Stories by Alex Shultz, SureOak

If it’s done right, SEO can improve both the quantity and the quality of your web traffic. SEO usually plays off of communications quite well, too. When used cohesively, you can build a powerful, integrated marketing campaign that produces data-driven results. If you recently started an SEO campaign, you’ll need a way to track the performance—and success—of your work. But which analytics are the most important to track? Here are five SEO metrics you simply can’t afford to ignore.

Failure is the mother of success. As business professionals, know this is true. Struggle is the best educator. And innovating and failing fast has become a top business strategy. In this PRNEWS series, in partnership with the Institute for Public Relations, industry leaders share lessons learned from failure.

With tonight’s Platinum PR Awards, PRNEWS’ most prestigious honors, we revisit a 2017 Platinum Hall of Fame inductee, Let’s Win! Pancreatic Cancer. Finn Partners’ Gil Bashe and John Bianchi write that Let’s Win! continues to do great work, though pancreatic cancer is spreading fast. A massive effort is needed to tame this scourge.

Organizations may work in a multitude of industries and locales, but all have something in common in a world where competition is on the rise: a growing need to put themselves in front of and promote themselves to rapidly changing client bases. From a social media standpoint, all face a pressing demand to redefine the shape of communications and outreach efforts to better meet these audiences’ changing interests and methods of interacting with an increasingly connected and social world.

At the Platinum PR Awards Gala next week in New York City, bestselling author David Brier will break down some of the biggest questions in public relations today: What makes great brands great? How can brands can survive in today’s dynamic landscape? And how do you take your brand to the next level with storytelling that inspires? Get a sneak peek as David hammers out the secret to storytelling with PRNEWS editorial director Melissa Hoffmann.

Demand for public relations agencies continues to grow. But with the entire concept of strategic communications quickly evolving, the business model of the agency needs to be reassessed and, often, modernized and right-sized. Here are some considerations as a jumping off point.

Most of the time you should just say no to Facebook, target tweets carefully and, most importantly, embrace LinkedIn and its tools. LinkedIn exists to help people and businesses connect, and an effective strategy will put your story in front of a large audience. It is best used as a platform to highlight your thought leadership, announce the good stuff you’ve got going on, and put your savvy people up front to let them shine.

Like most journalists, sports reporter Bobby Trosset gets inundated with emails, announcements, press releases, and loads of correspondence that are all trying to grab his attention. How can you get to the top of a busy journalist’s inbox? Trosset has some tips for communications professionals who want to get his attention.

Every day, it seems that someone is reiterating the same point: the world is more divided than ever before. This constant talk of division also brings up the idea that there is a need to take sides, and many brands are doing just that. Taking a firm stance on one side of a political issue and disavowing the other has become a popular marketing tool recently, but is it the right move for your brand?

At this point, everybody knows the score. Journalists are doing more with less and they don’t have time for copy-and-pasted press releases. You’re wasting their time and you’re wasting your own. Boring pitches, poorly targeted pitches and fluff help no one.