, who is waiting near the Christmas tree, to Monty.

As if your eyes weren’t watering enough yet, John Lewis decided to support the WWF’s efforts in Antarctica, where they are trying to protect the home of Adélie penguins like Monty and Mabel.

John Lewis shoppers were also encouraged to help by either purchasing Tom Odell’s single (which is used in the ad), or by adopting an Adélie penguin with WWF. 

Storytelling lesson: Evoke emotions and create excitement around the wait. John Lewis knows how to make Christmas ads and now each year we impatiently wait for more.

3️⃣ #LikeAGirl campaign by Always

digital storytelling exmaple – Always

In 2014, Always rocked the advertisement world and launched the #LikeAGirl campaign which challenged gender stereotypes.

At the core of this awesome campaign was a video where people of all ages and backgrounds were asked to do things “like a girl.” It showed how puberty can impact how girls see their own abilities. Younger girls rocked these tasks with confidence, breaking stereotypes, but older participants sometimes approached them with hesitation or a sense of weakness.

The whole idea was to change what it means to do something “like a girl” and boost confidence in girls of all ages. It raised a discussion – within 24 hours the #LikeAGirl hashtag was tweeted over 4k times.

The campaign touched the core of womanhood and girlhood and rang a bell about how stereotypes shape the world around us.

Storytelling lesson: Allow clients and users to share their own stories and embrace authenticity. When individuals see themselves reflected in characters, it creates a resonance within their minds and hearts, ensuring that the story and its message endure in their memories for longer.

If you are looking for inspiration or an interesting user story, use Prowly’s Media Monitoring tool. Thanks to this, any intriguing story won’t miss your attention.

4️⃣ Visit Norway storytelling and the #SheepWithAView viral video

Visit Norway – digital storytelling

Any fans of Scandinavia here? If so, you’ve probably seen a now viral video by Visit Norway – a digital story about sheep living their best lives in Norway.

It took only seconds to create some compelling digital storytelling that shows Norway in all its glory. With beautiful landscapes and nature – it shows the country through the eyes of its natural inhabitants.

The video consists of an introduction that presents four sheep guides: Kari, Lars, Erik, and Frida. Each of them has its own video in which they present the country from a different angle.

There was also an official Instagram account, where you could follow each sheep’s life, and an interactive map on a dedicated page to help you dig deeper into the topic and learn more about each sheep’s region.

Storytelling lesson: Create suspense. The sheep were introduced to the public but in order to learn the digital stories of each, people were forced to wait. This built curiosity and engagement.

5️⃣ Spotify Wrapped 2023

Spotify is a great example of multimedia storytelling that works. They know how to engage people and make their digital stories interesting to their audience.

Each year people impatiently wait to see their Spotify Wrapped playlists. In 2023, Spotify decided to play a game and reveal The Global Artist piece by piece (literally, there were puzzles (banners) in different locations).

People got involved in this digital story. They united around the world, searching for clues while awaiting the big reveal.

P.S. Taylor Swift, congrats!

Storytelling lesson: Gamification and connecting digital storytelling with real-life banners. Mixing digital stories with real-life actions is a great way to engage people and boost their curiosity. This is one of the most popular and working digital story examples.

6️⃣ Spotify Only You

Digital storetlling by Spotify

Spotify really nails the art of digital storytelling, and they did it again with the Only You launch.

This cool campaign celebrates each user’s special music taste by using in-app experiences to show off their unique listening habits and connect them with fellow fans. The whole idea is to tell listeners, “You’re one of a kind, but you’re not on your own,” making the bond between Spotify and its users even stronger. It’s all about feeling special and part of a music-loving community!

Throughout the campaign, users engaged with their personal stats, such as Your Song Year and Your Topics, and shared these with others, enhancing the overall user experience. Only You is one of the most well-done and famous storytelling examples performed by Spotify.

Storytelling lesson: Put a spotlight on your users. Let them feel special and create something they can share with others. This is how a digital story is written.

