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Our weekly look at news, trends and personnel moves in communications and marketing. This week’s stories include James Levine’s ouster at the Metropolitan Opera, a House committee looks deeper into the U.S. Olympic Committee amid the Larry Nassar scandal and Twitter halts accounts that were tweetdecking.

Although blockchain, AI, and augmented and virtual reality has dominated the conversation at SXSW 2018, there were multiple sessions that focused on bringing your whole self to work, channeling vulnerability and emotional intelligence. The underlying theme was the connection to self, mindfulness and prioritizing the human element above all else.

In the spirit of the NCAA basketball tournament, PR News offers its own version of March Madness with the 2018 Most Overused PR Words & Phrases Tournament. Take a look at the first-round picks and vote on Twitter for the overused words from each pairing that you’d like to see advance. We’ll announce the second-round picks this Friday, and every Friday through the end of the month until we crown a champion.

As Facebook continues to de-emphasize branded content in its News Feed, brands must strive harder than ever to run compelling campaigns, pouring bigger ad budgets and organizational resources into the platform. With so much at stake, how can brands drive a true return on investment with a Facebook campaign? By making those campaigns as enticing to their audiences as possible, of course.
On March 13, PR News will explore strategies for doing so in its webinar, “How to Increase the ROI of Your Facebook Campaigns.” For a taste of tomorrow’s program, here are four ways brands can increase ROI on Facebook.

Considering that Snapchat now shares analytics and insights with its network of influencers, its addition of “mentions” feels like another feature that will allow the platform to function as a serious tool for communicators. And considering that the company laid off over 120 engineers this week, it’s possible that the company might be content to continue beefing up its interface with innovations that already exist elsewhere.

A plethora of industries is applying data and AI to their work, including journalism. This means media relations professionals need to adjust. FleishmanHillard’s Ephraim Cohen provides a series of takeaways from a recent panel of journalists discussing this topic. He argues media relations professionals will need to change the way they do certain things, though other aspects of their job will remain the same.

For Kieran Fagan, vice president of communications at Aetna, successfully communicating and using key performance indicators across a business relies on a unique combination of training, transparency and planning. Fagan, who will be speaking at PR News’ Measurement Conference April 16-18 in Philadelphia, shares three steps to leveraging KPIs internally.

The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference—a week-long spectacle filled with experiential marketing stunts and immersive brand experiences that’s equal parts technology, education and entertainment—always offers plenty of style and substance for professional communicators. For those unable to attend, here are five fascinating live-streamed interviews and sessions that communicators will want to catch.

According to PR News’ 2018 Salary Survey, the most important skills for advancement in communications are written communications, media relations and content creation. Way down on the list, at No. 8, is measurement/data analysis skills. A roundtable conversation with 14 senior communications pros painted a different picture.

Strong writing skills can supercharge your brand’s message and propel your own professional growth. After all, the best way to influence anyone is a story well told. Yet, many communicators undermine their brand’s message—and their own credibility—by stumbling over some common but easily avoidable linguistic hurdles. Here are three common errors to keep in mind before you hit the send button.