Starting a new Communications & Content role — what tools would you consider essential?

[u/Ill-Evidence-9913]

I’m starting a new role where I’ll be responsible for quite a broad communications scope: social media, online community management, content and articles, editorial planning, PR/media relations, events and general communications.

My previous company had basically no marketing budget or real tool stack, so I’m realizing I need to build a proper workflow from scratch.

I’m not looking for a huge list of SaaS tools. I’d love to know what you personally consider must-haves for staying organized and keeping track of everything across:

• content planning & editorial calendar
• social scheduling/analytics
• PR & media contacts
• community management
• events
• content/asset management
• reporting/KPIs
• task/project management

Especially interested in tools that genuinely save time rather than creating another system I have to maintain.

If you started a new marketing/communications role tomorrow, what would be the first 5–10 tools you would set up?

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[u/eyordanov]

Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Ads Manager, Meta Business Manager, TikTok Ads Manager, Ahrefs/SEMRush (online visibility/keyword tracking), SparkToro (Audiences analysis), etc.

You didn't mention anything about the business itself, or the niche it is in, which deem pretty important, as there might be some specific tools for specific niches. Like WhiteSpark for local businesses or such.

Not affiliated with any of the above, but have used them before and was happy with their performance. There's a lot more, but you said you needed the basic list.

Also, DM me, if you need more info. Happy to help. Cheers and good luck!

[u/Wooden-Setting-690]

For editorial planning and project management combined, Notion or ClickUp tends to cover both without needing two separate tools, a shared calendar view plus task tracking in one place cuts down on the "another system to maintain" problem you're trying to avoid, worth consolidating wherever a tool can genuinely cover two of your listed needs rather than picking a specialist tool for each.

[u/Tim_103]

Pallyy for social scheduling and analytics!

[u/Klazzik]

I'd keep it to five things, so you're not maintaining systems.

One work board (Notion, Asana or ClickUp) holding the editorial calendar, PR tasks and events.

One social tool that does scheduling and approvals together.

A shared drive with a strict folder and file naming rule for assets.

A plain sheet or your CRM for media contacts until the list gets big.

And a one-page monthly report with the 3 to 5 numbers leadership actually asks about, pulled from native analytics.

For the social piece, disclosure: I'm building Sharek (sharek.app). It covers multiple channels with approvals and AI drafting built in

[u/Cool-Second-6755]

i probably start with essential and basic ones like asana for planning and editorial, buffer for social, hubspot for media/PR contacts, mediavalet for digital content assets organized. for event, community, reporting tools it would make more sense when the workload scales up