Stories by Seth Arenstein

The Fraudnomics Summit last month in NYC made one of its goals eliminating the estimated $1.3 billion in influence marketing fraud. Unilever N America’s Casey DePalma McCartney told us communicators must think long term and holistically about the influencer ecosystem.

Data integrity and privacy issues are ubiquitous, yet so few firms are addressing them. We asked Dan Linton, the newly minted lead of the global data privacy unit at W20 Group, what PR pros should be doing on data protection and data privacy.

One person’s disaster can be another’s success. In the case of Thomas Cook’s fall, brands and organizations had a chance to help or hurt their reputations. Communicating and acting with compassion and care helped, of course. Taking advantage of the situation for excessive profits was bound to hurt, with communicators left to explain their brand’s seemingly predatory actions.

To get you ready for PRNEWS’ Measurement Boot Camp next month in NY, we offer a preview of its luncheon session. Featured speakers will be Paine Publishing chief Katie Paine, Prudential VP, global communications/head of research and analytics Allyson Hugley and AMEC global MD Johna Burke. In a roundtable late last year, we asked this trio about the good and bad in communications measurement.

Social media has made listening easy, right? Not so fast. There’s listening and then there’s critical listening. It’s not hard to figure out which kind is more advantageous for communicators. Tips and thoughts about listening will help your career blossom.

Instagram is growing like a social media mushroom, doubling its monthly active users in two years and eclipsing the 1 billion mark last year. The picture-centered channel also is constantly adding features. We asked several Instagram users about some of their favorite new features. In addition, we asked about features they’d like to see on Instagram in the future. Three of the speakers will be featured on the Sept. 19 PRNEWS webinar, “How to Use Visual Storytelling on Instagram to Build New Audiences.”

Two more brands stepped into the gun control debate. Walmart, which sells arms, said it would halt sales of handguns, though it will continue offering hunting rifles and ammunition. Grocery chain Kroger, which, as far as we know, doesn’t sell guns, joined Walmart in asking customers not to carry arms in its stores. Did these brands make the right call?

Instagram is growing like a mushroom. It doubled its active monthly users during the past two years, eclipsing the 1 billion mark in 2018. On top of that it has a relatively young demographic. With our webinar

Our monthly roundup of data-related items begins with a 500-person survey about PR measurement. While it’s said to be common knowledge that the amount of data is overwhelming communicators, this didn’t rate very high in the survey. Next, a FleishmanHillard report shows consumers don’t expect companies to take stands on every issue. Last, a survey debunks the notion that coverage of the 2020 elections will make it impossible for companies to tell their stories on TV.

To get you ready for this month’s PRNEWS webinar on Instagram storytelling, our monthly roundtable addresses recent and future Instagram features that are influencing storytelling. The respondents in this roundtable also will be speaking during the webinar.