Stories by Sophie Maerowitz

We’ve all seen a powerful video that makes us laugh, cry or take action in some way. But communicators must be able to craft video content that is both compelling and likely to drive business results—a common requirement from senior leaders before they approve a video budget. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done before you hit the ‘record’ button,” said Suhki Sahni, director of communications and consumer PR and Chris White, managing editor of content strategy at Capital One. Both spoke as part of PR News’ Video Boot Camp at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

NBC News anchor Matt Lauer has been fired after sexual allegations were raised by a fellow employee at the company. On Nov. 29, a memo from NBC News chairman Andy Lack was released to the press announcing the firing to NBC employees and citing a complaint of “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace” as the reason for Laurer’s termination. This comes amid a wave of revelations of sexual misconduct by public figures in the media, politics and entertainment spheres. But NBC’s swift response appears to be a shift in the way these stories have broken thus far.

Snapchat has announced a new feature that recognizes users’ images and suggests graphic overlays and filters. These smart filters can parse an image and suggest relevant graphics in several categories. Pets, concerts, food, sports and beaches are among the top suggestions. For communicators, the new feature is more than just a fun way to decorate posts. The rollout sends a larger message to brands about the app’s ability to drill down beyond users’ interests and into their daily behavior.

YouTube is once again facing a brand advertiser exodus for reputation-harming advertising placements. A recent investigation revealed that YouTube ran ads from “dozens” of brands with videos uploaded by children that were targets for predatory comments.

UCLA’s and Pac-12’s extended media moment following the incident in China is nothing new in an era in which not responding—as UCLA did by declining to take questions from the press—is a form of response in itself. We can now add UCLA to the list of brands ensnared in our divisive cultural and political climate.

Twitter is inviting users in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan to participate in its new program, Promote Mode. The program automatically promotes all tweets for $99 a month. What the social platform isn’t saying is that with this new program, Twitter, like Facebook, sees itself primarily as an ad platform. Allowing users to automate the promotion process—making every paid tweet count more than one without dollars behind it—means Twitter is further distancing itself from its organic roots.

As any PR professional knows, reputation is everything. And if anyone still doubts that, the #MeToo movement has arrived to awaken us all. At this very moment the reputations of comedian Louis C.K. and Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore are in free fall as a result of news coverage of their alleged sexual misconduct.

As we’ve seen in recent weeks, a tumultuous news cycle—compounded by an online community rattled by recent violent events—can be a breeding ground for rumors, hoaxes and false reports. In the last few days alone, the San Antonio shooter was misidentified as a member of both the alt-right and alt-left movements, Twitter swirled with rumors of Snapchat’s demise and Facebook pulled a failed fake-news curtailing experiment.

A difficult week for Twitter continued with an 11-minute shutdown of President Trump’s Twitter account. What steps Twitter plans to take to prevent another hijacking of the most influential Twitter account in the U.S. remain to be seen.

It’s no secret that audiences respond more readily to their peers’ brand engagement than they do to messaging that comes directly from brands themselves. But what can communicators do to convert those engaged users into brand advocates?

Stacey DePolo, who manages social media and advocacy at domain and business services provider GoDaddy, considers that question often. She works daily to build GoDaddy’s community of brand advocates, which she defines as “a group of people who are passionate about a brand, product or cause that promotes their community either in person or online.”