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You’ve probably either sent or received a version of this work email: “Who posted this tweet on the brand account? I think it’s too [personal/political/off-brand/sloppily written/insensitive/blatantly promotional/factually incorrect/ill-timed].” If you’ve never written or seen an email like that, you should congratulate yourself and your team. You’re managing to speak with a consistent brand voice on Twitter.

President Trump’s dismissal of James Comey as director of the F.B.I. May 9 would have been highly controversial no matter how it happened. But how to work within a scenario like that to ameliorate stakeholder dissatisfaction is a major facet of what we as communicators should practice—and it’s a facet that seems to have been neglected by the administration’s communications arm.

Banafsheh Ghassemi’s passion for using technology to promote empathy can be traced to a turbulent childhood. Ghassemi, the winner of the first annual Robin Carey Connector Award, was born in Iran, where her parents were both politically active members of the resistance during the run-up to the Iranian Revolution. As the revolution intensified, her family was forced to seek refuge in England when she was just 11 years old. And that experience has been central in shaping Ghassemi’s focus on human-centered design.

As PR pros know, media exposure can be a double-edged sword. What stories should be picked up and receive coverage and which should be tossed to the scrap heap? And who decides? Certainly we hope “the system” weeds out self-serving publicity hounds, but that doesn’t happen all the time. Unfortunately in our media culture outrageousness sometimes is rewarded. When that happens deserving stories can get crowded out. Here’s our attempt to make sure one good story gets told.

When you’re developing a news release, a good quote can make all the difference in giving character and perspective to your announcement. Once you’ve laid out the what, when, where and who, a quote from a spokesperson fills in the why: why your brand is passionate about an issue, why something needed to be done, why something is significant, why the reader should care.

Veteran PR pro Arthur Solomon has handled PR crises here and abroad, so when he says too many crises are handled poorly he deserves to be heard. In this article he provides tips for avoiding making crises worse. Of course, he whacks at some sacred cows when counseling brand communicators to tell the truth, to respond only when you’re ready and to consider each crisis as a unique event.

“Saturday Night Live” cast member Cecily Strong has joined the speaker roster for the Social Shake-Up, a three-day digital communications conference that will be held May 22-24 in Atlanta, and presented by PR News in partnership with Social Media Today. Strong will be joined onstage by Rob Gregory, president of content and influencer marketing company WhoSay, with whom she’ll discuss how social media conversations have influenced her character choices, impacted her performances and helped build her audience.

When was the last time you hand-wrote a thank you card? When was the last time you took out that stack of business cards you collected at an event and called (actually, phoned) those new contacts? And admit that it took a lot for you to resist posting on Instagram that beautiful dessert set before you at last weekend’s dinner.

Our weekly roundup of trends, news items and personnel announcements. This week we debate whether or not it’s good for brands to admit their mistakes quickly (Chipotle) or wait until they’re forced to do so and risk death by 1,000 cuts (Wells Fargo, Volkswagen and Fox News Channel). And do you get turned on by the smell of pizza baking? You’re not alone. And IPR plans a report detailing CCO pain points.

PR is changing so quickly that what students learn today in college may be outdated by the time they land their first job. Still, there are concepts that are unlikely to change despite this fast-moving industry, argues Edelman VP Amanda Sapp. Making sure you are authentic in your storytelling, speaking to audiences not at them and having passion for what you do will serve you well at the start of your career and during every stage that follows.