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With any new job comes the chance to learn from more senior team members, but also comes the chance to teach a senior team member. Understand that when I use the word “teach,” it doesn’t mean that the new hire is coming into the position with more knowledge than you. What it means is that the new hire is arriving with potentially different knowledge than you already have.

The term PR may be obsolete by the end of 2017. The concept of PR meaning ”building relationships with one’s publics” remains valid. But the common vernacular meaning of PR as being mostly about media relations is rapidly going the way of the landline and the floppy disk. Look at titles today. My database used to be filled with titles like “PR manager.” Now it includes one or more of the following words in an astonishing variety of combinations: social, digital, content marketing, PESO, public relations, public affairs, communications, advertising, marketing, development, events, etc.

For all the good that social media provides, it also, during times of crisis, can be the venue for horror stories about brands. We mentioned in our Dec. 5 edition the plight of Delta Air Lines, whose Thanksgiving turkey was ruined when an unruly passenger’s tirade—and the cabin crew’s failure to boot him from the aircraft—was captured on video.

As the year draws to an end, there are many lessons that young PR people should have learned from 2016 news reports that can apply to our business. Here’s a look back at the learning moments of the year that sprang from the headlines.

Developing a brand message can be difficult. It can be even more difficult to ensure that your message stays consistent across all channels, both internally and externally. And when you have a crisis on your hands, and don’t have the luxury of a great deal of time in which to craft messages that address the crisis, that can be more difficult still.

“Finding the right influencer is like dating,” says John Walls, director, brand PR, luxury & lifestyle brands, Hilton Worldwide, who’s newly married. Agrees APCO Worldwide managing director Lisa Osborne Ross, “[Beginning a relationship with an influencer] is like starting any relationship…etiquette is etiquette…[and the relationship] really clicks when each side has something to offer…I’ve been married for 28 years…I’m very clear what my husband offers and what I offer,” Osborne Ross says in deadpan gest.

Taco Bell is often held up as a brand that knows what it’s doing on social media. Before you follow Taco Bell on Snapchat and steal its ideas, take a look inward. Are burritos and… Continued

If you’re with a B2B company, professional association or government agency, finding your visual identity for Instagram and Snapchat, for instance, might be the subject of weekly, or daily, meetings. These meetings might have proved fruitless. Keep in mind your visual identity can be as simple as a single color. Is there one color that dominates your logo or calls to mind an emotional connection with your product or service?

Given Snapchat’s reputation as the new kid on the social media block, it’s no surprise that Snap Inc. continues to add new features to the platform, even as its competitors develop and release copycat interfaces. At PR News’ Snapchat Boot Camp Dec. 7 at the National Press Club, Larissa von Lockner, PR and social media manager at PwC, and Megan Frantz, senior producer at The Shorty Awards, shared the most recent updates PR professionals should know about—and how best to use them.

The dedicated PR and communications professionals behind the best PR and marketing campaigns of the past year were honored on Dec. 6, 2016, at PR News’ Winter Awards luncheon, held at the historic National Press Club in Washington, D.C. At the luncheon PR News announced the winners of its 2016 PR People Awards in categories that included Brand Marketer of the Year, Spokesperson of the Year, Social Media Professional of the Year, Intern of the Year and Public Affairs Professional of the Year, among others.