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While the election showcased a deeply-divided nation, president-elect Joe Biden’s acceptance speech Saturday called for unity and healing. He set a precedent with the tone and content of his speech, acknowledging battles affecting every citizen across the nation. Bringing people together seems to be a systematic goal for the incoming administration. Letting people know out loud was one way to adhere to that promise.

Communicators who are new to your shop may bring bad habits with them from previous jobs. It’s important for PR leaders to take time to notice their work, offer constructive feedback and make them feel like part of the team. Investing the time to train new employees in your corporate culture can pay dividends. Here are a few ways to do it.

Unless you’ve been living on Mars with no access to a livestream of Earth, there’s no denying that American’s emotions run the gamut right now. Many citizens’ stress levels, due to an elongated presidential election, have hit their peak. However, when things get tough in the U.S., some of our best and brightest creative coping mechanisms come through. Laughter is the best medicine for tense times, and social media is providing some of the most hilarious election memes, tweets and videos for comfort. 

As quarantine stretched on, virtual happy hours and video-call dinners with family and friends tended to become less exciting. Similarly, as work-from-home continues, the push is on for internal communicators to keep things fresh at the virtual office. Here are tips for a fresh approach to internal communication months into the pandemic.

With the mainstream media laser-focused on election coverage, how should communicators be spending their time? We asked PR professionals how they’re managing the lack of status quo externally and internally. Here’s what they told us.

Society’s reliance on digital technology during the pandemic is prompting the transition of PR into Intelligent Relations, a research associate from Cyprus argues. As a result, PR will invest more in social-listening techniques and other digital tools. In addition, PR will expand the limits of behavioral analysis and employ the advantages of automated production and personalized content.

The news media and social media platforms know it is of the utmost responsibility to get this right. With Twitter and Facebook battling swarms of disinformation posts daily, the companies prepared strategies to combat this ahead of Election Day. The media also seeks to instill and keep the trust of the American people, with most outlets announcing reporting processes. Both industries worked extra hard to focus on protecting the integrity of election results to earn trust. 

Fighting against disinformation is an emerging discipline for communicators.  If you think of it as the next generation of issues management, it becomes a skill communicators need to learn and study to avoid getting caught up in the quagmire of misleading information. Here are ways communicators can help.

Female-led WE Communications has an enviable track record on gender diversity. Last week it named 20-year WE veteran Elizabeth Herrera Smith EVP and head of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). We asked about ways PR can bolster its ethnic diversity and how small and mid-size communication shops can kickstart DEI.

Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer-prize winning science journalist and author, and one of the most prolific voices regarding coronavirus news, gave the keynote speech for PRSA Icon, the organization’s annual international conference. Garrett delivered a detailed timeline of the progression of coronavirus, paying close attention to the interwoven timeline of misinformation and public distrust.