By Gini Dietrich
On the ninth day of Christmas, Spin Sucks gave to you…nine PR gifts, eight PR trends, seven PR blogs, six must-watch PR webinars, five PR books, four PR podcasts, three productivity tools, two Spin Sucks Crazy secrets, and the one PR tool you need for 2016.
To prepare for this blog post, I asked on Facebook for gift ideas. To say I didn’t exactly get what I wanted is a bit of an understatement.
What I did get, however, was money, bourbon, a raise, booze and money, puppies, more revenue, more clients, a bouncy house, a tiara, wine, lunch with me, a hug from me, and much, much more.
You can see my friends are not helpful so I will have to create the list of PR gifts all alone.
Nine PR Gifts
- Evernote Premium. Last week, there was a comment here that Evernote Premium is the way to go. Since then, I’ve had several calls, texts, and emails about how the heck to use it. If you give it as a gift, also check out Harmon Enterprises, where there are TONS of tutorials—both free and paid. If you receive it as a gift, I know what you’re doing this holiday season!
- Evernote Notebooks. Combine the love of Evernote with Moleskin and you have a gorgeous, hard-bound notebook that automatically syncs to Evernote in the cloud with a simple photo of the page. It’s pretty incredible. I use it to share notes from meetings with my team all the time.
- Software Subscription. Software for PR pros is getting better and better. Add to your PR gifts list a subscription to Zignal Labs, Cision, or Iris. These tools will help the PR pro in your life be better at measuring their efforts in 2016.
- Online Courses. The online education industry continues to explode and they expect it to more than double next year. They make for great PR gifts because they can be taken at any time that is convenient. Check out MarketingProfs, Lynda, and (of course) Spin Sucks Pro.
- A Coach. I’m a big, big fan of having a coach to help you work through conflict or challenges. I am partial to Randy Hall or Ken Jacobs, but you also could look at Vistage or Entrepreneurs’ Organization. A coach would make a great PR gift for the one you love.
- GoPro. We mentioned livestreaming as a PR trend for next year. This means there will be lots more video. Add a GoPro to your PR gifts list. It will give the PR pro in your life the ability to shoot video out and about in the wild. No more talking heads in an office. They can now create compelling videos for clients or executives doing behind-the-scenes work.
- Personalized Stationery. Many PR pros I know still value the written word and love to send handwritten thank you notes. You can buy personalized stationery lots of places. There used to be a shop around the corner from my house that did gorgeous stationery, but they went out of business last year. Now I have to buy online. So sad.
- An Amazon or Audible Gift Card. A gift card to Amazon or Audible makes a great PR gift. Nearly every communicator reads because it’s necessary for us to do our jobs. But some have long commutes or like to listen to books during exercise. These gift cards are perfect for the PR pro in your life.
- MacBook Air. If you’re really going overboard for the PR pro that you love, buy them a MacBook Air. It’s heavy duty enough to do pretty much any kind of work, but light enough to throw in a bag or purse and take with you everywhere. Mine has traveled the world with me and has been very, very good to me.
Now it’s your turn. Minus the booze, money, and puppies ideas, what PR gifts do you recommend?