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With April 18 looming, we certainly expected to be conversing about income tax this time of year. But who could have predicted the words “Panama Papers,” “Mossack Fonseca” and “tax inversions” would be rolling off our tongues during last weekend’s barbeque?

Very much in the Facebook style of rollouts, some brands had been provided the additional 45 seconds months earlier, allowing them to preview their Super Bowl ads on the platform and compete for television’s ad dollars. Although video might seem an afterthought on photo-dominated Instagram, Shareablee data, provided exclusively to PR News, argues otherwise.

As a PR pro, writing speeches can be one of the most challenging things to do. It becomes especially difficult when writing a speech for someone else, like your CEO, COO or another C-suite executive, whether you’re in-house or at the company’s agency of record.

Whatever the reason behind a need for behavioral change, people don’t want to be engulfed in negativity. Unilever’s fans didn’t need to see more pictures of overstuffed landfills and environmental damage to change the way they thought about their empty shampoo containers. Instead, Unilever and Weber Shandwick were able to use inspiration, not desperation, to secure this campaign’s success.

If you’re in charge of a brand Twitter account, the idea of using emojis has probably been floated, and probably at least one person in the room has grimaced. Sure, people use them constantly and you want to be in touch with them, but coming from a brand, emojis can seem desperately phony (see headline for verbal equivalent). But there are brands that pull it off quite well.

Earlier this year, Facebook expanded its live video service to all users, and now the social media behemoth is really throwing its weight behind the effort. A barrage of new features and functionalities is coming to the service, Facebook announced this week: reactions, going live to groups and events, live filters, live video invitations and much more embody a push to dominate live streaming.

Let’s not pretend—there are no surefire or guaranteed ways to win at the game of media relations. But there are definitely ways to improve your chances. First tip: Don’t use exclamation points in a pitch to a reporter unless you’re announcing a cure for cancer.

Veteran communicators are already comfortable navigating the ebbs and flows of a dynamic career like PR. That’s why it’s so important for young PR pros to stay on the cutting edge of the industry; not only to best serve their companies and clients, but to also secure a long and fruitful career in communications. Here are five tips that every burgeoning PR pro should keep in mind.

At PR News’ April 21 Measurement Conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Cindy Villafranca, senior specialist, communication & outreach, Southwest Airlines, will discuss the trial and error process she used to arrive at her current measurement dashboard strategy. In particular, Villafranca will talk about “socializing” dashboards, which has nothing to do with embedding social media icons in your dashboards.

Instagram arguably is the best way for visually based brands (beauty, fashion, travel, etc.) to reach women. For anyone wanting to market to women it’s an addictive form of image-based social media that should not be ignored.

Here are 10 tried-and-true tips to help you build an engaged Instagram following, from the basics to the more advanced. Think of each potential photo post as part of a whole.