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Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but when it results in the flatterer eating your lunch much of the enjoyment associated with flattery evaporates quickly. This is the case with Snapchat’s features, which Facebook has copied without mercy. Facebook’s features, though, are pulling ahead of Snapchat’s in terms of usage.

With the GDPR looming, it’ll soon become clear which organizations have prepared for Europe’s legal framework for the collection and processing of personal data and which companies are struggling to comply by the May 25 deadline.

The regulations stipulate that data breaches must be reported to European regulators—and to customers—within 72 hours, which makes it essential for organizations to plan ahead for the inevitable data breaches that are happening with increasing frequency.

David Leonhardt of The New York Times called out himself and fellow journalists for failing to include enough women as sources in articles. How can communicators, who often are the journalist’s conduit to expert sources, turn around this situation? Dina Burns and Patrick George, directors at KP Public Affairs, offer suggestions.

With information spreading via traditional media and social media at ever-increasing speeds, speaking out about a crisis right from the start can help you shape the story and make clear that your organization is on top of the situation. And one of the best ways to do that is with live video on your social feeds, especially if your crisis may impact public safety.

Whether you’re in marketing or PR or both, if you’re responsible for social media engagement then there’s a good chance “team” roughly translates to “just little old me.” In those cases, creativity and time-management skills can only get you so far. What you need are some shortcuts.

While most C-suite executives are still working to grasp the full value of earned media, they are getting savvy about data mining and analytics. The smart ones will begin asking pointed questions about PR measurement. And they will question reports relying on ad tech-based attribution that artificially inflates PR results. Beware.

Three new Facebook Stories features are being tested in India, but are due to roll out in the U.S. soon. These updates could be useful enough for professional communicators to warrant making Stories a new priority in their Facebook strategy.

Late last week, U.S. Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller delivered two subpoenas to Jason Sullivan, a social media and Twitter marketer employed by former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, raising the question as to whether or not incorporating bots into your social strategy is worth the risk.

Social media can be a wonderful tool for media relations professionals, as we know. Yet it is only one of several ways to communicate with journalists. Face-to-face meetings, which you can arrange for brand executives during a media tour, can help build a personal relationship with journalists. We asked communicators about their must-haves and tips for conducting successful media tours.

An overwhelming majority of brands choose Facebook as the front lines of their customer-service efforts. And while many organizations seek to resolve questions or complaints as quickly as possible, about a quarter of brands still take up to 24 hours to respond. Those are just two of the findings of a recent survey conducted by The Social Shake-Up Show and Lithium Technologies.