Stories by Erika Bradbury

It happened. You find out your brand or client is about to be featured in a story that sheds a less-than-ideal light on the organization. Or perhaps it’s not so much a negative story but rather one that could have financial ramifications for the company involved. Perhaps, you think, this is what your client is paying you for, right? You use your relationships with the journalist whose story is about to go public to call him at home the night before and ask that he stop the presses. Not so fast, say those we spoke with.

With 96+ million expected to watch Super Bowl LVI, we look at non-sports brands with the most consumer engagement on social in the weeks before the game.

For this month’s data column, we took a look at the top topics posted by both B2B and B2C brands in 2021. While both posted generally on sustainability, DEI and pandemic-related topics, the keywords that found the most engagement varied greatly between the B2C and B2B brands, according to exclusive data from Shareablee.

We asked chief communicators about their 2022 priorities, lessons from the pandemic they’ll use moving forward, hiring practices and more.

After examining consumer engagement with B2C brands last month, this month we’re looking at B2Bs. Overall, consumer engagement was down 38 percent in Shareablee’s business services category, vs the period (Nov. 1-Nov. 30) one year ago.

With the holidays coming, B2Cs are looking to interact with core audiences on social. A slight surprise: the number of posts year-over-year was down 8 percent, yet a far larger surprise was the considerable fall in actions, or consumer engagement, off 35 percent year-over year (YOY.

It’s hard enough to get media placement for a launch, initiative or campaign. Indeed, obtaining “coverage in the new news cycle” and “finding relevant angles for pitches” are PR pros’ biggest concerns, according to a Muckrack report. Let’s add another hurdle: getting coverage in a crowded media landscape when your organization or product is perceived as dry or unsexy.

In this brief Q&A, we talk to Sarah Brown, Director, Corporate Media Relations at Marriott International., about some opportunities and challenges in training spokespeople at an organization.

Building a communication structure when you’re a team of one isn’t easy. We asked Taya Jarman, communications director, Institute for Public Health Innovation, how she’s doing it.

This month’s question stems from a scenario we heard about recently. A crisis communicator entered a potential crisis situation. The crisis pro didn’t know the company. He discovered it lacked a crisis communication plan. In addition, it did not have PR pros or media relations personnel on staff.