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From phony click-bait news sites, to unqualified sources to falsified stories, fake news, however you define it, is a threat to the PR industry. If our job is to ethically persuade public opinion by working with credible media, it follows that it’s vital that the public’s trust in a free press not be eroded. To go a step further, if the practice of PR is going to survive, good journalism must thrive. For that reason, it is critical that PR pros be more accountable than ever for their work.

Our weekly roundup of stories, trends and personnel moves in PR and communications. This week we feature a story timed to International Women’s Day, a reminder about why communicators need to monitor employees’ social media accounts 24/7 and a fond remembrance of Finn Partners’ Anne Glauber.

There was more going on at the Oscars than the PR issues a pair of PwC employees caused. There was a great deal of social media traffic involving sponsors, film brands and the celebrity presenters, among others. Using Shareablee data provided to us we found Instagram was the dominant social platform during the broadcast. For example Viola Davis’ Instagram feed drove more than half of her total actions. Presenter Hailee Steinfeld posted just five times, all to her Instagram account.

New digital platforms are driving the evolution of communications departments into media conglomerates, generating graphic, video and other content for both broad and targeted audiences. The agenda spans from an annual horizon of what we need to communicate, all the way down to what just happened a moment ago online and whether there is an organic way to join the conversation. So, Southwest Airlines is exploring how to create content from conversation trends, born out of data and presented in a timely manner.

Every brand tailors its image on social media. Every brand engages in crisis management on social media. From intranets for internal communications to publicizing CSR, social media is at the fore of what we do—except for media relations. Somehow, many PR professionals are still timid to venture beyond email when contacting journalists. It’s an understandable instinct. People don’t like their social life mixing too much with work. But social media made it easier than ever for PR pros to stay involved with journalists, and that kind of relationship now comes with the territory for them.

It’s official: Snap Inc. has gone public. Today, the parent company of Snapchat began trading under the ticker symbol SNAP, a day after pricing its eagerly anticipated IPO at $17 a share. That might’ve been a conservative estimate: When shares began trading this morning, they opened at $24 a share, which would value the company at more than $30 billion. But the real question hanging over Snap isn’t about its short-term luster, but its long-term prospects.

A video showing Uber CEO Travis Kalanick lashing out at an Uber driver put the company back in the media spotlight. Rival ride-service company Lyft might consider saving some money and suspending all advertising expenditures—Uber’s CEO might as well be on their payroll.

This was supposed to be a blog about another topic entirely. Yet the news we received late last night from a PR contact has prompted a different blog. To set the scene: your blogger had just returned from visiting a friend, hospitalized early Monday with an asthma attack that turned out to be heart trouble, which resulted in a triple bypass. Then, as your blogger sat down to finish writing the blog that should have been here, we received word from a PR friend that Anne Glauber, subject of a blog posted on this site months ago passed, aged 60, after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

This was supposed to be a blog about another topic entirely. Yet the news we received late last night prompted a different blog. To set the scene: Your blogger had just returned from visiting a… Continued

Change is a constant, and PR pros can learn how to manage themselves and their teams, with the right knowledge. The author begins a how-to series to provide the foundation of change management from a communicator’s perspective, with engagement at its core. The techniques explained will be immediately useful to you, your brand and organization.