Alysha Light is the founder of Flight PR. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

When it’s time for companies to name their next CEO, they often look to their C-Suite. CFOs, CMOs, CSOs, CTOs and even general counsel are the usual suspects who are in the running by default. Meanwhile, their chief communications officers colleagues are rarely considered. It begs the question: why are the very leaders who have mastered the art of storytelling and understand stakeholder engagement better than anyone so often left out of a company’s succession planning?

Perhaps they are a little too good at their jobs. CCOs spend their days crafting the perfect messages, mitigating crises before they explode, thinking endlessly about optics, working across almost every department, and essentially, making everyone else look good. They’re the unsung heroes toiling in the background who clean up the messes and smooth over the blunders. In a world where a company’s reputation can be its biggest asset or its biggest liability, you’d think corporate leadership would hold this role in higher esteem.

In my 15+ years in the PR industry, I’ve crossed paths with many outstanding comms pros, but I only know one who made her way to the CEO seat: the indomitable Jill Kelly, who is wrapping up a two-year tenure as CEO of EssenceMediacom. What’s stopping others from forging a similar path?

Comms pros need to end their inferiority complex 

While the corporate world has yet to fully recognize the value of strategic communication as a key driver of sales and business success, communications professionals are guilty of buying into the false belief that our skills aren’t just as suited for the top ranks as our colleagues in finance, marketing, strategy, or engineering roles.

To get more insight, I asked Becca Chambers, CCO at San Francisco-based ControlUp, an IT monitoring software and digital employee experience provider, for her thoughts.

“Today, successful leaders need so much more than inside-out knowledge of their companies,” she said. “They need skills like authenticity, connection, heart, empathy, and the kind of creative thinking that translates data into differentiators, challenges into opportunities, and companies into iconic brands.”

Chambers added: “The skill sets that make a great CEO today look very familiar—because they’re the exact skill set of a great (CCO). CCOs (need) to understand nuanced market dynamics, competitive landscapes, internal and external brand reputation, positioning, audience motivations, and how to navigate through a crisis. They need to be relentlessly strategic and relentlessly human. That’s why companies that win in this next phase of business will be those that seek CCO-like qualities of their top leaders—those who listen, strategize, and connect the dots. I can guarantee that we’ll be able to tell which companies do, and which don’t.”

Indeed, we live in an era where brands are built and burned at the altar of public opinion; where a single post or statement can send stock tumbling, and yet, the very people who navigate these treacherous waters daily are seen as unfit to hold a company’s highest-ranking position. Who better to lead a company than someone who’s made a career out of employing their listening skills, reputation management, change management, building support and trust, and cross-functional acumen?

As Son Pham excellently puts in this Raconteur piece, the corporate world increasingly recognizes reputation management, a core competency of any successful CCO, as critical to an organization’s success. Leadership, adaptability, and crisis management are areas where CCOs excel, given their day-to-day responsibilities involve navigating stakeholder interactions and shaping public perception. These skills can define a successful CEO, particularly when corporate reputation can be a company’s biggest asset or its greatest downfall.

It’s time to normalize comms leaders ascending to the highest ranks.

As communications leaders, we bring much more value to a company’s bottom line than the crises we avert and the media we generate. By expanding how we view a CCO’s contributions and nurturing their well-developed leadership capabilities, the corporate world can tap into a more diverse pipeline of potential CEOs already well-versed in one of the most critical aspects of today’s business: communication.

The post The case for elevating CCOs to CEO roles appeared first on PR Daily.

There are more questions than answers following the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore Tuesday. Authorities say six workers who were filling potholes at the time of the collapse are likely dead and that the container ship that struck the bridge lost power just before the disaster. Beyond that, the door is open for people to speculate on who is to blame for this tragedy.

According to The Wall Street Journal, investigators will look into whether contaminated fuel led to the power failure that caused the ship to strike the bridge. Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said that the board planned to inspect the safety records of both the ship and the ship’s owner and operator. “This is a team effort,” said Homendy. “There are a lot of entities right now in the command post.”

Maryland Governor Wes Moore also commended the first responders who stopped traffic on the bridge with their swift communication. “I​​ have to say I’m thankful for the folks who – once the warning came up and once the notification came up that there was a mayday – who, literally by being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes. They saved lives last night,” Moore said according to Fox Baltimore.

Why it matters: There a few lessons communicators can take away from the tragedy in Maryland. First, in a crisis situation, the public often looks for someone to blame. The NTSB’s handling of the situation (and they’ve been busy with the whole slate of Boeing issues lately) shows a commitment to getting to the bottom of the problem, and in a world in which conspiracy theories and misinformation can run wild on the internet, that’s no small job. That might not bode so well for the container ship’s owners, operators, or manufacturers in the long run.

