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With 11 million documents under scrutiny by the world’s journalists, it seems a safe bet that more shoes will drop, perhaps implicating brands doing business in Russia, Iceland or Argentina. The question for brand communicators is what to do now? We have some answers.

Restaurants have always benefitted from the unofficial and unmeasurable—yet wildly successful—marketing technique of word of mouth, and they continue to do so, but online. Food blogs, Instagram accounts and Twitter feeds are fast replacing friends and family as the source of recommendations and inspiration for the next meal out. A big difference is that you can track and measure digital word of mouth better than ever.

When you don’t show up you risk losing your authenticity, and sometimes the trust your stakeholders have in you and your brand. When showing up, you are putting your best self forward. You are all in, whether it’s working on a project, attending a lunch with a new client, leading a meeting, listening to your colleagues, writing a report, a press release or an important email.

Journalists are busier than ever, consumers are savvier today than they were yesterday and the flow of information is massive and neverending. In other words, the heat is on for PR practitioners everywhere. These days, an interesting narrative is non-negotiable, and sharing it across multiple media is standard operating procedure. After all, giving your audience what they want, when they want it and how they want it is tantamount to keeping them engaged with your brand.

There’s good and bad news concerning getting coverage for your brand or organization on television and radio. The good news is that with today’s 24-hour news cycle, the talk radio and cable news media have a voracious appetite for news sources. They constantly need new angles on breaking news, as well as fresh faces to help put that breaking news into context.

It was big news Monday when Google unveiled a redesign for AdWords to select users of its cash cow product. The product of years of observing reportedly hundreds of global clients using AdWords, this first redesign in forever is expected to make it easier for users to track the words they’ve bought. Deploying Google’s Material Design strategy, users will find a series of graphs called Overviews replacing pages of data about specific words.

Dashboards must start with your company’s communications and business goals, along with objectives that you know are measurable. You also need to know your audiences and tailor your dashboard to their needs. With all that knowledge in hand, you then pick metrics. If the dashboard is intended for senior leadership, your metrics should be based on what the C-suite’s inhabitants want to see tracked.

Governments and world leaders are increasing their presence on social media. And like brands, some are committed to it, while others use a Facebook page as a placeholder, posting mundane announcements or no content at all. Indeed many of the trends brands have observed on social are apparent with the social accounts of world governments and leaders.

Sometimes it’s best to let your audience speak for itself. Brands can get bogged down in trying to develop messaging that aligns with their targets or speaks in a similar voice. Often brands need to step back and stop speaking to their customers, and instead offer them a place to share their unique voices. With this in mind, Taco Bell Foundation and Edelman used two specific tactics to galvanize their audiences around the fight to lower high school dropout rates.

April 1 is a great day for brand PR. Everyone gets a pass to joke around and show off their lighter side, and audiences take it in good humor when they get suckered. And though it’s expected, it’s not expected—that is, nobody is going to be upset at your brand for not taking part.

…except maybe when it comes to Google. They stepped up to the plate this year, along with other prominent brands.