7️⃣ Storytelling art: Wes Anderson for Prada

Wes Anderson’s campaign for Prada is a perfect answer to “What is a digital story?” They not only created a great piece of art for a Prada commercial but also paid tribute to Federico Fellini at the same time.

It is an eight-minute film for Prada called “Castello Cavalcanti,” which features Jason Schwartzman as a racecar driver crashing into an Italian village. It pays homage to Federico Fellini, showcasing Anderson’s meticulous style and referencing Fellini’s films. Despite being an ad, Prada’s logo is subtly integrated, avoiding overt branding.

The film serves as a treat for cinephiles, blending Anderson’s style with nods to Fellini. Prada successfully combines auteur artistry with advertising, engaging fans and generating goodwill.

Watch it here, you won’t regret it.

Storytelling lesson: Mastering digital storytelling may also mean using classic storytelling in order to be remembered for years. Here, Wes Anderson has created art, delivering an interesting story, an ad and a work of art at the same time.

Want to keep up to date? Monitor digital media with Prowly. Be the first to cover interesting, fresh stories and join the conversation on time.

8️⃣ #HereForYou Instagram campaign

Digital storyelling by Instagram

In 2017 Instagram launched the mental health support campaign, #HereForYou. It includes a video in which users of Instagram speak about their issues, like eating disorders or depression.

It highlighted how this social media platform took part in their journey of getting back on track – the community played a crucial role. As a public advocate, actress Troian Bellisario spoke about her battle and how vital it is to have people who understand this journey nearby.

This video includes highlighted hashtags commonly used in mental health-related topics, ie. #MentalHealthMatters, #RecoveryIsPossible,and #EndTheStigma.

Storytelling lesson: Instagram launched digital storytelling that created a positive online environment and supported a good cause. Moreover, from a purely business point of view, they nailed the leverage hashtags for the movement.

9️⃣ Patagonia “Don’t buy this jacket” campaign

Patagonia digital storytelling

Patagonia’s storytelling is a well-known case. The “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign, launched on Black Friday in 2011, featured a full-page ad in The New York Times discouraging consumers from purchasing one of their best-selling jackets.

Sounds not very sales-y, doesn’t it?

The campaign promoted conscious consumption by raising awareness about the environmental impact of consumerism. Patagonia, known for its commitment to sustainability, used this campaign to spark a conversation about responsible and thoughtful consumer choices.

Despite the counterintuitive nature of discouraging purchases, the campaign successfully aligned with the company’s values and highlighted the importance of environmental awareness.

Storytelling lesson: Value-driven stories can make digital storytelling useful for good causes. Creating a buzz about important topics and your brand may be a win-win. If you want to monitor them, use Prowly’s Media Monitoring tool.

How to track the performance of your digital storytelling campaigns?

Once you let your digital storytelling campaign shine, you should start following the metrics. What are people saying about it? Do they share, like, comment?

You can use a Social Media Listening & Monitoring tool to learn how your campaign is doing and see all the most important data in one place.

Monitoring the hashtags of digital stories campaigns

With Prowly’s “follow hashtag” feature, you can choose the hashtags you want to follow and keep your fingers on the pulse of what people are saying about your digital storytelling.

Follow the mentions that include your chosen keywords as a hashtag, eg. the name of your brand. 

Use cases:

👉🏼 social impact campaigns, raising awareness about certain issues, and promoting a hashtag

👉🏼 cooperation with Instagram influencers and brand ambassadors tagging their posts in a certain way

Although it’s very useful to track mentions of a particular hashtag in social media digital storytelling, you can take it one step further.

▪️ Follow variations of the hashtag, as people often make silly errors by mistake, such as misspelling your brand’s name.
▪️ It’s also good to follow related keywords in case users forgot to add the hash # sign.

Tracking the engagement and sentiment of your digital story

Even if your media coverage is excellent in important outlets, there’s a chance that social listening might reveal less favorable comments and sentiments on various social platforms.

Sentiment analysis

Consider social monitoring as a comprehensive approach to see the world from all perspectives.

When you have more information you can form more comprehensive conclusions and react in no time to prevent back flash. After all, that’s also what PR is about.

