Social Media & SEO

Adidas and Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) used Apple’s AirDrop to distribute free sneakers at Coachella. To those who accepted Glover’s AirDrop invitation, it was a highly personalized experience that ended with free Adidas. For others, it was a creepy use of an app designed for people who actually know each other.

PR pros often focus on the “fun” side of social: the stories, images and conversations that bring a brand to life. Unfortunately, darker forces also exist. Brands face a number of adversaries; from account hacks to bot attacks. Sometimes, brands are their own worst enemy, violating federal regulations that a communicator may not have even been aware of.

There’s much PR pros can learn about communicating the intricacies of AI from a story this week. It seems Amazon’s Alexa indeed is listening to our conversations. In fact, the hockey-puck-looking device has an army of 1,000 humans who listen to what it picks up in homes around the world. One lesson is that communicators need to urge brands to be transparent in their AI activities.

As we look to next week’s PRNEWS Measurement Conference in Washington, DC, we asked several scheduled speakers to prognosticate about PR measurement’s future. Up ahead, they said, is more data integration and testing of well-established ideas. In addition, tools will be smarter and (thank goodness) easier to use, which will encourage the use of measurement for decision-making.

Bots and automation can help communicators with audience research and faster response times, and fake followers can make you look important. But consumers are smart and want to find a brand they can put their trust in.

Communicators know words mean everything. What you say in a press release, advertisement or tweet can make or break a brand. So it’s not a surprise that search engine optimization remains an important strategic tactic on a digital level. Proper SEO makes sure brands get noticed in that continuous quest to the first page of Google, Yahoo or Bing.

In an ideal world, PR, social media and sales departments would be as flexible and fluid as a professional basketball team moving up and down the court. In this behind-the-scenes look at how the Atlanta Hawks integrate sales, PR and social internally, the Hawks’ social media manager, Nic Bell, shares a case study in integration: how the social team unified PR, customer service and sales functions in order to advertise a slate of games against high-profile teams. (They ultimately sold out their entire Black Friday ticket allotment.)

At 1.1 billion users, the mobile app WeChat is a force to be reckoned with. But for most people in the western world, it’s a black box. Communicators may want to take a look inside, as the platform offers many intriguing opportunities.

Mark Zuckerberg’s op-ed in the Washington Post made a strong call for social media regulation in four areas—harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability. But while vape maker JUUL got ahead of regulation in a smart way, the same PR tactic fell flat for Facebook. Here’s why.

In each edition of PRNEWS we highlight takeaways from select articles as well as important notes for subscribers and additions to the PR News Subscriber Resources Center. This month we have takeaways from several articles and a reminder to PRNEWS subscribers to take advantage of the 33 percent discount on all PRNEWS events and webinars.