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Want to know some of what was on the minds of attendees at the sold-out Social Shake-Up Show? Ask the attendees to discuss 10 social media-related topics toward the end of the conference. That’s just what happened on Wednesday afternoon at the show. Find out what the attendees were thinking about as well as some of their key takeaways.

The Saturday Night Live actor who plays the girl you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with at a party turned out to be quite conversant about social media during Tuesday afternoon’s session of the sold-out Social Shake-Up in Atlanta. Actor/comedian/activist Cecily Strong provided trenchant points about social media as it relates to celebrities and brands. There were plenty of laughs, too. Photo: www.Jkleinphotography.com

There were things old and new during the sold-out 2017 Social Shake-Up Show’s opening general session today (May 23) in Atlanta. The new started right away, as six members of the Alpha Rho step dancers of Morehouse College literally kicked off the show with a rousing performance. And then Shonduras took over the stage.

The early bird gets the worm. That certainly applied to the pre-Social Shake-Up workshops, which featured plenty of personalized instruction on topics ranging from customer journey mapping, SEO and building online communities. The Social Shake-Up, which begins in earnest May 23, is sold out, yet the pre-show workshops were intimate and filled with important takeaways or shakeaways, perhaps.

As PR pros working in an age when even the term ‘new media’ feels old and social apps appear and disappear like stairwells at Hogwarts, we can’t simply sit back and watch earned opportunities slip away. We must evolve and expand by mining new communications platforms for the earned potential that lies within them. Since media companies have adopted social channels as a viable distribution method for their content, shouldn’t PR pros be working harder to earn coverage for clients from media…on social media?

Our weekly roundup of news, trends and personnel moves in PR and communications. This week AMEC vows to put AVEs to rest for good, President Trump mulls killing the daily White House briefing, PRGN adds to its roster of agency members and WE founds the PLUS Network.

It’s that time of year again: Spring is in the air and so are graduation caps. Recent college graduates looking to enter the communications field will face the challenge of their first round of interviews, rife with think-on-your-feet moments. Whether you’re graduating or have a friend or family member entering the PR workforce, here are six interview prep tips for aspiring PR pros.

Twitter rolled out new tools and controls May 17 that allow users to view and modify the data that helps advertisers target them. Users are now able to turn off interest-based ads entirely (although they would still see other paid posts) or curate their interests to see ads that are more relevant to them. To see which interests Twitter thinks you have, go to Settings -> “Your Twitter data.”

It’s generally accepted that brands are highly vulnerable to crises. We’ve all heard the maxim, “It’s not a question of if your brand will experience a crisis, but when.” The good news is that since communicators work across the enterprise, they are well placed to know where a crisis might erupt. But how about when it doesn’t take an experienced communicator to know that a brand might be vulnerable? We look at two incidents where issues have arisen and brands might be tempted to act.

It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If this is true, then you could argue that video and other multimedia content are worth millions. This is especially the case in the very crowded brand journalism waters, where The Coca-Cola Company is using content to simultaneously build brand love and corporate trust. Coca-Cola Journey makes (and sometimes breaks) Coca-Cola news, bringing to life the stories bubbling just beneath the surface of our business. We made this big bet because we believed that authentic stories matter.