The digital PR landscape can be a fast paced one. Yesterday’s news can quickly turn into today’s fish and chip paper, while the likes of social media and rolling news means that stories break faster than ever.
While it takes a keen eye and a dedicated team to keep up, there are ways in which you can also make life a little easier as a digital PR too. And it all starts from your browser’s toolbar.
Yes, there are some fantastic Chrome extensions that can provide you with valuable insights at the touch of a button, whether you’re looking to check backlinks, find email addresses and more. They’re a key part of our artillery here at Broadplace and below you’ll find our top five that if you haven’t got downloaded, you really ought to think about it…
Best Chrome Extensions for Digital PR
MozBar
We’re going to start with MozBar, a useful tool that will provide you with instant metrics of a site. We’re all looking to scoop the highest authority backlinks for our sites and you can use MozBar’s Chrome extension to get a quick view of how powerful a site is through its own metric system.
The tool is also really useful for checking your links too, with a segment that can tell you almost immediately whether a link is follow or no follow, without the need to go hunting in the back end.
It’s free to download and is perfect for quickly assessing the important information you need in a matter of seconds.
Hunter
Hunter is actually an all-in-one email platform and used by many PRs and businesses across the globe. However, the Chrome extension specialises in finding email addresses on websites. Hunter will scrape the site for email addresses and provide you with a list through the extension, which also includes names, job titles, phone numbers and social media handles.
It’s even helpful during those periods where you simply can’t find an email address, with Hunter giving you the most common patterns from that particular website, so you can at least have a stab in the dark at getting in touch.
A VPN of some sort
Of course, there are dozens of VPNs for Chrome these days. There are free ones, some that require a small fee, and then you’ve got your big name players such as NordVPN and Surfshark. As a digital PR, they can come in extremely handy when working with clients across the world, as it can be a problem trying to see links you’ve gathered in different countries like the US, Canada and Australia. And without one you risk under reporting.
Among the top rated VPN Chrome extensions around at present are:
- HolaVPN
- uVPN
- NordVPN
- Surfshark
- ExpressVPN
- CyberGhost
Many also come with extensive security features and various other features, so shop around to see which best suit your needs.
Email Tracker
Whether it be embedded into your email or utilised through the likes of Vuelio, being able to track your emails is an absolute must for Digital PR. Not only will it provide you with information on whether a recipient has opened your email and how many times they have done so, you can also use it to analyse the overall performance of your outreach.
For those using Gmail for their outreach, Email Tracker is an ideal tool for this. You can blast out emails to thousands at a time, it’s GDPR compliant, and the give you data on things like delivery status, opens, clicks and any attachments that have been downloaded.
This will give you a steer on how successful your subject lines are, who you should be sending follow-up emails to, and where you may need to tweak your pitches and press releases.
Keywords Everywhere
Finally, while you’re prospecting your campaigns, perhaps preparing for a brainstorm or even in the scoping stage, Keywords Everywhere can be incredibly valuable in discovering relevant topics and the most valuable keywords to centre campaigns around.
For example, you may be working for a bathroom brand and be looking to build out a campaign. You could search for bathroom trends 2024 and as a result the Keywords Everywhere Chrome extension will provide you with the main keywords associated with your search, as well as a trend chart, to uncover just how topical your search is at this current time.
If you’re seeing a growing trend, it could be the perfect area to focus a campaign on, or potentially not if the popularity of the search is showing the opposite effect. Ultimately, though, the tool can really guide topical areas for your campaigns and ensure they are relevant and trending in the space.
Have we missed something? Let us know your favourite extensions…
Of course, there are so many more useful Chrome extensions out there that could prove useful for digital PRs, from the likes of Grammarly to even AI checkers these days. If there’s an extension you love, then let us know!
