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A step-by-step approach for communicators to use when setting up a program to train sales personnel to use social media for selling. Since social selling sits at the intersection of marketing communications and sales, putting such a program in place is a great opportunity for communicators to drive social selling adoption and help close the gap between sales and marketing. Another benefit for communicators is that social selling lets them directly measure their influence on business results, sales and bottom-line revenue.

Our weekly roundup of news, trends and personnel moves in PR and communications. This week we features stories about British Airways weekend crisis, a fond farewell to Ketchum’s David Rockland, notes about expansion and a slew of personnel moves, including a White House ouster and Staples naming Michelle Bottomley as its CMO.

Similar to one of the themes running through the recent, sold-out Social Shake-Up Show, an idea at the heart of the Conference Board’s new study is that some members of the C-Suite continue to doubt the importance of social media as a valuable business tool. The culprits most often reside in the C-Suites of B2B brands, says the report, made available early and exclusively to PR News Pro. One solution is emphasize the positive attributes of social in business terms, the study says.

The recent rise in popularity of live video has many brand marketing plans in a bit of a tailspin—if you’re not leading in the space and killing it, you’re falling behind and struggling to stay relevant

A pair of Brits, chef Jamie Oliver and filmmaker Louis Cole, were the top influencers in food and travel, respectively during the month of April, according to data provided exclusively to PR News Pro by Shareablee. The rankings were compiled looking at social media shares, retweets, comments and likes. Interestingly, Oliver’s top post lacked any mention of food.

If I had to pick one thought to summarize this week’s sold-out Social Shake-Up Show, it would be this: The lines between content and marketing are blurring so rapidly, the phrase “content marketing” is starting to become redundant. Words such as authenticity, experiential, immersive and storytelling were heard often during panel sessions and networking breaks to describe this zeitgeist, this evolution of messaging. But to me, it really all comes down to a single, often misunderstood word—empathy.

File under “signs of the times”: Republican candidate for the House of Representatives Greg Gianforte violently assaulted a reporter Wednesday, according to the eyewitness account of a a team from the Fox News Channel. The victim, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian, entered a room at Gianforte’s Bozeman, Montana headquarters where the Fox News team was preparing for an interview with the candidate and began questioning Gianforte about the controversial American Health Care Act.

Want to know some of what was on the minds of attendees at the sold-out Social Shake-Up Show? Ask the attendees to discuss 10 social media-related topics toward the end of the conference. That’s just what happened on Wednesday afternoon at the show. Find out what the attendees were thinking about as well as some of their key takeaways.

The Saturday Night Live actor who plays the girl you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with at a party turned out to be quite conversant about social media during Tuesday afternoon’s session of the sold-out Social Shake-Up in Atlanta. Actor/comedian/activist Cecily Strong provided trenchant points about social media as it relates to celebrities and brands. There were plenty of laughs, too. Photo: www.Jkleinphotography.com

There were things old and new during the sold-out 2017 Social Shake-Up Show’s opening general session today (May 23) in Atlanta. The new started right away, as six members of the Alpha Rho step dancers of Morehouse College literally kicked off the show with a rousing performance. And then Shonduras took over the stage.