Stories by Samantha Wood

Reporting the data from a communications campaign is more than just writing up a tally of various metrics. Too many communicators try to use measurement simply as an end in itself, a gauge of how well a campaign performed after it’s over. Rather, analytics should inform every stage of the planning process, says Carrie Schum, executive vice president of strategic planning, analytics and research at Porter Novelli.

When it comes to measuring your PR and communications efforts, more is not always better. Janneke van Geuns, head of insights and analytics at Google, says that she has seen communicators who try to collect and track an overabundance of metrics. But collecting more data isn’t going to bring about better insights, she says. Instead, communicators should break through the clutter of unnecessary (and just plain meaningless) metrics to focus on the ones that truly matter to you and your organization.

For Carrie Strehlau, turning a complex subject into an engaging story is part of her everyday challenge. Strehlau, a senior social media specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has found Instagram Stories to be a great vehicle for highlighting and humanizing the hospital’s work. In this Q&A, she shares her approach to the platform, how she measures success and why spontaneity can be just as important as prep work when it comes to Instagram Stories.

PR News recently asked its community to tell us who should be listed among the top game-changers of PR in the last few years. Here, we look at game-changer Anna Ruth Williams, founder and CEO of ARPR. In just five years, the Atlanta-based firm has expanded its footprint by opening new offices in New Orleans and San Francisco, and garnered more than 30 industry awards along the way.

If you want to optimize a web page to be front and center on a Google search, there’s so much more to it than just using a couple of keywords in the title. From the time of day your page is posted, to making sure you always follow the 3/100 rule, there are a variety of methods for optimizing a page to make it dance with Google’s algorithm. Here’s a quick 12-step checklist to keep in mind whenever you’re posting a new piece of content to your site.

How can you engage a community of thousands from across the world while making them a part of your live events? For Erin Flior, senior director of digital communications at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, live streaming has emerged as a key way to create community and encourage participation for those who can’t be onsite, allowing them to contribute their thoughts and questions in real time.

As a communications professional, so much of the job is based on building relationships, whether it’s creating trust with journalists or speaking directly to your audience on social media. The same applies to influencer marketing—building relationships is key, but it’s just as critical to maintain those relationships over the long haul, says Amisha Gandhi, head of global influencer marketing for enterprise software giant SAP.

PR News recently asked its community to tell us who should be listed among the top game-changers of PR in the last few years. Here, we look at Natalie Boden, founder and president of BODEN, an agency that boasts such clients as Target, McDonald’s and United Healthcare among its growing roster. Boden has dedicated her career to diversifying the PR industry, a dream that reflects her own unique background.

We’ve all read stories of an angry customer tweeting at an airline or a restaurant because they had a bad experience. But social customer care is about so much more than just dealing with irate customers, says Brandi Boatner, a digital experience manager with IBM. We recently sat down with Boatner during a Facebook Live session to pick her brain on how social customer care is evolving—and how IBM is using artificial intelligence to bolster the process.

For the past 14 years, Vanessa Wakeman has given her team simple marching orders: to challenge what is before you, in pursuit of a greater good. Her dedication to challenging the status quo has led to her great success in the social change sector.