Level up your PR with hashtag campaigns

From masterful ideas to impactful execution, these cases show how organizations can effectively leverage the online space to craft engaging narratives. Each of them may provide a great benchmark while creating your own digital story.

If you want to learn about more up-to-date digital storytelling examples, check Prowly’s Monitoring Tool and follow topics that may interest you.

The Ultimate Guide to Press Release Tools – Top List for 2024

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They’ve gone through decades of evolution, but even in 2024, press releases are an important medium for communicating news stories and making sure your client’s brand gets noticed.

And the great information (and curse) is – now there are more tools than ever that allow PR pros to create and distribute press releases!

Yes, great, but what kind of features should you look for? And what press release tool has all the best features in one place? Read on to find out:

Ready to start creating press releases with an all-in-one tool right away? Try Prowly for free.

What are press release tools?

Press release tools help PR professionals create, send out and distribute press releases, and analyze the results of their work.

These tools allow PR teams to easily collaborate in the cloud and speed up their workflow through integrations and various other features.

Press release management software: key features

Here are just a few of the many ways that PR management software can help you:

👉🏼 Press release creation – you can build press releases from scratch or from templates and add text and various multimedia, such as images and videos, all in a well-known industry standard PR format.

👉🏼 AI features – language learning models can help write press releases once you provide the right input and directions.

👉🏼 Distribution – good PR management software lets you distribute finished press releases to vast databases of contacts, such as media professionals, journalists, bloggers, influencers and other content creators. Some tools even integrate with newswire services.

👉🏼 Media database – the best press release distribution services have databases of media professionals that you can search and filter through to find the most relevant contact for your press release and to help build relationships in the future.

👉🏼 Analytics and reporting – so that users can get insights about key metrics, like media coverage, social media engagement, sentiment analysis, and more, to determine how well their PR efforts are going.

👉🏼 Workflow management – to speed up and streamline the collaboration and approval processes in PR teams, helping with task assignment and progress tracking.

👉🏼 Integrations – the best press release software integrates with other tools, such as CRMs or marketing automation platforms, helping you remove bottlenecks and speed up processes.

You will get to know various paid and free press release tools in this article. But we will show the meaning of specific features based on Prowly just because we know it better. Plus – it has it all in one place.

Tools for creating press releases

Before distributing press releases, you need a quick way to create them so that they look great and follow industry standards.

How can you use press release tools for writing?

Wondering how to make a press release with tools? There are four common ways:

1️⃣ Make the press release visually appealing and interactive

Press release creators give you wireframes for writing and multimedia. Instead of building a press release from scratch, you can use an editor and add all the elements in one place.

2️⃣ Provide easy access to all assets

PR tools let you share your press releases by sharing a single link. No more fumbling with multiple platforms just to share your press release.

3️⃣ Easy to share with the media and journalists

You no longer need to send emails with large attachments while simply hoping they don’t get lost. Embed your press releases directly into your emails or share them online for easy access.

4️⃣ Encourage collaboration

Set different access levels to your press releases to determine who gets to see what; track the progress on PR creation and send updates to your team members about the changes you make and the overall project status.

Press release creation: website & tool examples

1️⃣ Journolink

Grow your customer base

Go through a step-by-step process for writing a press release, send it to the media, and get notified about new media opportunities from a shared inbox.

2️⃣ Fiverr

It’s not a classic tool for writing a press release, but rather a website that connects you with people who know how to do it well.

If you need press release services and you don’t have an in-house PR professional, you can hire a freelancer on Fiverr to design and write one for you.

3️⃣ Prowly

The biggest difference? In Word you need to start from scratch and figure out the structure, formatting, assets and basically do everything yourself. Suffering from writers’ block? Word says: figure it out yourself.

Fortunately, it’s different with press release creator tools, such as Prowly.

With a press release creator tool, you get a drag-and-drop interface that allows anyone to create a press release that gets the attention of journalists and media professionals.

If you don’t know how to get started, you can always use one of the templates for inspiration and structure. And AI can help you overcome a lack of inspiration.

