Stories by Seth Arenstein

When people came up for air last week long enough to discuss something other than the tribulations of Misters Comey and Trump, a few of them spoke about Apple’s new HomePod. That was our cue to ask communicators if their brands are invested in voice activation. We also wondered if it’s time for communicators to begin making significant investments in voice activation.

Many people are talking about Apple’s HomePod, the monolithic and intelligent home speaker the brand unveiled at its Worldwide Developers Conference June 5. With an enviable acoustic and its ability to answer questions about music (“Who’s the guitar player on this track?”), HomePod ($349) can be a nice addition to the home. What about its significance for PR & communications? Maybe that comes down the road. For something from Apple that might have a more immediate meaning for communicators, you need to look at another announcement it made.

The influencer bubble is about to burst. So say a rash of communicators who’re tired of paying exorbitant fees for influencers who, they claim, rarely deliver. Still, some brand communicators feel influencers can deliver messages with more authenticity than a brand can. That’s the case with Sara Dunaj, social media manager of Princess Cruises. We asked her to share some best practices.

Our weekly roundup of trends, stories and personnel moves in PR & communications. This week we look at stories about Mr. Met, Walkers Crisps, United Airlines and British Airways. Personnel items include a huge move for Starbucks chief communicator Corey duBrowa and an award for Johna Burke.

Our regular data feature this week looks at the influencers in beauty and fashion whose April 2017 posts attained the most consumer engagement. Shareablee provided the data exclusively to PR News. In beauty, which is far larger a category for social than fashion, the Kardashian family dominates, with Kylie Jenner offering an Instagram post that received more than 3 million likes.

A pair of Brits, chef Jamie Oliver and filmmaker Louis Cole, were the top influencers in food and travel, respectively during the month of April, according to data provided exclusively to PR News Pro by Shareablee. The rankings were compiled looking at social media shares, retweets, comments and likes. Interestingly, Oliver’s top post lacked any mention of food.

After an industry show, the question we receive often is a variation on “What did you hear?” With some 90 speakers over two and a half days, one person’s experience during last week’s sold-out Social Shake-Up show in Atlanta likely was a bit different from anyone else’s. One theme was that many, though not all, brands and organizations understand social media is far from a fad, but instead can be a valuable communications tool, a listening aid and a useful platform for e-commerce and customer care.

Our weekly roundup of news, trends and personnel moves in PR and communications. This week we features stories about British Airways weekend crisis, a fond farewell to Ketchum’s David Rockland, notes about expansion and a slew of personnel moves, including a White House ouster and Staples naming Michelle Bottomley as its CMO.

Our weekly roundup of news, trends and personnel moves in PR and communications. This week AMEC vows to put AVEs to rest for good, President Trump mulls killing the daily White House briefing, PRGN adds to its roster of agency members and WE founds the PLUS Network.

It’s generally accepted that brands are highly vulnerable to crises. We’ve all heard the maxim, “It’s not a question of if your brand will experience a crisis, but when.” The good news is that since communicators work across the enterprise, they are well placed to know where a crisis might erupt. But how about when it doesn’t take an experienced communicator to know that a brand might be vulnerable? We look at two incidents where issues have arisen and brands might be tempted to act.