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In a perfect world, your summer vacation would begin the moment you set your inbox’s “out of office” message and leave your desk. As most professional communicators know, though, PR is far from a perfect world. Crises materialize that require your advice or input, while requests come down from the C-suite that you would be wise to address in a time-sensitive fashion.

For many companies, business plans involve creating a product and then trying to figure out whom to sell it to. But it turns out that some of the most profitable companies in the world, such as Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, found success by structuring their business plan the other way around. What it comes down to is this: What is the customer looking for, and how can you fit your company into those wants and needs to increase engagement and brand loyalty?

This month, talk of Instagram’s bold new features has been everywhere. On June 20, the platform announced it has surpassed 1 billion active monthly users. One week later, Instagram now launches three features that were teased at Facebook’s F8 event.

Though email and social media pitching is a cornerstone of public relations, sometimes it can feel impersonal, especially if you’re sending out dozens of pitches and hearing nothing back from inundated journalists. But what if you could meet these reporters offline, and get to know them as real people? Then your emails would no longer be lost in an overcrowded inbox, but instead move to the top of the list.

The CCO often is seen as a brand’s last line of defense, in theory supervising what the brand releases externally and monitoring and sometimes responding to what is said about the company outside the corporate walls. In the Netflix case, though, the CCO was the person who made the insensitive remarks. Twice.

It’s one thing to have an active social media strategy. It’s quite another to measure its success and adjust accordingly to achieve program objectives. As VP, audience engagement, for Audubon Society, Elizabeth Sorrell has an intimate knowledge of social media measurement trends and will share her expertise at PR News’ upcoming Social Media Summit.

Now that Instagram considers everyone to be a creator on IGTV, we all can learn from the numerous ways that brands are crushing it with their photos and videos on the platform this summer. While brands aren’t exactly pumping out the summer fun on IGTV just yet, here are three examples of brands that have perfectly captured summer elsewhere on the platform.

PR is at the beginning of its journey with measurement and data. With digital metrics so readily accessible, communicators have never been more able to accurately identify how their messages are received, track how brands are viewed in the market and even detect looming crises. Though using data can be intimidating, admits KPMG’s global communications lead Megan Dubrowski, she’s come to an epiphany: Use data to tell a story.

Brands need to understand that a Facebook Live audience will be joining cold and that they are most likely going to be distracted. “Many brands have interpreted Facebook Live as being like TV and have taken a chat show approach to it,” says FleishmanHillard’s Chris Jackson. “Facebook Live and TV could not be more different.”

In today’s oversaturated, mile-a-minute news cycle, it can feel impossible for PR professionals to get the attention of the right journalist at the right news outlet at the right time for their brand. But though there are certainly no foolproof formulas to hit the jackpot every time, you can increase the chances of your pitch getting noticed with some tried-and-true methods from communications experts like Scott Dobroski, senior director of corporate communications at Glassdoor. Here’s some of his advice on how to get your email pitches noticed.