AI press release tools

Artificial intelligence is almost a buzzword now.

Thing is – it can actually help you speed up your workflows and ensure your story turns into a news piece sooner, and the outcome could be so good it might surprise you.

Not that silly robotic-talk.

What can AI press release tools help you with?

AI can be a great help, but bear in mind that all it does is provide you with a well structured draft.

Not even the best press release distribution service in the world can help you if all you send out is AI-created content. And the truth is – it shouldn’t. Because PR is about relationships, right?

Before your press release goes out, take the AI’s foundation, polish it up, proofread and fact-check it, and make sure it goes through at least one set of human hands first. AI can help you get around writer’s block, as it provides you with an initial set of ideas, but that’s where it ends.

A human being needs to finish the process.

Top AI press release writing tools

1️⃣ Hypotenuse AI 

This AI writing tool has a handy option for writing press releases – just feed it the main information and it quickly whips up a press release for you. However, it lacks all the surrounding relevant PR features.

2️⃣ Copy.ai

Define your brand voice in Copy.ai and use it for generating press releases, among many other popular content formats.

3️⃣ TinyWow

This simple tool asks you to fill in a few basic fields and it generates a quick press release. It’s not as specialized as some other tools, but it gets the job done.

4️⃣ Hyperwrite

With Hyperwrite you can create an easy press release – put in as many details as possible and you’re left with a product that is about 80% finished.

5️⃣ Prowly

Prowly’s AI is specifically built and trained to help you create attractive press releases.

Simply put:

Feed it the main information it needs, and it will create a draft in your chosen tone and voice and with the most important messages you want to relay to the media professional on the other end.

The press release is precisely tailored to your target audience. It does the job by asking you 10 questions before creating your AI-based press release.

This way, all you have to do is polish it up and hit “send.”

Media database and press release distribution tools

These tools have large databases full of contacts, allowing for easy press press release distribution.

Personalized pitching vs. using newswires

There are two ways you can get press releases in front of journalists – using newswires or personalized pitches.

👉 Newswires have been the go-to resource of PR pros for decades, but recently, they’re proving to be less and less effective, while staying fairly expensive.

 👉 Personalized pitching means you make fewer pitches, but all of them will be highly relevant. Instead of blasting your press releases out to everyone, you send targeted outreach messages to the journalists who are most likely to publish your story.

And recent studies show that we should leave mass pitching in the past.

Last but not least, pitching lets you build relationships instead of having one-off interactions.

Distribution press release tools

Here are the most popular distribution press release apps you can try:

👉 Newswires

  • Newswire – one of the oldest and most reliable newswire services – works well but it’s fairly expensive.
  • Pressat – UK-based press release distribution service with one-off or monthly subscription payments.
  • ACCESSWIRE – targeted global press release distribution service that works well but has overly complex payment plans.

Since we’ve just scratched the surface, to get to know all about the best press release websites (and find more examples with pros and cons!), this is a great starting point.

👉 Distribution tools

  • eReleases – PR distribution for small businesses speaking to US audiences.
  • Brandpush – international PR distribution with budget-friendly pricing and extensive reach across popular news platforms.
  • Prowly

So how does pitching with a tool work (based on Prowly)?

  1. You get access to over one million media contacts that you can filter and search through.
  2. AI automatically suggests subject lines and the best contacts based on what you want to pitch.
    P.S. It will also suggest contacts based on the contents of your press release, making sure you get maximum visibility.
  3. On top of that, you get tips on how to dodge spam filters, as well as smart tools for pitch scheduling and automated follow-ups.
  4. You can personalize your emails and manage them straight from Prowly, without cluttering your mailbox.

Plus – you can also create pitches using our built-in AI generator. Once you finish a press release, the generator creates a preliminary pitch that you can adjust and fine tune so that it aligns with your needs.

And after sending a pitch, you can schedule a follow-up message for those contacts that don’t reply.

This is a great resource for learning how to use AI in press releases.

