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As you know, social media has an important role to play in any PR effort. The ability to connect with and put thought leadership content in front of large social networks via these tools lends itself exceptionally well to addressing the need to influence. Practitioners, though, focus so often on short-form communication on social that the power of long-form publishing in the medium has failed to become as widely recognized—or at the very least, its rate of implementation is lower. Here’s why that should change and how you can be a part of it.

All industries recycle trends. If an expert declares a style, medium or influence is dead, beware! You’ll almost always see it again several years later in a modified form. Who thought we’d use record players again? And yet here we are in 2017 collecting vinyl. Were you around to see skinny (tapered) jeans and knit ties go out in the 80s? Well, they’re back in style. It’s the same for communications.

Trying to separate the signal from the noise when it comes to PR measurement can be a daunting task. There is so much data at your disposal that it’s tempting to try and embrace it all. But one of the most common traps companies fall into when starting a measurement program is in taking too wide of a view of what should be measured, says Jessica Onick, corporate public relations program manager at B2B software firm Citrix. “The biggest mistake that we as PR people make is the tendency to want to measure the universe,” she said.

Do you have the guts to cede control of your social media to employees? This takes trust, but according to Carmen Collins, social media lead for Cisco’s Talent Brand team, it can be a rewarding way to get out your message, promote the brand’s culture and build your following.

This is the sixth year we’re including the CSR Hall of Fame as part of PR News’ Spring Awards luncheon, which will be held March 22 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. At the luncheon we’ll also honor the winners and honorable mentions of PR News’ CSR Awards and Nonprofit PR Awards.

How many times have you received a text message you didn’t look at? The answer is most likely “almost never.” In fact, text messages receive a 98% open rate and mobile messaging is the No. 1 most frequently used feature on our phones. This unlocks a world of creative opportunity for brands. In a time when ad blocking is the new normal, marketers must embrace choice-based ad offerings in the quest for true attention. Luckily, there’s a ripe opportunity to reach the nearly 1 billion iPhone users out there with something they’ll actually appreciate—in iMessage.

If you’re a PR professional and you’ve never had the opportunity to work a SXSW show on behalf of a brand, you should definitely add it to your career bucket list. There’s the sheer geography of SXSW—every street is lined with branded facades as companies take over venues for experiential marketing stunts. Not to mention the volume of social media and social ads that pump through every channel.

Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messenger (both part of the Facebook family) are powerful platforms that are now being used by more and more people. As mass adoption occurs, the tipping point makes it justifiable for brands and services to invest in the development of bots and AI. And judging by this week’s SXSW, that tipping point isn’t far away.

It was an effective pitch: brief, tailored to the media outlet that received it, clearly and cleanly written. It pitched an essay about a relevant topic: best practices for small companies and startups seeking to obtain media coverage. That’s why the pitch, from a PR firm representing a communications director at a brand, and its attached essay made it through several layers of editors until it reached your blogger, with a message affixed from a PR News colleague: potentially usable content. It went downhill from there.

“Journalists are grammar nerds.” – Kristen Page-Kirby, Senior Arts Editor, Washington Post Express “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.” – Attributed to several people, including: Will Rogers, Oscar Wilde, Mark… Continued