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With only this table of most-engaged B2C brands on Instagram for Q2 ’16 to guide you, one might conclude Instagrammers enjoy photos of cosmetics while quaffing coffee and energy drinks and decorating cakes. Seriously, it’s logical for cosmetics brands to dominate consumer engagement, or actions, on Instagram. A visual platform, Instagram was conceived to display photographs. Beauty is a visual business.

A look at the top stories of the past week in PR. This week including the not-so-friendly visits to Capitol Hill by Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf and Mylan’s Heather Bresch. Other stories include Facebook’s goof on how it measures time viewing videos, Finn Partners’s growth spurt and a new tech chief for APCO Worldwide.

In our weekly feature about PR trends, C. Mondavi & Family VP Marketing Paul Englert tells us he’s seeing a blurring of the lines between PR, brand communications and social media. As we reach out to a younger audience, and as society continues to evolve the way it communicates, we need to evolve our communication strategies. Much of what we once shared via press release, direct email and phone now is sent via myriad social media platforms and text. Our consumer-facing print and web messages are evolving in acknowledgement of the immediacy and brevity with which people demand information from us.

In this weekly feature we ask PR pros to spot trends and discuss how they are reacting to them. In this edition we hear from Stephanie Elsea, VP, communications, Southwest Affiliate, American Heart Association.

A recap of the week’s news in PR, including announcements about people. The lead item looks at how Twitter might have found itself a good niche live streaming NFL Thursday Night games. Another item notes that Heather Bresch, CEO of EpiPen maker Mylan, this week will be in the hot-seat on Capitol Hill explaining how her company can justify raising prices of the life-saving device by some 400%.

It’s hardly a surprise for loyal Data Dive readers that video is one of the main ingredients driving consumer engagement for B2C and B2B brands. Media companies are catching on.
The latest evidence is BuzzFeed’s reorg, announced August 23, when founder Jonah Peretti told employees, “Having a single ‘video department’ in 2016 makes about as much sense as having a ‘mobile department’… as digital video becomes ubiquitous, every major initiative at BuzzFeed around the world will find an expression as video….”

Do hiring practices change when building a digital team? We asked ESPN’s Paul Melvin, senior director, communications, what he seeks in a digital hire. Here’s what he said: “I think people make a mistake if they hire for a ‘digital’ or ‘social’ communications role based on the idea that criteria are fundamentally different than what you look for in any communicator. I always look for the ability to write, passion, a combination of self-confidence and self-awareness, and emotional intelligence.

One of the biggest trends PR faces is too much noise. I mean this for reporters who are inundated with pitches that might not be appropriate for them as well as the competition we face within the television industry for viewers. We’ve developed three strategies for facing this competitive environment.

A look at the week that was in PR. This edition includes several Wells Fargo miscues and a poor showing from NBC Today host Matt Lauer during a presidential debate.

A roundup of the week’s new items in PR, including allegations against the Kardashians for endorsing products on social without mentioning that they are paid to do so; the departure of Robyn Massey as Ogilvy’s CCO; more bad news for Chipotle, this time from the NLRB regarding its social media policy.