Stories by Erika Bradbury

With the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for July 23, but not a sure thing, we asked data partner Shareablee to measure the games’ social engagement.

PRNEWS has announced the honorees for this year’s Top Women in PR. The 2021 honorees are recognized in five distinct categories: Changemakers, Entrepreneurs, Industry Innovators, Mentors and Rising Stars.

We asked Alex Slater, founding partner, The Clyde Group, and Christina Ferraz, founder, Thirty6Five how they’re advising companies around Pride month and what role PR should have in advancing careers of those in the LGBTQ community.

As awareness for Juneteenth rose, so too did consumer engagement with the topic on social. Consumer engagement rose nearly 4,000 percent (May1-May 25, 2020 vs the same period in 2021), according to Shareablee data, provided exclusively to PRNEWS.

Shareablee data for 2021 show an 18 percent increase in consumer engagement versus 2020. Yet 2021’s consumer engagement was off a whopping 60 percent from 2019’s pre-pandemic figures across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

As we get ready to celebrate PR’s role in CSR, we spoke with several finalists of the PRNEWS CSR Awards about how the pandemic and the economic and social reckonings of 2020 influenced their organizations. Fortunately, this moment has bolstered CSR at many companies and organizations, they told us.

When it comes to influencers, does size matter? Do you go with a major celebrity or a micro-influencer, who has relatively few but intensely loyal followers? For the NFL’s Jesse May, manager of influencer & entertainment marketing, an influencer’s alignment with and passion for your campaign are deciding factors. She explains in this brief Q&A ahead of her April 21 appearance during The Social Shake-Up Virtual Spring Tune-Up.

In this issue, we answer the question, how do you counsel a leader to issue a heartfelt apology, particularly when the person is reluctant to admit culpability? What best practices do you recommend for preparing communicators to handle these situations?

The cannabis and CBD industry presents unique opportunities and challenges for PR pros. Here, a communicator prevents a crisis for her client.

As The Social Shake-Up Virtual Spring Tune-Up is set for April 21, we offer introductions to some of its scheduled speakers. In this Q&A, Dropbox social media head Susan Chang offers advice to social media managers about avoiding burnout. One of the tips she advocates is setting boundaries.