Want to find a way to get some traction for your latest marketing initiative or press release? If that’s what you need then it’s time to embrace social media – and there are some great tools out there to help you find journalists and sources and identify the people you want to connect with.

Here are our top 5 innovative PR tools for marketers:

1. HARO
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is the brainchild of Peter Shankman. The site brings together reporters looking for sources and sources looking for free PR, which is a match made in heaven. The site is free to use. All you have to do is sign up. Sources get access to several daily updates in different categories, such as lifestyle, business and so on.

They can then contact the person looking for sources direct and make a contribution. It’s an easy way to get quoted in respected publications and with more than 30,000 reporters using it, PR professionals can’t afford to ignore this site.

2. Pitch Engine
PitchEngine is another resource aimed at bringing businesses and journalists together. It’s a press release site with a difference, squarely aimed at the social media release. It takes just a few minutes to upload a release, add multimedia content and create a customized tweet that gets your message across. It integrates with a range of social media sites and makes it easy to get search engine prominence for your releases. You’re allowed one pitch free each month, but will have to sign up for a paid plan to get more.

3. MuckRack
MuckRack gives you access to all the journalists on Twitter, at least those who are identified as such and have been added to the database. It tracks the journalists’ tweets, giving PR professionals an easy way to see what’s happening across dozens of media outlets. You can refine what you see by media outlet, by source or by beat and can also check out popular links and press releases.

4. Journalisted
If you need access to the UK press for an international perspective, then Journalisted is similar to MuckRack, but without the tweets. It indexes UK publications by media outlet, journalist and keyword, making it easy to find any information you need.

5. SWIX
Finally, if you need a way to track engagement online, then SWIX could be the tool you need. It provides social media analytics for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other platforms and also allows you to monitor social media campaigns. The tool’s been designed for social media marketers (or PR professionals offering these services).

Once your account is set up, all your social media properties are automatically tracked and you can see beautiful reports on growth and engagement which you can share with your clients. The creation of offers is free while in beta, but you’ll need to fork out $9 a month for the analytics.

So these are our top picks for if you’ve tried any others that you think we’ve missed, feel free to share in the comments.

This post was written by Lior Levin who works as a marketing consultant for Kitchen Stools Direct, an online bar stools store