Additionally, local leadership in Maryland stepped up to the occasion as well. Having Maryland Moore on the scene hours after the collision to both back up the efforts of first responders and to also debunk any speculation over nefarious causes of the collapse shows a strong commitment to proper leadership communications. In the face of a disaster, strong, stabilizing leadership serves to both help quell fears and as a side benefit, protect the brand of Baltimore and Maryland as a safe place to live and do business.

This will be a long-term battle for the city, the state and the country. Baltimore is a major port and its closure will have ripple effects for months and years to come. Keeping an eye on clear, timely communication will help ease this awful situation.

Editor’s Top Reads:

• Only a few days after she was hired at NBC News, former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel is out. The decision came after numerous on-air personalities at NBC and its affiliates harshly criticized the hiring over McDaniel’s attacks on the media and role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election, according to CNN. “There is no doubt that the last several days have been difficult for the News Group,” NBCUniversal News Group President Cesar Conde said in a memo to staff. “After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor. I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down,” Conde continued. “While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it.” Sometimes leaders might make mistakes — but Conde’s ability to listen to his staff and right the wrong choice shows decent awareness of the situation. NBC was lambasted in recent days by critics – many of them on their own payroll– of the decision to bring McDaniel on given her track record, and this was likely the only move possible to right the ship for the Peacock’s news brand.
• If you’re a sports fan (or you just watch enough TV), you’ve probably seen advertisements for sports betting. Since its ban in the U.S. was struck down in 2018, it’s seemingly everywhere. But with the ease of access through mobile apps, there were bound to be issues with problem gambling. That’s why the seven largest sportsbooks in the country are joining forces to share information about problem gamblers, according to CNBC. “I’m incredibly excited to move this forward and to really do some impactful things and to really expand the knowledge through the research and to create these evidence-based best practices and to really empower players with information,” said Jennifer Shatley, executive director of the Responsible Online Gaming Association. Sportsbooks are now an embedded part of the sports viewing experience, whether fans like it or not. The major sports leagues, particularly in the wake of the Shohei Ohtani betting scandal, need to refine their relationships with gambling. Otherwise, the brands might take a hit in the longer term for pushing betting to the detriment of some fans.
• Two of America’s most popular fast foods are teaming up. According to ABC News, McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme partnered to bring the iconic sweet treats to the Golden Arches across the country by 2026. “The top request we receive from consumers, every day, is, ‘Please bring Krispy Kreme to my town.’ Partnering with McDonald’s on a national scale will provide our fans and doughnut lovers unprecedented daily access to fresh doughnuts and the joy that is Krispy Kreme,” Krispy Kreme CEO Josh Charlesworth said. Even if your brand is an American mainstay, it often doesn’t hurt to keep things fresh and always evolving, and collaborations help do that. This partnership doesn’t just stand to garner positive chatter among fans, it also serves to drive sales, particularly for customers who don’t have a Krispy Kreme location nearby. Sometimes teamwork does make the dream (or Kreme) work. It’ll be interesting to see if any of Krispy Kreme’s unique marketing strategies (like discounted donuts on Leap Day this year) carry over to the McDonald’s partnership. Even the biggest of brands can use new marketing tactics to keep sales moving.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.

The post The Scoop: The communications fallout of the Baltimore bridge collapse appeared first on PR Daily.

Sean O’Leary is vice president at Susan Davis International.

Everything about the site looked legitimate.

The reporter had a headshot. The article properly shared the news. But the use of one word gave away the fact it was all generated by artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, our agency sent out a press release for a client about three new leaders joining the company. As we reviewed the news clips, a new site popped up in our results. We hadn’t heard about the site and were initially excited.

Then we read the lede. The company had not hired a “trio” of new leaders – it had hired a “trinity” of new leaders. There’s not a human reporter alive who would ever refer to three new business leaders like that.

Indeed, it wasn’t a human reporter. Everything about the article was AI-generated, including the “headshot” of the “person” who “wrote” the story.

The phenomenon of AI-generated news is not new, as evident by the Sports Illustrated scandal late last year when the once-revered outlet was reduced to publishing AI-generated articles and attempting to sneak it past an unsuspecting public.

Most would agree that journalistic best practices would indicate a proper news outlet should make the reader aware if AI was responsible for the article they’re reading. But what if the entire outlet is AI-generated?

For PR professionals, we almost always want to expand the media footprint for our clients, and more sources of coverage are good. For this particular article in question, there was nothing wrong with it, other than the bizarre use of the word trinity. It showed up in Google News. It showed up in our media monitoring. There was nothing negative.

On one hand, I should be happy as a PR professional. We got an extra article for a client that was delivered to people around the world. For a majority of the general public, they do not know they’re reading an AI-generated article.

