Stories by Ian James Wright

Doing good for people in times of need can be tricky for brands. If you draw attention to a tragedy too much or in the wrong way, the public might accuse you of trying to score PR points. (And some brands might be doing just that.) Sometimes it helps the cause to draw more attention to it; sometimes the classy thing is to remain silent and speak through your actions.

With both Google and Facebook placing increasing value on the mobile experience, the era of focusing on “internet trends” may be over, while mobile trends have taken center stage—the internet is mobile now and vice versa. So how are smartphone users interacting with their devices and engaging with apps and websites?

The experts we talk to routinely stress the importance of having a crisis plan. Of course, as we all learned when writing papers in school, it’s not enough simply to do the initial work—we must revise mindfully and make important adjustments. Attempting to appraise every aspect of your plan is intimidating and overwhelming, so start the evaluation process in stages.

You can’t always do it alone. To capitalize on a huge trend or event, sometimes your brand needs the perfect partner. Such is the case with the 2017 total solar eclipse. The ultimate eclipse experience involves traveling to an ideal location and learning about the cosmic phenomenon under expert guidance, and Airbnb and National Geographic realized that they could make this a reality by working as a team.

In a crisis, a solid framework can make sure you’ve touched on all the major areas you need to communicate and that you haven’t overlooked something major. When the goal is to demonstrate responsibility and leadership, these “5 C’s” can cover all your bases for a reassuring and competent response.

Influencer marketing is so hot right now that brands may be too willing to get involved. When you’re in the middle of a gold rush, it’s easy to forget caution, and “fear of missing out” may make a sucker of you. This is the crux of a social media experiment by influencer marketing agency Mediakix that has been gaining attention. The bait: Two fake Instagram accounts and a bevy of bought followers. The question: Would brands be willing to pay these fictitious influencers for their promotion “power”? The answer: Yes.

A long “manifesto” decrying efforts at addressing diversity has been making the rounds inside Google via internal message boards and social networks. The author, a male software engineer, argues that there are inherent differences between men and women that account for perceived gender gaps. Thus Google’s Danielle Brown, who took up the mantle of vice president of diversity, integrity & governance at the end of June, already finds herself in a delicate internal communications test.

Facebook engineers Jiayi Wen and Shengbo Guo explained in a newsroom post Aug. 2 that an update to News Feed will soon show users more stories that will load quicker on mobile. This will take into account not only the speed of the site itself, but also the users’ network connection at the time they are browsing. Here are 10 tips from Facebook to ensure your site is up to speed.

Instagram had cause to crow Aug. 2: It posted a celebratory blog for the one-year anniversary of Stories. Today it boasts 250 million daily users. A larger proof point for the success of Stories is how Snapchat is faring, and an auspicious date for Instagram coincided with a dismal one for Snap Inc.

When it comes to Google AdWords, there’s a lot of advice out there about how to get ahead of the competition in your bids for keywords that will capture your audience. But Zach Wallis, paid search strategist at IBM, would caution everyone working in this area to be mindful of another possibility: You could be competing against your own business.