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Brand communicators beware: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has declared open season on social media influencers who fail to disclose that they are paid for endorsing a brand’s products and services. Not only that, disclosures must take a specific form; they also should be ubiquitous in some cases.

Late last year the FTC issued a long-awaited policy statement regarding native advertising and influencers, which was a follow-up to an earlier FAQ on the topic. Not even three months after it issued the later document, it “put industry on notice,” says Allison Fitzpatrick, partner at Davis & Gilbert in its marketing, promotions and PR practice groups, by slapping a penalty on high-end retailer Lord & Taylor ( PRN, March 21).

There have been lots of opportunities for McDonald’s to throw a legal wrench in the film about their founder and his questionable business ethics, if only to slow down or harass the filmmakers. But director John Lee Hancock says that McDonald’s has “made no attempt to interfere” with the movie. If your brand were undergoing a withering examination on the big screen, how would you react?

How many times today did you click “send,” “post,” “tweet” or “publish” without submitting your work to a thorough read-through? Perhaps as many times as you clicked those buttons. You know you’re playing a dangerous game. You might as well be walking across a city street blindfolded. Try printing out and using this quality-control checklist for PR writing, and be sure to add your own writing peccadilloes to the list.

If social media is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. There are some notable examples of brands committing embarrassing online flubs, but don’t pat yourself on the back just because you haven’t screwed up big time: Most social media crimes are crimes of omission. If you’re like most brands, you could be doing better.

It’s increasingly becoming a reality in the communications world that once sequestered departments are now finding themselves working closely with colleagues they seldom encountered previously. For many, the breaking down of institutional borders between an organization’s various departments is a welcome trend. Even if a tumbling of silos has been a long time coming, the question of how to get all these different people with specialized functions working together efficiently isn’t any easier to answer.

Having a high-profile PR client can be exciting and profitable, but it brings with it a number of intangibles and unexpected twists you might not have foreseen. Even though the media wants a high-profile client, and you would think that would be easier than getting publicity for a regular client, these requests often come in bunches and at odd hours.

You just presented your latest PR measurement dashboard to the C-suite. The result: a boardroom full of blank faces and no questions. This is not a good sign. It’s very possible that the problem is not the effectiveness and usefulness of your team’s communications efforts. The problem may be the dashboard itself.

Mitigating and Responding to Risk Here are some top-line tips for managing tough issues: Be prepared. No matter what your industry, there is a security “pain point” that you should 
consider. When creating a risk… Continued

Instagram is currently testing new analytics tools and business profiles, which will be rolling out in the coming months. Along with the heightened analytics offerings, businesses will now be able to have specialized profiles that include a contact button, access to maps and directions and categorize the business by type.

We’re not being political—that’s not our role—but we got a good laugh from stories that surfaced late last week about presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump allegedly posing as his own publicist. Since we write about the profession, we were amused.