Stories by PRNEWS

An axiom in pro sports is that there is no such thing as an off season. Athletes keep themselves in shape year round and sports execs constantly seek ways to improve their team’s competitive edge. Ditto for PR.

Here are the stories that were making headlines in the professional communications industry during the week of April 27 – May 1, 2015.

Ink-on-paper isn’t going away any time soon (well, not too soon). But tomorrow’s decision-makers have been conditioned on social media and visual storytelling, so expect those mediums to converge.

As industry lines in advertising, marketing and PR continue to blur, millennials must continue to expand their skillsets and background knowledge in website creation

The growing manifestation of becoming a joke has sparked a new and growing phase in the lifecycle of your crisis and recovery plan. What do you do when your brand becomes the object of the latest globally trending Internet meme? What’s the right course of action when thousands of satirical, animated GIFs are being produced and shared every hour?

Older brands that have shied away from digital for one reason or another can still get into the game and get caught up quickly as long as they have the right mindset: a willingness to “fail forward,” or rather accept the fact that mistakes are going to happen along the way and an understanding that digital isn’t free.

Are you a PR executive who lacks a strong relationship with your company’s IT department? Now you have a perfect excuse to fix that: Google’s recent and significant overhaul of its search algorithm that boosts search rankings for “mobile-friendly” sites.

The CPG category grew 43 percent in the first quarter, compared with the same period in 2014, according to social media analytics company Shareablee. Photo- and video-sharing site Instagram was the main beneficiary.

Twitter Analytics can provide a lot of meaningful data to help you enhance and amplify your personal Twitter brand. But it can also be a little overwhelming, especially if you don’t live and breathe analytics as a full-time job.

Partisanship and policy aside, the campaign trail offers key PR lessons. Whether it’s a presidential hopeful hitting the campaign trail or a new CEO meeting with stakeholders, making a strong first impression is crucial. And perception may trump reality.