Stories by Seth Arenstein

Our regular look at social media metrics with exclusive data provided to us by Shareablee. In our final look at data from 2016, we examine how nonprofits and governmental organizations did in terms of consumer engagement with their posts and videos on Instagram and Facebook.

There’s little question that brands, even so-called unglamorous B2B brands that might seem to lack a compelling visual story, are finding Instagram a useful outlet for messaging. That was illustrated in our lead story last… Continued

Our weekly roundup of news, trends and personnel announcements in PR, communications and marketing. This week stories featured include one about United Airlines settling with Dr. David Dao and CEO Oscar Munoz repenting for the widely viewed video of the doctor being dragged down the aisle of a United Flight. There’s also a story about ESPN illustrating how lines are blurring between internal and external communications.

It’s not a question for the ages, but it’s a head-scratcher. Why does a 27-year-old athlete without a college education know that the best way to head off a potential PR crisis is to be honest, while highly experienced CEOs and heads of multinational corporations, who’ve had the benefit of media training, fail to learn this lesson?

How can brands that supposedly lack a visual element create community and engagement on Instagram? One way is to expand the kind of content the brand provides. For example, ForRent.com at its essence is a large search engine for those seeking apartments and homes. On Instagram, though, it offers content about home decorating, entertaining, recipes, fitness and more, its AVP for social explains.

Our regular weekly roundup of trends, stories and personnel moves in PR and communications. This week’s stories feature the FTC’s 90 letters to brands and influencers about disclosure, the spin on Bill O’Reilly’s departure and the battles facing internal communications.

PR pros know it’s important to adapt to change. Yet it’s also comforting when some of the basics of PR can be applied to new platforms. Take Twitter, whose newsworthiness President Trump has cemented. We asked Rebecca Matulka, deputy director of digital, U.S. Department of the Interior, about creating engagement and growing a community on Twitter. Before setting out the tactics her organization uses, she noted that goal setting, a key component of nearly every PR effort you can think of, should comprise the start of your Twitter endeavors.

The way some PR pros avoid social media measurement you’d think it was the plague or worse. Yet even those who have little time and budget to devote to measurement can reap benefits, says Danielle Brigida of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. One of the benefits, she says, is that social listening can lead to more informed content creation. Brigida discusses how she measures, what she measures and why.

Our weekly look at trends, news and personnel moves in PR and communications. This week we look at the Bill O’Reilly sex scandal, the Pepsi race commercial and the Arthur W. Page Society’s reactions to fakenews during its spring summit.

Our weekly roundup of trends, news and personnel moves in PR & communications. This week we feature stories about Uber’s latest issue, new moves from Twitter, a new VP of communications for Univision and brief obits for PR pioneers Pam Edstrom and Gershon Kekst.