Yesterday, thanks to a Twitter post from Peter Shankman of Help a Reporter Out, I read a post on the 10 Best Social Media Tools for PR Professionals and Journalists on mashable.com. I love this post, and I’ll probably be spending some time tomorrow checking out all these tools.

The list includes Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out, as well as tools like PitchEngine and ReportingOn. I was especially excited to see Media People Using Twitter and Twellow, because I find Twitter’s search functionality difficult to use.

Why are these tools so wonderful? Because accessing the right people for an effective PR pitch can be an expensive and time-consuming job–not easy for those of us with smaller budgets. However, this enables us to get great, well-written information into the right hands. I guess I’m becoming a bit of a social media junkie.

1. Remember the Milk (rememberthemilk.com) – This is a free, incredible tool for managing tasks and to-dos. It has tagging, date, location, time estimate, frequency, and notes. You can enter everything in quickly and easily with the keyboard commands or email your tasks to it. I use it for all of my to-dos (including GTD – Getting Things Done) and to clean out my email inbox. I also find its weekly planner function to be very useful. (Bonus: Nice iPhone interface)
2. Google Calendar (google.com/calendar) – I ditched Outlook this year and opted for Google’s free online calendar. I can have several different calendars for work planning and now I can also share with my husband or my clients without cluttering up their calendars. You can just check each calendar to show it or hide it. I have about 9 calendars I use. It’s easy to add events through the Internet, cell phones and text messaging. (Bonus: Nice iPhone interface)
3. Basecamp (basecamphq.com) – This is more of a business tool, and you do have to pay for it. But if you work closely with others on projects or have get a lot of approvals on text, this tool is worth its minimal cost. I use the whiteboard group editing function newsletters and press releases as well as other text that needs approval by many people. The to-do list is also useful for communicating with others and following up on progress. It saves me hours every week!
4. Google Reader (google.com/reader) – Another free useful tool from Google… I just started using Reader, but my husband, Brett, loves it and has been using it since it came out. Here’s how I use it: I come across a URL of a site that I am interested in, but I don’t have time to read it all right then, and I would like to come back to it later as a resource. Most sites have RSS feeds now, so I just grab the RSS link and add a subscription in Google Reader. Then I can see the headlines and a some of the stories of all the articles on each of those Web sites, all at the same time in Google Reader’s interface. I can group the Web sites into folders, mark the articles as read, see pictures, and search all those sites for keywords. It enables me to review hundreds of Web sites in one easy location. (Bonus: Nice iPhone interface)
5. Wordpress (wordpress.com) – Want to share your thoughts, observations, photos or resume on the Web? You can register for a free Web site with many great features. It’s a great way to keep in touch with friends.

Let me know how these tools work out for you or if you have any cool tools to add.