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For those unfamiliar, blockchain is the underlying technology of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that enables open, anonymous and secure transactions. As traditional businesses and enterprises were introduced to blockchains, however, their visions for applications have ranged far and wide — as has the hyperbole of its promises. Now, before we go any further, I have to get something out of way: Blockchain is not a cure-all. It will not revolutionize every facet of human life. Now that that’s covered, let’s focus on how the hype came to be, and how communicators should really be talking about it.

A day after experiencing the biggest one-day point drop in its history, the Dow Jones Industrial Average continues its wild ride—and investor relations pros are likely working overtime to minimize the damage. So, how should communicators calm jittery stakeholders? We asked five communicators who specialize in investor relations and crisis communications how they’re approaching messaging during today’s stock market crisis.

If the fragmented media environment is a sick patient, machine learning may be the cure. That was the proposition Andrew Heyward, visiting scholar from MIT’s Media Laboratory and former president of CBS News, outlined in his presentation, “Can Robots Solve Your PR Problems?” at the New York offices of agency Makovsky on Feb. 6.

Another in our look back at social activity in 2017. Today we examine the most-engaged influencers in the businesspersons’ category.

Did you know 74% of Americans order a takeout pizza or a delivery pizza at least once a month? We didn’t either, but DiGiorno did. And it also knew from social listening that last year 80% of posts about delivery pizza were not positive. That led to a pizza party, er, experiment.

As a communicator, you know what you and your immediate colleagues think of you. But what about the C-suite? Do its members consider PR highly valuable or would it take a reputation crisis to make them realize communications is a valuable part of any company? That’s what we asked some 200 communicators.

Is there anything new under the Sun when it comes to PR crisis management? Absolutely a pair of veteran crisis communicators tell us. One is to upgrade your planning and take an holistic approach. What you’re not planning? Oops.

To many of us the Super Bowl is about advertising, not football. Twitter launched a competition for Super Bowl LII with just those people in mind. Its inaugural #BrandBowl pitted Super Bowl advertisers against each other in various categories looking at the highest engagement across a given industry while the game aired. One category, #Interception, looked solely at brands without a Super Bowl ad that drove high engagement. The #Interception award winner, Ally Bank, had to cut through the online noise generated by some of the nation’s largest brands.

The Super Bowl is one of the most highly anticipated annual events in popular culture. But for many people tuning in, the advertising breaks are every bit as compelling and competitive as the game itself. This year, ads from Tide, Amazon and the NFL won the day and gave their brands a lift, while Dodge Ram shot itself in the foot with a tone-deaf spot.

At the start of 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that big changes are coming to Facebook’s news feed—specifically, a de-emphasis of branded and publishers’ content in news feeds—and we’re already seeing the effects of some of those changes. PR News spoke with five communicators to see if the decrease in time spent on Facebook, and the company’s recent changes in its news feed algorithm, is cause for concern and augers a shift in their own content strategy.