Stories by Steve Goldstein

Just this week, Snapchat added a feature called Memories, which enables users to save their snaps and stories and find them again easily. PR News’ followers on Twitter have been complaining that Memories is just one more step in Snapchat’s transformation into a Facebook wannabe. The ephemeral fun’s gone. For some, it’s time to move on to—what, exactly?

Logos and product design are the fastest form of brand communications. Steve Jobs knew this, and so does Mondelez, apparently. At this moment, news headlines and images are being posted and shared about Mondelez’s $23 billion bid for Hershey Co. A nationwide Pavlovian response surely has followed, as midday workers slink to candy machines, drugstore counters and bodegas for a quick fix.

The shift in focus to paid social media content is redefining, yet again, the role of the PR professional—a topic that David Kellis, director of PR and social media for the Clorox Co., will dive into in his opening Wake-Up Call session at PR News’ Big 4 Social Media Summit in San Francisco. “In the past, we’ve done PR around advertising in magazines and other media. That’s what we’ve come to with social,” Kellis says.

When House Democrats began their sit-in on June 22 to force a vote on a gun-control bill before the House of Representatives begins a scheduled vacation recess, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) put the legislative body into recess, which meant the cameras and microphones were switched off. Soon afterward, C-SPAN began broadcasting Periscope and Facebook Live feeds of the sit-in shot by various House Democrats.

Optimizing content for traditional, typed-in search is not like learning how to find the right notes on a clarinet—the algorithms, unspoken rules and methodologies keep changing. Voice search is a whole new ballgame entirely. The phrases people use for voice searches tend to be different from written-out searches, and those content marketers who can adapt their content for voice searches are going to be the early winners in the race for brand visibility.

2015 PR News Salary Survey: PR Compensation and Benefits Report (click link to view)

2016 PR News Salary Survey: PR Compensation and Benefits Report (click link to view)

SHIFT Communications social media policy template (click to view)

Mayo Clinic social media policy template (click to view)

Pacific Northwest Laboratory comms-IT org chart (click link to view)