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When Papa John’s blamed its declining sales on the issue of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, many found the correlation hard to believe. DiGiorno Pizza saw the opportunity to call them out for it on Twitter and did not hold back, while Pizza Hut subtly thrust itself into the spotlight.

In the eight days since actress Alyssa Milano’s original tweet, the #MeToo movement has brought to light the presence of sexual harassment and assault in many industries and there seems to be no end in sight. With the issue affecting so many women, it’s hard to know which industries or companies will be highlighted next or if any will remain untouched.

Social media has opened a new frontier in customer service, allowing communicators to find and respond directly to customers in real time. But it has also made customer service something of a spectator sport. Speaking at PR News’ Digital PR & Marketing Summit in Miami, Brandi Boatner, social & influencer communications lead at IBM, shared a few critical questions to ask to determine whether social customer care is right for your brand.

As PR practitioners, it’s easy to forget the multitude of ways that other fields—such as social media and influencer marketing—can improve and enhance other core aspects of the job, such as media relations. Social media can offer a treasure trove of stories because it brings you closer to those who are using and loving your product. And influencers can also make for great brand ambassadors on platforms other than social media. Here are three ways you can mine these areas to take your storytelling to the next level.

As a communications professional, so much of the job is based on building relationships, whether it’s creating trust with journalists or speaking directly to your audience on social media. The same applies to influencer marketing—building relationships is key, but it’s just as critical to maintain those relationships over the long haul, says Amisha Gandhi, head of global influencer marketing for enterprise software giant SAP.

We’ve all read stories of an angry customer tweeting at an airline or a restaurant because they had a bad experience. But social customer care is about so much more than just dealing with irate customers, says Brandi Boatner, a digital experience manager with IBM. We recently sat down with Boatner during a Facebook Live session to pick her brain on how social customer care is evolving—and how IBM is using artificial intelligence to bolster the process.

Like any good friendship, the relationship between a brand and its audience on Snapchat should be a two-way street. Matt Johnston, executive director of video at Rodale, worked directly with Snap Inc. to build a Discover platform from scratch. Here, he shares his tips and tactics for how to meet your audience halfway on Snapchat to keep the eager tapper glued to your story.

Influencer marketing can come in many shapes and sizes. Some companies utilize outside influencers, and some focus on employees. For Tatiana Holifield-Arthur, senior director of social media marketing strategy at BET Networks, influencer marketing means using its on-air talent to achieve a multiplier effect with the network’s huge following.

A few years ago, each of Southwest Airline’s departments used social media in their own way, independent of each other. But the firm quickly moved to create “an enterprise-level function with multiple players and dotted lines back to operational units, while still maintaining a master strategy,” according to Linda Rutherford, Southwest’s CCO. To her, the question of who should own social media centers around how an organization approaches customer engagement.

Reality checked in with me recently when a few parents on my son’s rowing team, knowing my affiliation with PR News, asked me to write the press releases for the club. Sure, it’ll be easy,… Continued