PR analytics & media monitoring tools

Once you figure out how to send a press release, you want to determine whether they’re driving the results you need. Media monitoring and analytics tools show you whether your press releases are making an impact for your client or brand.

These tools can help you measure the results of your PR campaigns through:

A good social listening and PR tool covers all of these features. In Prowly you can also measure the (in)famous AVE, in case you are asked to, along with its alternatives.

Social listening tool examples

1️⃣ Hootsuite

Example of social listening on Twitter with Hootsuite Streams

Hootsuite is recognized as one of the leading social media management tools in the industry. It offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to streamline the process of managing multiple social media accounts and campaigns from a single dashboard.

While it may not offer the same level of depth and sophistication as dedicated social listening tools, it provides a convenient option for users looking to consolidate their social media management and listening efforts in one platform.

A great option if you want to kill two birds with one stone, and if you’re looking for marketing features instead of ones tailored to PR pros.

2️⃣ Brand24

Brand24 is a robust social listening application designed to provide users with comprehensive insights into their online presence and brand reputation. It also offers advanced analytics tools that help users track the sentiment surrounding their brands, identify key influencers, and measure the impact of their marketing campaigns.

It can be a good choice if all you need is social listening, because it doesn’t provide any PR features besides that.

However, one drawback of Brand24 is its pricing structure, which may be considered expensive for users who need to track a large number of keywords. This could potentially limit its accessibility for smaller businesses or those with limited budgets.

3️⃣ Sprinklr

An enterprise-grade social listening tool with a large selection of channels and historical data going back to 2014.

While Sprinklr offers a wealth of features and capabilities, it’s worth noting that its enterprise-grade functionality may come with a higher price tag compared to other social listening tools. And it’s a tool with more of a marketing-focus, rather than for Public Relations.

4️⃣ Prowly

Unlike the examples above, Prowly focuses mainly on PR needs. 

Meaning its social listening tool covers social media and all other digital media formats important from a PR perspective. That means blogs, websites, Instagram, Reddit, etc.

So whether someone mentions you on X or on their company blog, you’ll get notified. Each mention comes with sentiment analysis, helping you quickly determine how your target audience perceives you.

To avoid crises, respond actively and spot trends as they emerge, you can get notifications in real-time for each mention, or you can get summaries sent to your inbox, daily, weekly or at your own custom interval.

Press release reporting tools

When you submit a press release and results start coming in, you’ll want to show off the results of your great work to your clients.

This is where reporting comes in – you want to create reports to showcase all those detailed analytics around your campaigns.

Press release reporting tool examples

Here are some of the best reporting tools in the market, but if you want to dive deeper into the topic – we’ve covered it in detail here.

1️⃣ Releasd

Releasd is a comprehensive PR reporting tool designed to streamline the process of gathering and presenting data from various sources, including websites and social media platforms. Its primary function is to simplify the creation of professional-looking reports that highlight key metrics and insights relevant to PR campaigns and initiatives.

While Releasd offers a robust set of features, it’s important to note that it does not offer a free trial option. It’s also priced at a premium compared to some other standalone reporting tools, which could be a consideration for budget-conscious PR professionals or smaller agencies.

2️⃣ CoverageBook

CoverageBook is a popular tool for generating reports on media coverage effortlessly. Its key feature lies in its simplicity – users can easily input their featured links onto the platform, and CoverageBook automatically generates comprehensive reports, complete with metrics and visuals, saving users significant time and effort.

However, while CoverageBook offers convenience and efficiency, it’s important to note that its pricing structure may be a consideration for some users. As a tool focused solely on PR reporting, some users may find it expensive compared to other similar platforms that offer additional features or functionalities beyond report generation.

3️⃣ Prowly

After you use all other features to run your PR activities, it’s time to showcase your efforts.

Prowly has a built-in media monitoring app that lets you pull media mentions for your brand or client with the click of a button. You can use it to stay on top of your key metrics, such as:

  • mentions and sentiment
  • backlinks
  • website domain authority

You can sort the key metrics for each media outlet and get the estimated media placement value for each mention.

