3rd Edge
As a communications or development professional, it's increasingly difficult to get things done.
We’re all being asked to do more with fewer resources in less time. We certainly understand this challenge! So we thought we’d share some productivity tools that help us get our work done efficiently…
Dropbox is a secure, cloud storage service that can house your organization’s content assets. The beauty of the cloud is that you have access to your files wherever you go. It’s quite powerful! You can assign access to members of your team, share files and collaborate. Recently, Dropbox has added some new features including:
- Previewing Photoshop & Illustrator files
- Request a file from someone else
- Discuss files you’re viewing
- Instantly delete sensitive files permanently
- Create photo galleries
You can get a Basic account which provides up to 2GB of storage for free. Dropbox for Business offers from 2TB to unlimited storage at various pricing levels.
We happen to be big fans of Evernote. This app enables you to organize important information and assets. You can create task lists, take & organize notes and clip content from the web. Like many apps today, you can sync and share information across your desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Evernote offers three levels of service from free to premium for your needs.
Here at 3rd Edge, we spend a lot of time doing brand research. We’re always trying to understand our clients and their audiences better. Pinterest boards helps us to collect and organize visual ideas. If you’re a communications or marketing professional, Pinterest can serve as a place where you can collect ideas for your brand. You can also follow others who are collecting visual ideas that interest you. And perhaps best of all, Pinterest is free!
Basecamp is the online project management tool that 3rd Edge utilizes for its projects. We’ve been using this service for quite a few years now. It really helps us to organize our projects so we can stay on time and on budget. There are many features we like… First, it centralizes all of our project communication. So instead of going fishing in your inbox for that important e-mail message, all messages are stored in a project folder. The same goes for files and content assets. If you have images you’d like to use for your annual report, you can share and store them in Basecamp for feedback and retrieval.
To-do lists enable you to assign project tasks to designated individuals with deadline dates. We’ve found this helpful in keeping track of the dozens of tasks required to complete communications projects. Basecamp is secure and based in the cloud. When we’re out of the office, we can log into their mobile app and work. If your organization works on a lot of team projects, Basecamp may be helpful for you. They offer flat pricing at various levels.
Managing all of your organization’s social media accounts can be quite challenging. It can be quite a pain to update each of your social networks individually. With Hootsuite, you have a single tool that enables you to post, monitor and engage your audience. You can schedule your posts for future publishing, check their analytics to see how your social campaigns are doing, and respond to issues faster. With their third-party apps, you can even monitor your e-mail marketing efforts. We use the free version of Hootsuite to manage our social media channels.
What are your favorite tools for getting things done? Tweet us or send us your ideas via e-mail.
