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Experience can be a great teacher. Veteran communicator and 155 Strategies founder Pete Janhunen offers three tips to help communicators excel in their careers. He emphasizes building relationships, crafting clear messages and insisting on a seat at the decision-making table.

You’ve heard this a million times, but it’s still true—the majority of the tools you need to make your images pop on social are already in your pocket. Smartphones have an endless number of apps and native tools to improve image quality or highlight certain colors and textures, but there’s still no substitute for taking a well-composed, well-lit and well-realized photo to begin with.

As 2018 dwindles to a few days, marketers prepare for the new year and many tend to wipe the slate clean. This makes it a great time to consider your budget plans for 2019. To get you started on thinking about marketing priorities, 5WPR chief Ronn Torossian looks at trends he believes will be important to consider in the coming year.

‘Tis the season for best of lists. PR is not different. Some communicators spend down time debating the top PR crises of the year. That’s the crux of this short video from Ashley McCown, president of Solomon McCown. See if you can guess what her top 5 PR crises of 2018 are before you view the video. A few hints: not all are examples of poor crisis management and her top crisis is the toughest to guess. Good luck.

The brands on Spotify’s “The Year in Advertising” differ, but they all have one thing in common: They leveraged Spotify’s unique insights into user behavior to target audiences where and when they listen. Spotify has amassed a vast collection of data over the years, having integrated with other personal data collectors like Facebook and Instagram. Here are three highlights from the 2018 list, along with the user behavior insights behind each campaign.

Industry icon Jack O’Dwyer has died at 85. A respected journalist and publisher, he founded his O’Dwyer’s Newsletter 50 years ago. That led to other publications that became industry must-reads. A journalist’s journalist, O’Dwyer was a fixture at industry events for decades, carrying his reporter’s pad and pen. “He was one of a kind,” says veteran communicator Andy Gilman.

At some point, perhaps soon, companies will use AI to gather data about target audiences and even create content that best suits their needs. Until that time, it falls to communicators and marketers to use available data to paint a portrait of target audiences and how they prefer to receive content. This infographic provides basic profiles of various demographic units and their content preferences.

PR News’ 2019 Top Women in PR will be celebrated at a luncheon ceremony on Jan. 25 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. Winners were judged based on their campaign objectives, successes and ROI over the last year, as well as their overall influence within their organizations and the PR profession at large.

Improvisation often is associated with comedy. Yet several PR firms find it useful to use improv tactics as part of their media training effort. Since media interviews share many characteristics with improv performances, it makes sense. Improv exercises help build confidence, encourage quick thinking and improve listening skills, making it ideal for media training.

Brands are still learning how to assess positives and risks when working with influencers. In light of this report, however, new questions emerge: How do brands protect themselves by properly vetting influencers, and what do they do when someone is falsely posing as a legitimate brand influencer?