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There’s no rule in media relations that says communicators need to answer a reporter’s question immediately, particularly during a crisis. Never lie to a reporter, but sometimes doing the best thing for a brand means deferring on a question until you’re ready with an answer that’s carefully crafted. Veteran communicator Arthur Solomon offers tips about how to do this well.

We can speculate about why Wells Fargo created bogus credit cards or the motivation other brands had for doing things they knew were wrong or even illegal. Tobacco giant Philip Morris International is trying to remake itself into a purveyor of smoke-less product. It says it wants to discourage teen smoking. Then why was it flouting its own rules and using young, attractive influencers to tout its cigarette alternative?

Communicators often understand journalists more than they care to admit, and many are even recovering journalists themselves. Nonetheless, when it comes to being interview-ready, PR pros sometimes shy away from being confident spokespeople. Moreover, when it comes to prepping their clients for that big primetime on-camera interview, many communicators must outsource their media training to an expert. We caught up with one of the best.

This past Mother’s Day, The New York Times ran an opinion piece featuring several female athletes who are sponsored by Nike, focusing on the fact that Nike did not provide these athletes with paid maternity leave. The scandal reminds us that brand communicators should close the gap between what’s promoted and what’s practiced, and partner with legal teams to make sure that contractual language is consistent with brand values.

It was a fitting message for the final speech of The Social Shake-Up. Though attendees were loaded with days of social media takeaways, they also were beginning to feel the effects of some great parties and a lot of shaking. Clad in a great suit, Ann Handley urged the crowd to slow down…strategically. Well received, Handley’s message was loaded with insightful tips about improving content creation.

Jaime Primak Sullivan, star of “Jersey Belle” and president of Bridge and Tunnel Entertainment, shared the backstory to her success of her online video series #cawfeetawk at Social Shake-Up 2019. She also offered insights on adapting to the ever-changing nature of digital communications, all while being a working mom, and how to answer the question: “How do you do it all?”

Instagram has long since graduated from being a platform for photographers and artists to share and display their work. Now a bona fide marketing, sales and recruiting tool for a range of brands, Instagram’s growth has eclipsed 1 billion active users. 5WPR chief Ronn Torossian offers five basic best practices that brands should bear in mind as they launch or seek to grow their Instagram presence.

The very thought of writing a speech, let alone giving one, is enough to cause cold sweats for many of us. And if you’re in the audience for a snoozy talk—well, that’s torture too. Here are some tips from a speechwriting expert to help you hone your next presentation.

Seven years ago, Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin launched TheSkimm from their living room couch. Both were 25 years old, working in the news industry as producers, and found themselves in the midst of a crisis: How could they move forward in an industry that they loved, but in which they didn’t see a lot of innovation or routes upward?

Andrew Davis humorously pointed out we have a “FOMOOASP” problem: fear-of-missing-out-on-another-social-platform. “The marketing pie isn’t getting bigger, it’s just getting sliced more ways,” he said. He noted that brands’ budgets and time haven’t kept pace with audiences’ multi-channel content diet.