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Online communities can deliver a richly rewarding experience for the organizations that create them and the members who participate in them. But as more B2B customer communities crop up, how is this space evolving? Here are seven key trends our research uncovered.

The top social platforms see upward of 22 billion video views per day.That number is expected to climb this year. PR pros who haven’t yet integrated video into their campaign strategy are likely missing out on reaching significant portions of their audiences. But that doesn’t mean they should jump into video without a solid game plan or expect to go viral on their first attempt.

None of the brands behind the most-talked-about Super Bowl ads (Budweiser, Mr. Clean, Skittles, Kia, Audi), took to Twitter and Facebook the morning after the Big Game when the water-cooler chatter was in full swing. Why?

Brand reputation is built on the public’s critical judgment, pro and con. And that feedback is coming from every direction, posted as comments and star ratings on review websites that have a big influence on potential customers. As most things are with the internet, online review sites are double-edged swords. Positive ratings slice through advertising and SEO clutter to bring new customers and life to your enterprise. But credible-sounding negative reviews can cut the heart out of your marketing effort before prospective clients have a chance to learn anything about you directly.

We’ve been put in positions where we’ve had to inspire our colleagues to soldier on, even when we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have our game-time playbook and have had to adjust it in real time. While the Falcons played hard, the Patriots played harder when it mattered most. That’s a lesson for the times, for these times.

As the Super Bowl went into overtime and the Patriots took the lead and won the Vince Lombardi Trophy, my husband looked over at me and did not say “Wow, that was amazing!” Nor did… Continued

As it’s Super Bowl weekend we pull a bit of razzle-dazzle from our playbook and offer you two brand communicators who are heavily involved in activities around the big game. Each offers trends and their brand’s reactions to them in the form of Super Bowl communications and campaigns.

By now you know the score, but the real Super Bowl stakes were social. Shareablee data below shows brands with the most consumer engagement for the 2016 Super Bowl. Pepsi might reign this time. Talkwalker’s image-recognition software eyed 40K Super Bowl-related posts last week and told us consumers saw Pepsi’s logo more than that of any other brand by far.

Our weekly roundup of news items, trends and personnel moves from the past week. This edition highlights Snapchat’s IPO announcement, Volkswagen’s pyrrhic victory and a new book from Marian Salzman.

Uncertainty could be one of the handmaidens of crisis. So you can imagine the mood in Washington, D.C., as a new administration transitions into the White House. Presidential transitions often are bumpy, even when the new administration is from the incumbent’s party (think the balky path from the Reagan White House to the Bush team in 1989). The phones of brand communicators and PR firms alike are ringing a lot at the moment. Many of the calls are about crisis or potential crisis. As such, we asked communicators who will be speaking at PR News’ Crisis Management Boot Camp in Huntington Beach later this month for best practices to prepare for and react to crisis.