For the most important mentions, you can add clippings and social media posts, allowing you to create reports in seconds and make them more interactive and responsive.

Last but not least, each report is easy to edit and align with brand characteristics so that it matches the visual identity of your client’s organization. Plus – customization  isn’t additionally paid, it’s already a part of your bundle.

Choose a tool that suits you best

There are countless press release tools to choose from, all with varying features and price points. However, finding one tool that lets you create press releases, distribute them, pitch journalists, track the results of your work, and create a report… Seems a bit difficult.

Well, not anymore. With Prowly, you can create amazing press releases and track the impact they make on your clients’ online presence all in one place. And it offers a free trial.

All You Need to Know About PR Packages: Examples, Ideas and Strategies

Table of contents

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a big fan of influencers’ PR package unboxing videos. What matters is if your potential customers are (and the chance for this is beyond high).

PR packages are a powerful tool for brands to build relationships and generate buzz. This article unveils everything you need to know about crafting impactful PR packages, from inspiring ideas to effective strategies.

Learn how to choose the right products, create a captivating presentation, and leave a lasting impression that drives results:

Monitoring your campaign’s effectiveness and brand reputation becomes a piece of cake 🍰 when you prioritize social listening. Keep an eye on your audience’s conversations and sentiments towards your brand, stay informed, and react quickly.

What is a PR package?

So in a nutshell, what are these mysterious boxes many influencers receive? These influencer boxes usually include a selection of free products, samples, or other branded materials.

What is a PR box?

Basically, these boxes are PR packages, but mostly used for special occasions or announcements. “PR package” is a more general term that can encompass a wide range of promotional materials and formats.

🎯 The goal is to increase brand awareness, make some buzz, and thus increase sales rates.

The idea is simple:

  1. Once a brand launches new products, it sends them out to influencers.
  2. They then show these products to their followers and increase their audience’s curiosity about the new items.

However, many brands do this, so now you have to think outside the box – literally.

👉🏼 Unique influencer packaging ideas are a must.
They can prolong brand recognition and potentially establish itself as the preferred choice among consumers.

👉🏼 Some companies send PR packages with personal notes.
Each is dedicated to a different social media influencer. Even simple personalization (such as changing only the name of the recipient on the card) makes a long-lasting impression and fits into the current industry trends.

Such activities create a bond between the audience and a brand and improve its PR.

Do you even need PR packages? Why PR lists and packages matter

What is a PR list?

To receive a PR package, you have to be on THE LIST.

Sounds like a joke from “Mean Girls?”

Luckily it’s a bit different, although a journalist or influencer needs to meet specific criteria to get there.

PR lists are just specific collections of media contacts. That means they cover contact details and the areas of interest of journalists, bloggers, and influencers.

Such listings help with aiming outreach, personalizing pitches, and building media relationships. They also aid in tracking and analyzing outreach campaigns to refine communication strategies.

PR package benefits

👉🏼 Visibility and Awareness

PR packages help brands present their products or services to the world. This happens via influencers, journalists, and other media contacts, enhancing visibility and creating excitement.

👉🏼 Relationship Building

By offering valuable content and information, brands can forge connections and credibility with influencers and journalists. This can prepare the ground for potential collaborations in the future.

👉🏼 Media Coverage and Exposure

PR packages and PR lists are crucial for brands seeking media coverage and exposure. Individuals who receive PR packages may show the products in their content and present the benefits of using them.

When to send a PR package?

1️⃣ Product Launches

New products require some buzz. Sending PR packages before the official launch generates curiosity and gives customers a hint of what is coming. Below you can see a PR package sent by the Pixi brand to a beauty influencer.

2️⃣ Seasonal Campaigns

Throughout the year, companies often have the chance to send seasonal PR packages. One trendy idea is to send advent calendars to influencers, who then open them day by day on social media for everyone to see (or open them with their followers).

3️⃣ Collaborations and Partnerships

There is no better way to announce a new collab than showcasing hints via PR packages. Collaboration merch is one the the best PR packages that one could get.

