Our weekly roundup of trends, news stories ad personnel moves in PR and communications. This week includes stories about a rogue tweet at McDonald’s, an update on Wells Fargo and Volkswagen and WE’s acquisitions in Asia.
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How To Turn Metrics Into Engagement
March 13th, 2017 by Jerry AsciertoAs PR pros know, measuring the effectiveness of social media posts can be tricky. Many measurement strategies emphasize vanity metrics such as reach, impressions, shares or retweets, but those KPIs can be misleading. Just because a tweet is re-tweeted multiple times doesn’t mean users actually are clicking on the link found within. So communicators must separate quantitative and qualitative metrics—volume vs. quality—for a more complete picture, says Danielle Brigida, national social media manager at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

How to Use Social Media to Gain the Attention of Journalists in a Crowded Environment
March 13th, 2017 by Seth ArensteinThe media’s fascination with Donald Trump’s candidacy began in 2015. It continued in 2016, when during the 24 weeks of presidential primaries (Jan. 1-June 7) “there was not a single week when Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or John Kasich topped Trump’s level of coverage,” a July 2016 study from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy says. Even after Cruz and Kasich quit the race in early May, essentially ceding the race to Trump, the businessman received more coverage than either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, the Shorenstein report says. Jump to the past two-and-a-half months and communicators can legitimately be forgiven if they feel like social media platforms and the media have adopted a philosophy of “all Trump all the time.” How can PR pros break through this clutter?

I Can See Clearly Now: Abbott Uses Clarity, Levity to Make LASIK Appealing
March 13th, 2017 by Krysta Pellegrino and Michael SullivanContent is one of the best tools in your toolkit to tell your brand story the way you’d want the press to write it, but the better you immerse yourself in the world and jargon of your or your client’s industry, the harder it is to draft content that is accessible and approachable for the general public. Abbott was facing just such a problem. It wanted to re-engage young adults with the prospect of getting LASIK surgery, a highly technical and FDA-regulated procedure. It turned to Weber Shandwick. Together, the companies navigated the challenges of un-complicating a nuanced and intimidating product and learned a lot along the way.

How Millennials Can Help Your Brand Succeed and What They Seek in Return
March 13th, 2017 by Farley Fitzgerald, Ariel Miller and Julie LellisAs you seek entry-level talent for your organization do you wonder what college students are learning and how it is priming them for PR careers? To inform you, the senior executive, about this we asked newly minted PR pros Farley Fitzgerald, communications manager, National Geographic Society, and Ariel Miller, account manager, INK PR, to share their thoughts. Their former professor, Dr. Julie Lellis, also provides insight on how good academic programs should shape our generation’s best communicators.

The Week In PR
March 13th, 2017 by Seth ArensteinOur weekly roundup of trends, news and personnel moves in the PR industry. This week we feature stories about keeping watch over your LinkedIn account, new rules in Britain for brands and influencers and Verizon’s Torod Neptune departs for Lenovo.

How Coca-Cola Organizes Communications for Its Newest Journey
March 6th, 2017 by Doug BuskHow does a giant brand like Coca-Cola organize aspects of its communications? Like much of the work at The Coca-Cola Company, digital and social communications is a scale operation. Global Digital Communications and Social Media reports to Coca-Cola’s Public Affairs and Communications function (PAC). It is a lean group of nine based out of company center headquarters in Atlanta, supporting the editorial, social media and technology capabilities of in-market teams locally. An in-depth look at organization and how Coca-Cola has changed its social storytelling follows.

Gordon Ramsay Tops Oscars’ Sponsors on Social, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is Top Presenter
March 6th, 2017 by Seth ArensteinThere was more going on at the Oscars than the PR issues a pair of PwC employees caused. There was a great deal of social media traffic involving sponsors, film brands and the celebrity presenters, among others. Using Shareablee data provided to us we found Instagram was the dominant social platform during the broadcast. For example Viola Davis’ Instagram feed drove more than half of her total actions. Presenter Hailee Steinfeld posted just five times, all to her Instagram account.

The Week In PR
March 6th, 2017 by Seth ArensteinOur weekly roundup of stories, trends and personnel moves in PR and communications. This week we feature a story timed to International Women’s Day, a reminder about why communicators need to monitor employees’ social media accounts 24/7 and a fond remembrance of Finn Partners’ Anne Glauber.

Millennials’ Advice to Brands: Take Authentic Stances on Social Issues
March 6th, 2017 by Ian James WrightHow has a Trump presidency changed the way millennials think about helping to do good works for society? That issue was in the forefront of millennial panelists’ minds as they discussed the importance of brands doing social good. The millennials were given a platform when W2O Group hosted Firing Up Emerging Leaders (FUEL), Feb. 28 in New York City during Social Media Week.