Stories by Sophie Maerowitz

Just in time for the holiday season, Instagram has expanded its offerings for brands handling their e-commerce through the platform, while also giving users the ability to track how much time they spend scrolling through their feed and Stories. New shopping features include the rollout of clickable video tags, collections and a special “Shop” section for businesses selling on the platform. Meanwhile, a “Your Activity” dashboard helps users track how much time they spend perusing their friend’s posts and favorite fashion brands.

Imagine a world where your pre-coffee company tweet, sent with an accidental typo, could be edited before the world sees it. That world could be coming sooner than you think, after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey hinted at a soon-to-come feature. Here are four elements of the change for communicators to be aware of.

Content may be king, but even top-notch content needs to be timed strategically in order to get seen. As new social platforms grow in prominence and user habits shift, it’s worth periodically evaluating your posting cadence and strategy. Here’s a handy guide to keep in your back pocket for the best posting times on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest in 2018.

Facebook has reported slow growth this quarter, most likely a result of the data leaks, fake news and hate speech the embattled platform has faced over the last two years, not to mention a saturated global user base. But in its quarterly earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg spoke to four new directions Facebook is headed, all of which will affect how communicators approach the platform. Here are some of their implications for communicators.

Each fall, PR News celebrates the top digital campaigns and initiatives of the last year at its Digital Awards luncheon. This year, the event will be held Nov. 8 at The Yale Club in New York City. Leveraging video, mobile apps, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and more, this year’s finalists have taken an unrivaled creative and tactical approach toward digital communications. Here is a list of this year’s finalists.

Google and NBC are both under fire this week for employees’ inappropriate behavior and subsequent backlash in the news cycle and on social media. Here’s a contrasting look at each company’s response, with commentary from PR professionals on how well each brand tackled its crisis communications.

“Don’t be Pepsi.” That’s a piece of advice many influencer marketing experts have shared since the soda brand’s 2017 misstep, when it cast Kendall Jenner as a champion of diversity and the Black Lives Matter movement. Here, three influencer marketing experts share the pivotal roles diversity and inclusion are playing in the field—and how brands can ensure they get multicultural influencer marketing right.

Google has announced it will be shutting down its seven-year-old social network Google+ for consumers. And while those that swear by Instagram and Snapchat are unlikely to miss the struggling platform, Google+ did get a few things right in terms of communications offerings. Here are three Google+ features that communicators might miss—and some suggestions on how to find those offerings elsewhere.

Google has the final say in what pages rank at the top of search results. So it makes sense that Google tools would be best suited for measuring the success of your website optimization efforts. In the last few months, Google has unveiled a slate of new features for better understanding website visitor behavior. Here’s a recap of each, with their communications takeaways.

Instagram has announced it would be adding the option for “select” brands to allow customers to shop via special tags on Instagram Stories. And, after piloting the feature for several months to its test group, the tap-to-buy option has been made available for all business accounts approved for Shopping. The feature is likely to pay off for brands on the platform. In March, the company published data from a survey stating that more than one in three daily Instagram users say they have become more interested in a brand after seeing it on Instagram Stories.