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Prior to PR News’ Media Relations Conference in December, PR News and partner PublicRelay, a media monitoring and analytics firm, convened a Communications Leadership

It’s great when you’re so famous, your name is just one word. Cher is wonderful, so are Messi and Madonna. But what about not even needing words? Everyone knows it’s Nike by the swoosh. A piece of fruit with a bite taken out of it shows who made your laptop. Now Mastercard joins the small fraternity of iconic brands with wordless logos.

The maxim for writers is “write what you know.” Jim Lindheim followed that advice. The former Burson-Marsteller chairman has just written “Spin,” a novel with a PR crisis at its center. In this hybrid column, Lindheim offers a glimpse of the novel and provides best practices from years in the crisis-management trenches.

Despite the difficulties CEOs and brands experienced in 2018, they emerged victorious in the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer, released late last month. The public trusts businesses and CEOs most to right the ills of society. “My employer” was the most-trusted entity.

Knowing how other brands approach the social media management role can be helpful in deciding what should or should not be part of your social media manager’s responsibilities, whether you’re hiring for a new social guru or evolving the role as it currently exists in your company. PR News checked in with three social media leaders at three very different organizations about their daily goals, tasks and schedule.

A beach-ready bike safety campaign. A long-term commitment to Puerto Rico’s hurricane relief. A virtual reality experience to curb binge drinking. These are just a few of the campaigns championed by the finalists at PR News’ CSR awards, an elite group of brands that have spearheaded highly successful CSR campaigns and initiatives over the last year. PR News’ 2019 CSR winners will be celebrated at a luncheon ceremony on March 15 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Media training normally centers on hitting all the talking points and avoiding topic land mines. What’s missing is an understanding of what goes on after that, when the story lands in the newsroom. This knowledge can help once an interview is over and the expectation for coverage begins. Here are a few tips to improve the experience.

Ahead of its Q4 earnings call (after markets close on Wednesday, January 30), Facebook seems to be making more news than ever. Communicators will do well to keep abreast of these announcements, as they signal a greater push toward repairing user trust on the platform.

Influencers can be a boon to brands and organizations. They help attract a youthful demographic and provide third-party credibility and authenticity to a company’s narrative. With all these positives, companies can overlook proper vetting of influencers. 5WPR chief Ronn Torossian provides tips on what to look for in an influencer relationship.

Injecting Reddit into a communications plan may seem like a death wish. Why would any company jump onto a platform notorious for embodying the worst of social media? And yet, it may well be time to wake up and take notice. According to Alexa, users spend more minutes per day on Reddit than any of the other top fifty sites.