Stories by Hayley Jennings

More organizations are increasing their social media marketing dollars—though it remains a small part of the overall budget—while LinkedIn has become a more important part of the marketing mix, according to a recent survey conducted by the Social Shake-Up Show.

Following a data breach by an unknown party in February, Under Armour—MyFitnessPal’s parent company—released an email on March 29 notifying users of the incident. In the email, Under Armour explained that the hack was initially discovered on March 25, and “the affected information included usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords—the majority with the hashing function called bcrypt used to secure passwords.”

Savvy communicators know that having a crisis plan in place before a situation emerges is crucial for any brand. But not every negative comment requires a full-scale mobilization of the proverbial troops. Some social media crises can be mitigated before they gain widespread attention. Taking a tiered approach to crisis management strategy is important for avoiding blunders. By examining your company’s audience and vulnerabilities ahead of time, you can create protocols for each tier.

Instagram recently announced a change to its algorithm so that posts will now appear in a more chronological manner, finally heeding years of user complaints. But does that mean your brand should now post more frequently? How will brands be impacted by this change? Carmen Collins, social media lead for the talent brand at Cisco Systems, weighs in.

Working with influencers can be an excellent way for a nonprofit to increase donations and share its message and goals with a wider audience. But as a communicator for a nonprofit organization, it can be challenging to find the right influencer and convince them to be an advocate for your organization. Here are five tips on how to go about recruiting and rewarding them.

A Snapchat ad promoting the game Would You Rather?! asked players if they would rather “slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown.” Rihanna was not amused by this reference to the 2009 violent assault by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. How did this disturbing ad make it onto the app in the first place? A representative from Snap Inc. explained their ad review process, which might need a few tweaks.

Whether your organization’s house style is the Chicago Manual or AP, familiarity with both can be a great asset in the world of PR. Learning the biggest differences between the two most common style guides will help you improve your writing no matter what company you work for or what you’re creating. Here are 5 differences between the Chicago Manual of Style and AP style that will occur frequently.

Letting a social media influencer temporarily take over your brand’s accounts can be a great tactic to bring in new followers and engage with your audience in an authentic way. But there are some important tricks of the trade to keep in mind.

Spotify went public and valued the company at $23 billion, but it has been providing value for brands since it revamped the Spotify for Brands program last year. The company utilizes user data in multiple ways to aid brand advertisements, but can it withstand scrutiny over how much data it collects from users now that it has entered into the open market?

Do social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat have a viable, upstart competitor? Vero, launched and funded by billionaire Ayman Hariri in 2015, has found overnight popularity by offering free accounts to the first 1 million users, making it the No. 1 social media app on iTunes as of the morning of Feb. 27.