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In some cases, companies remain ignorant about how to mark Pride Month. Thing is, there is no one correct way to do it. Take a stand, be authentic and engage queer members in your community and staff. No queer staffers? Begin there.

While the debate rages on as to whether or not she should be reprimanded or applauded for her actions (and with many public figures and companies showing support including Serena Williams, Nike and Billie Jean King), it raises some important questions regarding press conferences and the need for the now-historic practice.

We asked Alex Slater, founding partner, The Clyde Group, and Christina Ferraz, founder, Thirty6Five how they’re advising companies around Pride month and what role PR should have in advancing careers of those in the LGBTQ community.

For some business executives, media relations is simple: ‘Get me in the NY Times/Wall St Journal/Washington Post.’ However, if the past year of media consumption during COVID-19 has shown anything, it’s the importance of local media.

As awareness for Juneteenth rose, so too did consumer engagement with the topic on social. Consumer engagement rose nearly 4,000 percent (May1-May 25, 2020 vs the same period in 2021), according to Shareablee data, provided exclusively to PRNEWS.

It seems standard practice that companies must act, or at least speak, on social and political issues. In addition, it’s generally held that CEOs, often the face of a company, have a duty to take stands on issues. The deeper you go, though, all this appears more complicated.

How does a large organization like Philip Morris International keep all internal stakeholders on the same page during a pandemic and in normal times? That’s some of what we asked PMI’s head of global internal communication Bessie Kokalis Pescio. In addition, we asked how internal communicators at small companies should approach their work.

Have you audited SEO practices around your communication efforts lately? If not, the spring and summer months might be a good time to do so. As such, PRNEWS offers insight from search optimization pros to help.

While it’s unclear what comes next, it seems certain change is imminent. Moreover, building and maintaining a corporate culture, or, perhaps rebuilding one for the post-pandemic environment, will occupy a large majority of businesses and organizations. Among the tasks ahead for internal communicators will be gaining, or regaining, employee trust. In addition, motivating and engaging staff will occupy internal communicators. Of course, none of this will happen overnight. And leadership buy-in is critical.

With so many software choices and cascades of data, the question changes from ‘Which platform(s) do I buy?’ to ‘How do I manage the tool(s) and interpret the data?’ Communicators eventually find themselves bumping up against the limitations of what technology alone can do. In response, tools are neglected and investment is wasted.