Digital & Technology

With the start of the year, social media platforms released features that should help communicators with planning for these tools. In addition, Facebook offered users a tool that allows them to see and delete data other companies have collected based on interactions with those brands. It’s far from certain how many users will use the tool.

A decade ago there were fewer than one billion social network users. Last month, that number was 5.2 billion. And their expectations and the number of platforms they use are rising. One expectation is that they can shop instantly from any piece of content. Hence, the rise of shoppable posts, blending e-commerce and content. PR has a large role to play in this trend.

The hunt for the perfect influencer usually starts with seeking out those social media accounts that can increase reach, raise awareness, build engagement and drive business results (sales, donations, conversions, etc.) for your organization. This means pinpointing the influencers who stand out among billions of users; true digital denizens capable of adjusting to ever-changing social media platform algorithms. It also means attracting the right influencers to your brand, and ensuring they yield a strong return on investment.

Technology has made the world much smaller. Still, in many ways, humans remain very insular. What’s in front of us often receives most of our attention. As a result, where a news story occurs can… Continued

The Super Bowl initiates a two-week festival of interviews, practices and storytelling through multiple platforms. Those certainly include mobile and social media, and brands have noticed. It’s now expected that brands will tease Super Bowl campaigns—not just through TV ads, but extensively on social media.

For several years, marketers and communicators have feared the damage done to the brands and public figures they represent via the propagation of “deepfakes,” videos and photos that use the assistance of machine learning technology to replace faces and objects with false, but realistic, images. As fake news and misinformation continue to plague online discourse, Facebook says it has taken a significant step to deter the spread of doctored video and photos.

Plenty of PR pros have made predictions for the year ahead. We go farther. As we embark into a new decade of opportunities, what will PR look like in 2030? A trio of brave PR prognosticators looks 10 years hence. In spite of huge technological change, at least one PR pro sees relationships maintaining their importance in 2030.

With PR increasingly becoming a strategic asset to business, CMOs and their teams need to augment their skillset to keep pace with the newest trends and technologies, Page’s new chair Charlene Wheeless argues. During an interview with PRNEWS prior to starting her tenure, Wheeless said she envisions “a powerful new opportunity for CCOs to be relevant, central leaders in transformation.” Page will respond with new skills and leadership training, she said.

CES 2020 is in the books, but its implications will spread throughout the year. That will be the case for communicators, who saw plenty of opportunities to help new-age tech explain itself to the public. One of the big takeaways, and one likely to provide lots of work for communicators, is that technology has broken out and will be foundational to life, several communicators say.

It’s not easy to admit that your communications effort is not all it could be. Sometimes the culprit is failing to keep up with communications technology. It takes courage to admit you’re behind. Funds and teamwork are need to catch up. Here’s how Cleveland Clinic’s PR team remedied the situation it found itself in a few years back.