Stories by Sophie Maerowitz

Given Snapchat’s reputation as the new kid on the social media block, it’s no surprise that Snap Inc. continues to add new features to the platform, even as its competitors develop and release copycat interfaces. At PR News’ Snapchat Boot Camp Dec. 7 at the National Press Club, Larissa von Lockner, PR and social media manager at PwC, and Megan Frantz, senior producer at The Shorty Awards, shared the most recent updates PR professionals should know about—and how best to use them.

The dedicated PR and communications professionals behind the best PR and marketing campaigns of the past year were honored on Dec. 6, 2016, at PR News’ Winter Awards luncheon, held at the historic National Press Club in Washington, D.C. At the luncheon PR News announced the winners of its 2016 PR People Awards in categories that included Brand Marketer of the Year, Spokesperson of the Year, Social Media Professional of the Year, Intern of the Year and Public Affairs Professional of the Year, among others.

The young PR professionals behind some of the best PR and marketing campaigns of the past year were honored on Dec. 6 as part of PR News’ Winter Awards luncheon, held at the historic National Press Club in Washington, D.C. At the luncheon, PR News celebrated the winners of its 2016 Rising PR Stars Awards 30 & Under, a group of hardworking and highly creative young PR professionals representing a diverse array of agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations and professional associations from around the country.

If you’re thinking about abandoning Twitter to refocus your efforts on Snapchat or Instagram, you may want to reconsider: A whopping 40% of journalists source their stories on Twitter, according to a Cision report. What’s more, Medium reports that almost a quarter of the platform’s verified user base are journalists. And if the 2016 election cycle taught us anything, it’s that Twitter is the center of the online national conversation at any given moment.

It’s official: Snapchat has reached phenomenon status. Dunkin’ Donuts, in particular, was one of the earliest brands to start snapping. Melanie Cohn, social media marketing manager at Dunkin’ Brands, will be speaking on Snapchat content strategy at The Social Shake-Up, May 22-24, 2017 in Atlanta. She shares a few of Dunkin’s go-to Snapchat tactics.

So you’ve snagged an influencer for your brand’s next campaign…Now what? According to John Walls, director of brand PR for luxury & lifestyle brands at Hilton Worldwide, maintaining good relations with influencers is more complex than one might think. Walls will be speaking as part of PR News’ Media Relations Conference on Dec. 8 in Washington, D.C. He shares four points to keep in mind as you begin to correspond with your next industry influencer.

While Snapchat’s game-like, whimsical interface may not seem to be the obvious go-to for communicators at b2b companies, the platform has plenty to offer any brand looking to explore a new channel for audience growth. Larissa von Lockner, a social media lead and member of PwC’s creative team—who will be speaking at PR News’ The Social Shake-Up on May 23, 2017, in Atlanta—shares some best practices.

Google Analytics is among a PR pro’s most valuable means of proving ROI on a campaign. But for communicators that consider themselves more wordsmiths than STEM experts, it can be challenging to move past “analysis paralysis” when approaching a complex tool like Google Analytics.

On Nov. 16 at the Yale Club in New York City, PR News celebrated the recipients of this year’s Digital PR Awards. Honorees were presented awards for the best viral campaign, cause marketing campaign, social media campaign and more.

When some hear the word “influencer,” they may picture a celebrity with millions of followers. But influencers don’t always need to be famous to be effective brand ambassadors—take it from Amisha Gandhi, senior director of influencer marketing at SAP. She’ll be speaking as part of PR News’ Media Relations Conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 8.