Stories by Ian James Wright

Facebook wants to be your everything. Think about all the features that have been added since the days when you couldn’t do much more than post a status or picture: games, trending news, classified ads, fitness tracking, movie tickets, ride hailing, the list goes on. And now, the social media giant’s latest endeavors include food delivery and a LinkedIn-like resume feature.

Twitter just can’t seem to get a handle on its moderation issues. Rose McGowan is the latest to get caught up in Twitter’s uneven attempts to enforce civility. The actress’ account was temporarily suspended without an immediate explanation—and the eventual explanation from Twitter only raised more criticism.

Social media pros looking for ways to make their lives easier have some new options this week. Twitteriffic and Windowed offer users working on desktop or laptop more powerful and feature-laden experiences for Twitter and Instagram, respectively.

Facebook’s Crisis Response tool is facing its first sad test in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States. A gunman fired into the crowd of a country music festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, leaving more than 50 dead and more than 400 injured.

Maryland Transportation Authority Police dragged an uncooperative passenger off a Southwest Airlines plane. Public sentiment indicates sympathy for Southwest in this case, which could easily be due in part to the reputation the airline has built for itself through its efforts at transparency, customer service and good deeds.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association had a challenging task in representing the diverse opinions of their stakeholders. Ultimately they both defended players’ right to express their views without fear of reprisal. Even players, owners and coaches who supported Trump repudiated his “divisive” comments over the weekend.

Facebook has announced a new feature: Crisis Response, a center that brings its various tools and features for responding to tragedies and natural disasters into one place. Open Crisis Response, select one of the ongoing crises in the world and you’ll be able to use Safety Check, Community Help, get important news updates and more.

Marking any tragedy, let alone one of the most tragic events to happen in the history of the United States, is not a time to make it “all about you.” For your average brand, the only time it is a good idea to insert yourself into the message is if you have something of value to offer that is intrinsic to the brand (and you have a clear-eyed perspective on what “value” means to the public).

If you want a better website with better content, Google Search Console should be one of your first stops. It’s a powerful set of tools that can give you valuable information on errors you may have in your code, usability, search traffic and so on. And yes, there can be a slight learning curve if you’re new to it. In the PR News Guidebook: Google for Communicators, Chris Hornak, owner of Blog Hands, argues that fluency with these tools is well worth the afternoon or two it might cost you to learn how to use them.

If you’re not a rescue or relief organization, you can’t ask employees to be heroes. But if you create a brand culture that emphasizes community and empathy, and that you care about more than the bottom line when the going gets tough, you might empower individual employees to help in ways that will truly make you proud.