Stories by Sophie Maerowitz

We rarely cover live events in this publication. PRNEWS senior content manager Sophie Maerowitz gave us a reason to make an exception. She attended a PRSA session featuring former Hearst executive Joanna Coles, who offered so many interesting tips and tactics that we had to share them with you. Here are some gems from the sharp yet blunt mind of Coles.

“How many of you have ever felt stuck at some point in your career?” That was how Joanna Coles began her talk at PRSA’s conference earlier today. As someone with an impressive and long-running career at the helm of some of the biggest media properties in the world, Coles has a deep well of wisdom to draw upon for PR pros. Women and men have parts to play in closing the gender gap in PR, she said.

Google has several enterprise-level tools that require a budget, but many of its tools—including Data Studio, recently graduated from beta—are completely free for the time being. Our roster of SEO and Analytics pros will be discussing some of these tools next month at PRNEWS’ Digital Boot Camp: Using Google Tools for Communicators, July 17 at NYC’s Yale Club. Ahead of the boot camp, though, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t feel empowered to start familiarizing yourself with these tools now. Communications professionals would be well-served to start experimenting with Google’s latest offerings, tinkering with messaging placement and delivery to see what resonates most with audiences.

PRNEWS staffer Sophie Maerowitz spends her off-hours volunteering for New York City cyclist, pedestrian and public transit advocacy organization Transportation Alternatives. At the start, she figured it would be the usual rabble-rousing stuff: showing up to protests, tweeting photos while holding up signs, et al. She now realizes it’s that and much more. She offers tips from her experience at TransAlt that communicators can adapt to urge brand advocates to become involved in social issues.

Are you neglecting email marketing in pursuit of shiny objects (like social media)? Jon Chang, global product marketer for IBM Watson and lecturer on NYU’s adjunct faculty teaching social media and web analytics, still sees email as a crucial channel for marketers and communicators in 2019. Here are seven of Chang’s tips and reminders for communicators looking to strengthen their chops as email tacticians.

On May 6, the 2019 Social Shake-Up Show in Atlanta kicked into high gear with a slew of hands-on workshops on social-adjacent topics from live streaming, to graphic design, to crisis management and more. Marketers and communications professionals working at a wide array of brands (Entertainment Tonight, Adobe and Kent State University, to name a few) offered attendees tips and tricks for more eye-popping designs, higher search rankings and better game plans for inevitable Twitter storms.

California-based company Buztubr offers a platform that allows businesses to connect with influencers (and vice versa) in tandem with Facebook’s and Instagram’s native advertising offerings. After developing software for companies including Facebook, Snapchat, Microsoft and P&G, engineer and marketing analyst Gunn Hoh brought his expertise to Buztubr, now serving as its COO. Hoh shared his insights on what he sees as missed opportunities in the influencer space.

Yelp may not always come up in conversation as a social network the likes of Facebook or Instagram, but for small businesses and their customers, Yelp is a godsend. Yelp’s senior manager of business outreach, John Carroll, will be speaking at The Social Shake-Up as part of a “Tying Social Media to the Bottom Line” session on May 7. We spoke to Carroll about his tips for social monitoring, brand evangelism and on-camera storytelling in 2019.

What content is TikTok’s burgeoning young audience most interested in? In a word: fun. Hashtag challenges and lip synch contests have become the platform’s vernacular. The app has placed a heavy focus on artificial intelligence, meaning the algorithm learns quickly and is custom-tailored to each user’s tastes. There also isn’t much pressure for users to build a large following—at least not in the same way that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have quantified influence.

Facebook made headlines this week with two major announcements: First, the tech giant is pursuing legal action against companies that sell fake followers and likes; secondly, it plans to blur the lines between WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram in order to allay privacy and usability concerns. It was also recently revealed that Facebook is entering the cryptocurrency game. So, how will these changes impact professional communicators?