4️⃣ Special Events

One of the PR box’s intentions may be to invite. Whether it’s to host a charity event your brand is patronizing or to announce a new collaboration. Every occasion is a good reason to celebrate (and send PR packages).

5️⃣ Brand Anniversaries or Milestones

Let people know that you’ve reached a certain level. PR boxes can be a way to tell others about your journey and celebrate with your community.

6️⃣ Fostering Media Relations

Sending a PR package is also a good way to improve relationships with media outlets. An example of such is the buzz created around the Barbie movie. Many outlets and hot names receive pink goods to make the buzz even louder.

7️⃣ Introducing a new product

Not every occasion calls for a grand launch; sometimes, it’s about introducing a single product or service to the market. As with the Taco Bell SOS Kit, which the company sent to influencers to show users how to make their own Taco Bell at home.

Track the performance of PR package posts

You should monitor & listen to what’s being said about the packages. The main differences between these two can be found in the tab below.

But if you want to dig a little deeper, you can check out the full article: What’s the difference between social listening and monitoring in PR.  

Thanks to social listening you can identify relevant influencers and brand advocates with engaged audiences to send PR packages to.

Then you can set up monitoring streams in Prowly.

It’s good practice to create monitoring streams specifically for influencers who received the PR packages. Establish streams to track mentions of their social media profiles, blog posts, and relevant hashtags or keywords linked to the PR campaign or products.

You can also easily identify the impact. To formulate a strategy, it’s essential to understand what is effective and what is not.

Social listening data lets you:
👉🏼 Determine whose PR package unboxings are generating the most engagement, reach, and positive sentiment.
👉🏼 Analyze patterns and trends in influencer performance to identify those who are most successful in amplifying your brand’s message.

12 best PR package examples and ideas for every industry

Beauty PR package examples

#1 Glossier

This beauty brand positions itself as a fun and minimal skincare option. Its design is simple and its communication matches that simplicity. So their packages couldn’t be any different. Minimalistic, elegant and simple.

Takeaways for PR pros: Keep it simple. Try to minimize plastic and other non-eco-friendly materials. Send the essentials and focus on the message.

#2 Gisou

Gisou is a well-known hair and skincare brand. They position their brand as sophisticated and high-class. Their branding and product give a sense of luxury which their  PR packages to influencers embody.

Takeaways for PR pros: Try to include coherent surprises, like scented candles or water bottles.

#3 Drunk elephant

Below you can see a Drunk Elephant PR box which includes many, and we mean it, many products from the brand. The whole package seems to be wrapped up in a funny colorful way, which are coherent with the colors used in their branding.

They sent products in a vanity case. Which kept it protected in transit and was a nice touch the influencer could use daily. Keeping the brand in her mind.

Takeaways for PR pros: Think about the package. Consider not only the box itself, but also how to securely pack the product inside. If you can incorporate branding and position it as a daily essential, it is a win-win situation.

#4 Pixi

What are PR packages in the beauty industry? Sometimes they could be like small works of art. Pixi knows how this works and each of their boxes is done subtly and coherently with their branding and collections.

Takeaways for PR pros: Remember to indicate what kind of products are inside and how to use them. If you sent packages before a premiere, highlight its date.

#5 Rare beauty

This particular Rare Beauty PR box is an example of more minimalistic packing. What is the PR package in this case? You can see it includes a catalog of products, branded with a picture of Selena Gomez, the founder and face of the company.

Takeaways for PR pros: Make your packages even more personal and human with pictures. It could be a picture of your team, the founder, or a celebrity you’ve collaborated with.

PR package examples for tech brands

#1 Google

It would be nice to receive a box from Google, don’t you think? In the B2B world, relationships with influencers and brand ambassadors are so important. Usually, there is more money on the table and decisions are made collegially. So you need to be as convincing as you possibly can.

Takeaways for PR pros: Don’t skimp on generosity. Send the influencer multiple products, even if they’re slightly pricier on the market.

#2 Prowly

At Prowly, we sent to our brand ambassadors and PR pros that take part in our events PR boxes to thank them for their support.

