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With International Woman’s Day approaching this week and Women’s History Month already here it was heartening to see several PR firms being recognized for progressive policies toward women. Both FleishmanHillard and Edelman were named to the National Association of Female Executives’ (NAFE) list of top companies for women. Still, it’s clear much more progress is warranted.

Created last week, Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) named its regional leaders as we went to press. For N America, Chris Foster becomes president, N America, BCW. Previously he was EVP, global business.

At the Oscars, celebrity influences spoke out as conscious, mindful advocates instead of talking heads. Some of the most significant moments include the snubbing of Ryan Seacrest, a passionate advocation for dreamers and the suggestion of a rider that would make inclusion in productions a requirement. These tactics have implications that reverberate for beyond the Hollywood Hills.

The “Facebook Apocalypse” dominated conversations at Social Media Marketing World 2018, as brands prepare for a post-organic new world order. But for communicators, the future doesn’t have to be a dystopia of direct deposits into Facebook’s bank account. By mastering short-form and live video, focusing on storytelling and remembering to keep the humanity intact, your social media strategy can shift focus away from the brand and toward the consumer.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been around since the 1950s, though you’d think it’s brand new judging by the number of recent news articles mentioning it. Communicators can take advantage of AI now and they needn’t be engineers to do so, argues Jared Carneson, global lead, social innovation, for FleishmanHillard. There is a slew of tools that flirt with the AI space that can ease communicators’ workload. Carneson offers a look at several and urges communicators to experiment.

Six years ago, Carly Keeny had a hard time convincing her colleagues at United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey that social media was anything more than a place to store content. Since then, however, Keeny has led the organization to viewing social media as a powerful and cost-efficient way to promote its mission. Keeny’s team focuses primarily on three social media KPIs: applause (likes), amplification (retweets/shares) and conversation (questions and comments).

Spotify went public and valued the company at $23 billion, but it has been providing value for brands since it revamped the Spotify for Brands program last year. The company utilizes user data in multiple ways to aid brand advertisements, but can it withstand scrutiny over how much data it collects from users now that it has entered into the open market?

Anything said during, before or after an interview can appear in a story. In fact, anything said anywhere can end up being reported. Hope Hicks found out that even what you tell the House Committee on Intelligence behind closed doors can end up being reported.

Earlier this month a prominent columnist, writing about White House Communications chief Hope Hicks, essentially said it is the job of PR pros to lie to the media. PRSA chief Anthony D’Angelo promptly disputed that idea. Now Hicks apparently herself told House investigators that yes, she must tell white lies sporadically as part of her job. Once again D’Angelo says such a claim is wrong.

Do social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat have a viable, upstart competitor? Vero, launched and funded by billionaire Ayman Hariri in 2015, has found overnight popularity by offering free accounts to the first 1 million users, making it the No. 1 social media app on iTunes as of the morning of Feb. 27.