Stories by Ian James Wright

Snapchat’s latest update, a redesign of its Live Stories and Discover sections, goes a long way toward making the app more intuitive and bringing in more viewership. Now you will see both Discover and Live Stories intermingled in panels on the Discover page, as well as in a carousel at the top of the Stories page.

Have you ever tried to shine a light on your CEO in your digital content and been underwhelmed by the response? Unless you have an outsize visionary like an Elon Musk or a Bill Gates heading your organization, this isn’t surprising. Let’s face it, people have more in common with your average employee or average customer. So why not make them the stars of your digital content?

The Public Relations Society of America, New York Chapter, convened to recognize organizations, campaigns and people that reflect excellent work being done in PR over the past year on June 2 at the Mandarin Oriental in NYC. Judged by more than 80 leading industry professionals, the awards honored everything from targeted marketing to corporate social responsibility, and singled out a few individuals for prestigious awards.

When you have an important message to communicate—especially one that might be controversial or unpopular—you need more than just the message itself. You should equip yourself with a “messaging toolkit” that will help you effectively deliver (and justify) your message in various formats to various media.

It’s the tragedy of the Internet: Every cool thing that makes society more interconnected is in danger of being ruined by jerks. From misogynistic attacks on Twitter to racist comments on YouTube to general profane abuse in multiplayer video games, instances of online unpleasantness have raised questions about how to give everyone the best possible experience without crossing a line of censoring free speech.

It’s telling that, in the war between blog mogul and tech tycoon, the most substantive discussion is taking place in the pages of “The Gray Lady.” The Times, for many, is still the number one place to go to learn the facts or let the facts be known.

Social media is clearly a crucial part of any PR strategy, but it’s also a vast and sprawling world comprised of various platforms and countless users and content creators. Many organizations are turning to volunteer spokespeople to meet this challenge—not only to cover more ground, but also because of the authentic passion that a fan of the brand can bring to the conversation.

Just as communicators are coming to grips with the possibilities of live video on social platforms, Facebook throws us a new twist: It will now allow “nonstop, long-form” live video. The Continuous Live Video option allows for 24/7 broadcasting, although there is no way to rewind the stream or download it.

There have been lots of opportunities for McDonald’s to throw a legal wrench in the film about their founder and his questionable business ethics, if only to slow down or harass the filmmakers. But director John Lee Hancock says that McDonald’s has “made no attempt to interfere” with the movie. If your brand were undergoing a withering examination on the big screen, how would you react?

If social media is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. There are some notable examples of brands committing embarrassing online flubs, but don’t pat yourself on the back just because you haven’t screwed up big time: Most social media crimes are crimes of omission. If you’re like most brands, you could be doing better.