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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.

The enmity between legal and PR is supposed to be a given, particularly during PR crises. In the first of a series about organization, we find that the digital era has made it important for communicators and lawyers to work in concert.

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.

It’s a constant question facing communicators and the brands and organizations that employ them: When do you react to a situation and when is it best to say nothing or almost nothing? Apple is remaining relatively silent about its FaceTime bug, though it quickly acknowledged the situation and disabled Group FaceTime. Was this the right way to go?

Last week Buzzfeed announced that it would lay off 15 percent of its staff—including 43 journalists in its news division, and the announcement hit newswires as a troubling bellwether for digital publishing. The company, which first rose to fame for its viral listicles before later earning legitimacy as a journalistic enterprise, was initially quiet about one detail that was blasted by negative news headlines, tweets, and a protest letter by 400 current and past employees: it would not pay out earned PTO as a part of its severance packages.