On the other hand, there’s a helpless feeling. An AI-generated news story can be good, but what if it’s bad? What if it starts needlessly sharing incorrect or unfavorable coverage to the masses?

As we enter the AI age of news media, here are a couple of tips for PR professionals.

Educate your clients on the AI media landscape

Even the savviest communication leader can be fooled by a strong AI-generated article. The first step in approaching AI-generated news is to educate everyone involved about what’s going on. Although they may be aware of AI news articles, they may not have experienced one personally.

For most AI-generated news, there is no action item beyond education. An article in these publications does not register on the same level as a legitimate, established outlet, but the average person reading these articles may not know that. As long as the news is correct, it’s simply bonus coverage.

Review every AI-generated article

However, just because one AI-generated article was good does not mean they all will be. While it’s always best practice to review articles to ensure your client’s news is presented factually and correctly, it’s even more critical with AI articles.

One such instance happened last fall, when an AI-generated news article popped up about a client’s annual sustainability report. Unfortunately, the AI-generated article published a story on the 2022 annual report as if it were released in 2023.

This was not an easy correction, as AI reporters are notoriously hard to track down. Instead, our team had to reach out to multiple salespeople at the site until finally reaching a human being who could remove the article completely. Ultimately, we were successful and there was little to no impact of the false article – but it was a warning sign.

Stay current with AI trends

By the time you read this article, there might be a new AI trend emerging in journalism. We’re only starting to scratch the surface of generative AI, with altered photos impacting Presidential campaigns and the most famous pop star on Earth.

There will be more AI-generated news sites, more AI-generated news articles, and more AI-generated news reporters. That much, I know. The rest? I’m not sure.

AI has the potential to completely upend and disrupt the news media. For public relations, that means our industry could be upended and disrupted too.

We can’t predict the future of AI. We can be prepared.

The post PR pros must prepare for the rise of AI journalism appeared first on PR Daily.

Figuring out the best medium for reaching external audiences is never easy. There are so many factors to consider: who you’re trying to reach, the messaging, the timeline and the budget.

But when we take a step back from specifics and look at the big picture, what are the best tools for reaching an audience?

This is one of the dozens of questions the Ragan Communications Leadership Council Benchmark Report answered. Hundreds of communicators shared their insights into all aspects of their practice, from how their teams are organized to their views on AI. Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council members can view the full 66-page report. But as an Insider, let’s give you a little, well, inside scoop.

Social media still reigns supreme

The survey asked respondents to choose the three most effective tools for reaching external audiences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, social media remains the No. 1 way of reaching a broad audience. Seventy percent of respondents said it was the most effective tool for reaching external audiences. It’s logical, of course: More than 62% of the world’s entire population uses social media, and 91% of Americans do. Given the wide variety of social platforms, it’s all but assured you’ll find a niche that your audience calls home and where you can deliver effective messaging.

However, there are drawbacks to social media, too. X has been in a constant state of upheaval for more than a year now; TikTok’s continued existence in the United States is in peril; and other platforms leave communicators scrambling to adapt to changing algorithms.

In other words, never put all your eggs in one basket.

That, perhaps, is why the second most effective method of reaching audiences is the much-maligned press release at 43%. While perhaps not as effective as it was in the glory days of media relations, this is still a tried-and-true method of getting important news out to a large number of people quickly, whether that’s through the press, by posting on a news wire service or putting it on your own website.

Going one step further and into owned media, brand journalism storytelling/website were the third most popular methods for reaching external audiences at 28%. As traditional media has continued to decline, creating avenues for artfully telling your own stories has become more important. Using SEO, social media and other techniques for helping audiences discover your content gives you a unique sense of control over your own story without the need for a middleman.

Rounding out the top five responses were speaking opportunities and conferences (22%) and email (20%, notably down from 25% in the 2023 survey).

All of these platforms give strong opportunities for storytelling and drawing audiences into a deeper, more intimate connection with your brand.

Which of these media do you find most effective for reaching external audiences?

To view the full report, become a member of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council.

The post These are the most effective external comms tools, according to Ragan’s Benchmark Report appeared first on PR Daily.

Nonprofit communicators have some of the most compelling stories to share. Their messages support efforts that transcend a simple bottom line.

We’ve highlighted some of the first-place winners from last year’s Ragan PR Daily Nonprofit Communications Awards to take a closer look at their tactics and successes. Be sure to apply to this year’s awards before submissions close on April 5.

Best Media Relations Campaign: Brodeur Partners — Returning to the Boston Marathon Course

The situation: The Boston Marathon’s Jimmy Fund Walk is a heralded event in New England each year. Benefiting the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the walk usually takes place along the famed route of the Boston Marathon. But when the COVID pandemic broke out, the walk ended up being canceled in favor of a virtual event in both 2020 and 2021. When the walk returned to the course, Brodeur Partners needed to ensure that the word got out in a big way.

