Digital & Technology

The dark weather on Monday night in Boston was a perfect complement to some of the darker topics communicators need to wrestle with today, including dark social, rogue sites and hackers and executive terminations. Fortunately, good advice rained down on attendees as well.

How can you engage a community of thousands from across the world while making them a part of your live events? For Erin Flior, senior director of digital communications at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, live streaming has emerged as a key way to create community and encourage participation for those who can’t be onsite, allowing them to contribute their thoughts and questions in real time.

Growing up, most of us were encouraged by our parents and teachers to play well in the sandbox, to share our toys and pay attention in class. Fast forward to now, and imagine your boss… Continued

Marking any tragedy, let alone one of the most tragic events to happen in the history of the United States, is not a time to make it “all about you.” For your average brand, the only time it is a good idea to insert yourself into the message is if you have something of value to offer that is intrinsic to the brand (and you have a clear-eyed perspective on what “value” means to the public).

Doing good for people in times of need can be tricky for brands. If you draw attention to a tragedy too much or in the wrong way, the public might accuse you of trying to score PR points. (And some brands might be doing just that.) Sometimes it helps the cause to draw more attention to it; sometimes the classy thing is to remain silent and speak through your actions.

Did you experience a sudden and sharp sense of FOMO last week? Then you should’ve been in San Francisco with PR News. An all-star lineup of speakers presented on topics ranging from SEO and Google Analytics to influencer marketing and Snapchat at the Big 4 Social Media Conference and Google for Communicators Boot Camp held at the San Francisco Grand Hyatt Aug. 9-10. Here’s a wrap-up of the two-day event, which showcased compelling video, top-notch speakers and networking opportunities galore.

We asked Katy Martin, senior account manager at Google, who chiefly works with large customers within consumer electronics verticals, to imagine a time-travel scenario: If she were talking to herself a year in the past and had to get that self up to date with AdWords, what would be the main takeaway?

Reality checked in with me recently when a few parents on my son’s rowing team, knowing my affiliation with PR News, asked me to write the press releases for the club. Sure, it’ll be easy,… Continued

More and more, users prefer a conversation to web browsing for their shopping and customer service needs. But for brands with large audiences, responding to each comment personally can be a nigh-impossible task. Enter the chatbot, a technology that’s rapidly coming into its own and turning into a valuable communications asset.

Amazon, Reddit, Netflix, Google: This is just the beginning of the list of prominent companies that have joined the chorus to call for the preservation of net neutrality on July 12, 2017, the “Day of Action.” But your brand may not seem to be as directly affected if it is not a content provider. How, then, is this controversy relevant to you?