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A pair of major PR firms are taking a page from the playbook of consulting firms, offering clients easier paths to a variety of expertise. Weber Shandwick is launching a unit that will consult to brands about corporate culture. On its 90th birthday Ketchum is promising to encircle clients with 14 industrial specialities as well as the traditional PR communications offerings.

Elon Musk and Bill Gates have roughly the same number of social followers and posted nearly the same amount of content in Q1 2018. Yet each of Musk’s posts generated an incredible 266,000 consumer engagements, propelling him to the top of the quarter’s Business influencers’ list. Gates’ posts did well, at about 18,000 consumer engagements each.

What data do consumers value most? Another way of asking that question: What pieces of information about themselves are consumers least concerned about sharing with brands? A survey provides some surprising answers.

Hardly anyone is suggesting abandoning the internet, though it’s probably not a bad thing for communicators and marketers, whose professional lives often revolve around digital communications, to appreciate a declining number of people see the internet as a good thing for society. The findings of a Pew poll might be more marked had it been conducted after Facebook-Cambridge Analytica come to light.

With Instagram boasting 800 million active monthly users and 80% of them following brands on the platform, we asked communicators for best practices for being successful on the graphic-based platform. They told us carefully picked influencers and attention to creating consistent visuals are critical.

Watching the political scene can provide PR pros with a tuition-free course in media relations, argues veteran communicator Arthur Solomon. His 2017 columns about political communicators’ missteps were some of our most popular. He’s back with more lessons from the first half of the 2018 political season, including this gem: If you crave loyalty at work, bring your dog to the office.

How can communicators on social break through the timeline to create branded content that doesn’t feel forced or fake, but instead is fresh and fun—all while maintaining the organization’s voice? Arby’s tackled this problem by leveraging one of the greatest forces on the internet today: nerd culture.

Measuring media relations success has to start at the top. Meaning, before you start collecting insights from your coverage, you need to have a benchmark of what your ideal story is, and everyone, from the CEO level down, needs to be in agreement about what that is.

Communicators know even a few words can move markets. A great example is what’s happening surrounding President Trump’s promise to have the Commerce Department investigate whether or not imported cars and parts are doing structural harm to the U.S. auto industry. Should Commerce rule that they are, the president could slap significant tariffs on imported autos. Until that decision is made, uncertainty will reign and auto industry communicators will be in the hot seat.

Communicators are more aware than most that words matter. Words can move markets. There are few better examples of this than several small statements made May 23. President Trump said the U.S. automobile industry’s health is… Continued