Stories by Michael Kaplun, The Fratelli Group

Pity the media relations pro. Not only are attention spans vastly reduced, many media outlets have responded to this with vastly shorter stories. Instead of giving up, PR pros must understand their efforts to gain earned media may result in a media hit lasting a mere few seconds. Here are a few tips to help pitchers shape messages so they will thrive in the new, short media landscape.

82% of people actively engage with brands on Twitter, so they want to hear from brands, says Nina Mishkin, brand and content strategy lead at Twitter. Brands, with their understanding of the flow of cultural conversations on Twitter, combine organic conversation with promoted messages in their strategy so they know when to pull the levers.

As we know, brands must stand for something beyond the products and services they offer. This means they can no longer remain silent in the face of an attack. They also need to admit when they make mistakes. Margaret Hoerster, a senior partner at Finn Partners, and Ameet Sachdev, a VP at the firm, argue timing, messaging and relevance play important roles when brands decide they should address an issue publicly.

Each month we’ll be asking communicators to unload their toolkits and tell us what falls out. In other words, What do you use to do your job? There’s no better duo to begin this feature than Manu Muraro, founder of Your Social Team, and Danielle Brigida, national social media manager, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We asked them what tools they use to bolster their Instagram feeds.

David Leonhardt of The New York Times called out himself and fellow journalists for failing to include enough women as sources in articles. How can communicators, who often are the journalist’s conduit to expert sources, turn around this situation? Dina Burns and Patrick George, directors at KP Public Affairs, offer suggestions.

We asked PRSA chief Anthony D’Angelo to provide his vision about what PR should be doing to boost its image as an ethical profession. This column is his response.

Last week we examined the top 10 U.S. B2C brands’ social activity in Q1 2018. Generating 2.1 billion consumer engagements across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, B2C’s grew their consumer engagement 4%

What’s in a Name? Is it fair to call the fatal accident that occurred aboard Southwest Airlines flight 1380 last week a PR crisis? Was what happened at a Philadelphia Starbucks April 12 a PR crisis

GDPR has nothing to do with GDP, although some portion of gross domestic product may be needed to reach GDPR compliance. Seriously, a new study shows most firms are not ready for Europe’s GDPR regime, which comes into effect next month.

Trust, thy name is not Facebook. Go, ahead, Google it. But is Google a trusted source? Joking aside, Facebook is not the sole tech brand with a trust deficit. Put Google in that category, based on a new Gallup