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This weekly feature asks communicators to spot trends and discuss their reactions to them. In this edition we hear from Kira Clayborne, senior manager, digital media, Church’s Chicken. Clayborne discusses how brands should react when it finds fans speaking for them on social.

No matter your industry or subject, creating a plan to reach goals that will help you arrive at your destination also can assist you to better understand the scope of your communications and marketing. A plan will help you stay organized and make adjustments in case you run into unforeseen challenges and obstacles. It also can help you reduce processes into small, achievable chunks for accomplishing tasks that you’ll need to do to overcome challenges. Here are five steps to help you write a strategic communications plan.

A weekly roundup of the week that was in PR and a brief look at personnel moves. This week’s edition includes stories about Dunkin’ Brands, Spong’s new name, Ketchum’s WonderLust 50+ study and the founding of American Women in PR.

Without Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump appearing in your brand’s YouTube video, and lacking the professionals and budgets of the major broadcast, cable and Spanish-language networks, does your brand’s video stand a chance? Indubitably so, communicators tell us. In this first of this two-part series we’ll concentrate on bolstering your YouTube content; part II, in a future edition, will focus on measurement and analytics.

The diversity of knowledge needed in our profession continues to expand. We’re strategic advisors as well as communicators. As such, I’m seeing a greater need for continued learning. When I was in journalism school, I was required to take one marketing class. That’s right, one. Not that regression analysis is part of my day-to-day, but that class gives me more insight now than it did then. Communications is a business. A strong business education is critical to success.

A wrap-up of the week’s top PR stories, trends and personnel announcements. This week’s edition includes stories about Wells Fargo and its ousted CEO John Stumpf, EpiPen maker Mylan agreeing to pay a fine for underpaying on rebates to government medical authorities and Bisquick’s tone-deaf Twitter comments.

For those representing academic institutions online, the task of evaluating yet another new social network or social media offering from established outfits can feel overwhelming. Several years ago, it was tempting to think the world would cleave neatly into Facebook and Twitter camps. With some extra effort, we could adjust our messages to both, engage with their respective audiences and respond to new features. The market for social networks seemed almost mature.

A look at the week that was in PR, including stories about: Wells Fargo’s troubles in Chicago and its attempt to return to the Windy City’s good graces.

One nonprofit essentially is like every other nonprofit, except for size and the causes it supports, right? Not really. While less unique than snowflakes and fingerprints, some of the most-engaged nonprofits on Instagram in Q2 took different routes to amass their impressive figures.

In terms of the rules of crisis communications, Wells Fargo and Samsung have been following all of them, although sometimes they’ve moved slowly. Still, both brands issued apologies, took action, offered compensation—and nothing has worked. The problem in these cases is that no amount of abject apologies can make up for a lack of ethics and an overabundance of bad choices. In other words, both brands primarily are facing crises of culture, not communications.