While many great options exist to choose from, to save time, we've narrowed the list down to seven of our favorite tools that any corporate enterprise should be using.

Inbound marketing is one of the most powerful tools for generating sales today. However this technique - also closely-associated with related forms of promotion such as content marketing and permission marketing - is only as effective as how well it is strategized and performed.

Aside from offering an outlet for professional and amateur comedy writers to try new material, social media plays an increasing role in how we learn about crises and disasters -- and also how communications and PR pros must respond to the same mishaps.

As a result of recent successful multimillion-dollar online fundraising campaigns for products such as the Ouya, Pebble E-Paper Watch and Amanda Palmer's Theater is Evil album/tour, which have captivated audiences worldwide, crowdfunding is quickly becoming a business staple.

In the PR industry, we often face a battle between what a client wants to release to the media and what we know that journalists will consider newsworthy. As consultants, it is our role to become trusted advisers who can find ways make a story relevant to the news agenda.

PR is day in, day out. It has to operate at the media's pace (worldwide, 24/7). A particular position or message has to be tweaked to suit the situation, while remaining in line with the longer term strategy.

It's difficult to embrace the hype while wading in a sea of black.

As the media landscape continuously becomes more complex and multidimensional, public relations is increasingly defined as the ability to empower organizations to talk with and listen to stakeholders in ways that they don't yet know how to do.

Public relations is a fantastic career. It's exciting, fast-paced and challenging. But it has also been listed as one of the most stressful jobs by numerous sources many years in a row, and is notorious for being an all-consuming, never-ending job.

Like scrappy young startups such as Flipboard and Pinterest, success isn't solely rooted in online innovations and cutting-edge electronic advancements. It's also founded in basic management, marketing and strategic innovation principles that every entrepreneur can learn from.

Like a towering oak tree, those views are rooted deeply in religion and nothing short of a flood of Biblical proportions will dislodge them. But what I do expect is that Mr. Cathy will put the good of his employees first.