All the branding was outside the box but what was inside was strictly practical. We added things they could use daily. Moreover, we made sure the quality of each piece was top-notch. We’re talking green, soy candles instead of artificial wax, an easy to recycle box, a good quality natural fabric tote bag.

Takeaways for PR pros: Go green and use eco or natural materials in your packages. We mean both the wrapping and items.

PR packages for fashion brands

Sezane

What are PR packages in the fashion industry? A feeling like Christmas came early to every influencer. By making a note, as Sezane did, you can make it even more personal and start bonding.

Takeaways for PR pros: Follow your brand ambassadors and learn about their habits or style. Send items that would be practical and useful to them.

New restaurant/ cocktail bar opening invite PR packages

The big date is approaching and you have no idea how to create some buzz about your new spot?

Send the local influencers (or even households in the neighborhood) stuff connected to your new place. You can make a package with a pack of the coffee beans you would use, a wine (an alcohol free version would be a good choice, too), and do not forget about an invite and the menu!

Get inspired by this example 👇🏼

Takeaways for PR pros: Let people taste what your spot would be like. Send some hints of products/courses that they could find on the menu.

Coffee/tea food shop PR package ideas

PR packages from coffee shops and the like don’t have to (but can) be very complex. Overall, they should focus on the right message.

So do not send your whole range of products. Give a hint of what they can expect and use products they could buy at your place.

See how Chamberlain Coffee PR packages nailed the game: matcha PR box and canned coffee.

Takeaways for PR pros: What about some DIY products? Giving influencers something to do on their own is a good way to get stuck in your audience’s memory for longer.

Book PR package ideas

Any bookworms out there?

If you want to open a spot for the readers, what you can do is collaborate with authors and send some premiere-related boxes or make your packages show the whole range of books your customers could find.

Watch the unboxing of the first (and second) book PR box on Instagram

Takeaways for PR pros: If you decide to send several books, remember to add items related to the plot. This would show that you are also a reader and you are ready to give advice to expand their TBRs (To Be Reads).

Stationery PR package ideas

Cute stationery items are made for being sent as PR packages.

There’s a but! Do not send pens and notebooks just as everybody does in their welcome/thank you packs.

Pick products that will please the eye and be useful. You can create a whole package of your products to show them in action, just like on the first and second example below.

Takeaways for PR pros: Put some effort into your box and make it personal. Add notes and show your recipients it is a thoughtful effort.

Measure the impact of your PR campaigns

What comes afterward is measuring and analyzing the effects. How can you get valuable and practical data?

Monitor mentions and engagement

Monitor the volume and sentiment of mentions related to the selected influencers and the PR packages they received. Track engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, shares and retweets on their social media posts and blog content featuring the PR packages.

Track reach and impressions

Keep track of the reach and impressions generated by the influencers’ content featuring the PR packages. Measure the number of views, impressions, and potential reach of their social media posts and blog articles.

With Prowly you can measure many relevant metrics, such as Share of Voice.

Analyze audience sentiment

Analyze audience sentiment towards the influencers’ content featuring the PR packages. Monitor positive, negative, and neutral sentiments to understand overall audience perceptions and reactions to the PR campaign.

You can also set email notifications to keep aware of any negative mention spikes to quickly mitigate rising PR crises.

Assess content performance

Assess the performance of the influencers’ content featuring the PR packages. Look for trends in the content formats, messaging, and visual elements that resonate most with your audience.

You can also ask your influencers for exact numbers from their social media stats.

Provide feedback and support

Use the insights gathered from social listening to provide feedback and support to your influencers. Acknowledge their efforts, share positive feedback with them, and offer assistance or additional resources as needed to optimize their content performance.

Create PR packages and track them with ease

Delivering PR boxes for brand ambassadors and influencers is a nice way to create a bond with them and expand your brand recognition. The harder thing is to pick the right recipients. For that, Prowly’s got your back.

Check out our extensive database and craft your pitch with Prowly AI. Save some time with the help of the proper tools and reach out to the right influencers.