Writing

As you know, social media has an important role to play in any PR effort. The ability to connect with and put thought leadership content in front of large social networks via these tools lends itself exceptionally well to addressing the need to influence. Practitioners, though, focus so often on short-form communication on social that the power of long-form publishing in the medium has failed to become as widely recognized—or at the very least, its rate of implementation is lower. Here’s why that should change and how you can be a part of it.

Plagiarism happens, sometimes intentionally, other times accidentally. What do communicators need to know about plagiarism? And how can they avoid plagiarizing others? And, yes, themselves?

Are you thinking about starting a blog at your company? You recognize the value it could provide your organization, but how do you make sure the time you invest in it is worthwhile? How do you know if you’re writing the right types of blog posts for your brand and its publics? Here are tips to build a blog that builds your brand.

Strong writing skills can propel a PR pro’s career, but the opposite is also true—weak writing skills can undermine your message and professional growth. Whether it’s a press release seen by thousands or an email seen by one, a PR pro’s goal is to make any piece of writing concise, impactful, polished and clear, said Sid Orlando, managing editor of curation and content at Kickstarter, at PR News’ Writing Workshop.

My take on the new year is different in its emphasis: 2017 will be when we realize that the land rush associated with new channels and platforms is over, and we no longer have excuses for not focusing on the key elements that drove PR for the century before digital media: quality and credibility. Yes, we’re at the tail end of a few years’ window when you could get ahead simply by posting more frequently to your brand journalism site than the laggards. Google rewarded sheer quantity. And you could get a bunch of free followers by jumping onto Facebook before your competitors, and then Twitter, and to some extent Instagram. This channel-hopping seemed like the new normal. But in the grand scheme of the history of marketing, it will be viewed as an outlier on the front end of the digital revolution, where fundamental rules got bent for a while.

It’s become harder to gain media coverage. Likewise, securing coverage in down months like December and January can challenge even the most committed PR pros. Some may have little to no fresh content to pitch. But if you want your brand to remain relevant, you must be active in the public conversation.

It can be challenging to pick and choose when to use humor in communications, especially for well-known brands whose audiences religiously follow social channels and dispatches. In recent years, the White House—a brand unto itself—has used humor to great effect. David Litt, special assistant to the president and a presidential speechwriter from 2011 to 2016—and now head writer and producer at Funny Or Die D.C.—reflects on the uses of humor during the Obama administration.

The news release is not dead. Even in the constantly evolving digital age, a news release is one of the best ways to disseminate a message. It’s also a great vehicle to reach media contacts. A news release for social media and one for traditional news media are different, however. To reach an online audience, releases need to be social. By being so, the release can be shared in various communities by people beyond media contacts. Journalists, bloggers or social media users who work mostly online prefer a news release containing embedded video, audio files, images and links. Links to social news releases can be sent via email to a reporter or tweeted to an audience.

There are so many ways to send messages, yet email shows few signs of declining. In fact, it’s growing, according to the latest statistics from the Radicati Group, which predicts 3 billion people will be using email by the end of 2019. That’s about one-third of the world’s population.

Remember when everyone in PR became enamored with analytics and how numbers and math would create a Moneyball across the communications landscape? While today no one disputes the fact that analytics has become a standard communications tool, it is clear that a new—and surprising—weakness in our industry has emerged: the written word.