Social Media & SEO

The preponderance of fake news has taken its toll on the reputation of brands, governments and the media. Still, it’s prompted all three to strengthen their communications and raised the quest for accuracy, particularly amongst journalists. On the other hand, with media revived, the amount of content can be overwhelming. PR can break through the clutter by communicating more, not less.

At its annual F8 Facebook Developers Conference, Facebook announced a number of new features and products, including Instagram group video, more privacy and anti-bullying precautions, language translation for Messenger and—perhaps most buzzed-about—a new online dating service. We asked seven social media experts to give us their impressions of what’s coming next from Facebook.

“We sometimes talk about the fact that a lot is changing in our world,” says Jennifer Dulski, who will be the keynote speaker at PR News’ Social Media Awards luncheon on May 23 in New York. “But there are also some things that really don’t change—human nature, the desire for connection, the desire to make change and make the world better. Technology just makes them easier.”

Consumer engagement with social posts fell 50% in the first quarter of 2018, though audience figures rose, according to exclusive data provided to PR News by Shareablee.

What can be done about fake news and who will do it? A new study shows Americans prefer a bit of fake news in their online media diet than letting Washington regulate freedom of information. They even prefer tech companies do the monitoring of fake news over government doing it.

Most organizations are short on time, money and headcount when it comes to social media. So, when juggling multiple handles, channels and campaigns, it’s paramount that communicators manage their resources effectively and efficiently. Here are three time-saving tips for those working on social media solo.

Snapchat is working on a tweak to its much-maligned redesign that harks back to the way the platform once was—with user-generated Stories on the Discover page, right next to branded content, according to Recode While it’s just a test, the latest iteration proves that the best laid plans of social media redesigns often go awry. But it’s also good news for brands who may have felt partitioned off from the very people they’re trying to reach.

Does your brand’s Instagram channel stand out among the other 25 million business profiles on the platform? If not, it could be because your feed and profile don’t embrace a strong visual identity.

Facebook released its long-hidden community guidelines this week in another move to curry favor with the public after the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. A post on the company’s newsroom explains how Facebook’s content policies are developed and enforced, and introduces a new appeals process for posts that may have been removed by mistake. But will this newfound transparency be enough to rebuild public trust in the social giant?

Last week we examined the top 10 U.S. B2C brands’ social activity in Q1 2018. Generating 2.1 billion consumer engagements across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, B2C’s grew their consumer engagement 4%