The solution: To celebrate the walk’s return, Brodeur looked for the faces that made the walk a special event. The team looked through hundreds of submissions to find the right walker stories, eventually identifying 257 walkers and listening to 70 unique walker accounts to gain a better perspective on the cancer battles and courage that led people to the walk.

The campaign also leveraged influencers to help spread the story of the walk’s return throughout the Boston area. One notable influencer on the campaign was Spencer the Dog, at the time the official dog mascot of the Boston Marathon.

Brodeur’s work paid off, earning nearly a thousand media placements, including two in the Boston Globe and a feature in the Boston Herald, in addition to millions of impressions.

The takeaway: Highlighting the people who make a difference in a nonprofit campaign is just as important as communicating about the campaign itself.

Best Public Affairs Campaign: FleishmanHillard and AARP — The Fight for Fair Rx Prices

The situation: Americans spend more on their prescriptions than any other country in the developed world. This issue is particularly pronounced for Americans over 65, with 3.5 million older people in the U.S. struggling to afford their medications.

The solution: In collaboration with FleishmanHillard, AARP created a target media campaign following President Biden’s highlighting of drug pricing reform in his 2022 State of the Union Address. Titled “Fair Rx Prices Now,” the campaign called upon Congress to take action on pricing reform, highlighting women over 50 as an important voting bloc. Fair Rx Prices Now earned 340,000 earned media placements and over 620 million impressions.

The joint campaign helped influence the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included provisions for drug price negotiation, expanded vaccine coverage, and capped insulin costs. AARP CEO Jo Ann was also invited to the law’s signing ceremony in honor of the organization’s contributions.

The takeaway: Strategic collaborations can expand the scope of what’s possible to make a meaningful difference.

Nonprofit Communications Campaign of the Year: Stop AAPI Hate — No Place for Hate

The situation: The COVID pandemic saw an unfortunate rise in hate crimes against people of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) descent.

The solution: Stop AAPI Hate, which documents incidents of hatred against AAPI people, launched No Place for Hate. This campaign aimed to shift the burden of these hateful incidents away from individuals and towards public agencies that can help.

The campaign had two main goals. The first was the passage of two bills in California co-written by Stop AAPI Hate to further the conversation about stopping street harassment. The other was to increase awareness around harassment in the public forum.

The campaign featured virtual and in-person events with people discussing the issues of street harassment across different communities. Additionally, there was a social media aspect to the campaign, in which people held whiteboards that had a blank space after “I want a #SaferPlace to _____”. These images were displayed both in public spaces and across social platforms.

The legislative push succeeded when in late 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed both bills into law. The campaign also secured more than 120 media hits across local, state, and national outlets such as the San Francisco Chronicle and NBC News.

The takeaway: Supporting a just cause that’s focused on one specific community can create impact that resonates across multiple communities.

Read more here.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports, a good pint and ’90s trivia night.

The post Lessons from Ragan Nonprofit Communications Awards winners appeared first on PR Daily.

More than two months after a door blew off a Boeing 737-9 plane, sparking a series of safety disasters for the aircraft giant, sweeping leadership changes have been announced.

Effective immediately, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Stan Deal will retire from the company, handing the reigns to COO Stephanie Pope. At the end of the year, Dave Calhoun, president and CEO of Boeing as a whole, will step down. Finally, Board Chair Larry Kellner will not stand for re-election, paving the way for Steve Mollenkopf to take his place and lead the search for the next CEO.

“As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing,” Calhoun wrote in an email to employees, which was also published on Boeing’s website. “We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and complete transparency. We also must inculcate a total commitment to safety and quality at every level of our company.

The eyes of the world are on us, and I know we will come through this moment a better company, building on all the learnings we accumulated as we worked together to rebuild Boeing over the last number of years.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing’s stock ticked up 2% in pre-market trading in the wake of the announcements, a notable bump for a stock that has plunged 25% this year.

Why it matters: There is a point at which trust can no longer be repaired with the same leadership team. Boeing had reached that point.

Airline CEOs had requested what the WSJ calls an “unusual” meeting with Boeing’s Board to vent their frustrations over a seemingly endless string of manufacturing issues which have led to blown out doors, missing panels and malfunctioning seat switches. The company’s biggest customers losing faith in leadership was a death knell for the current guard.

The communications around the sweeping changes are bland and to-the-point, with little reference to the ongoing crisis, save a few oblique references, such as “(Calhoun) will continue to lead Boeing through the year to complete the critical work underway to stabilize and position the company for the future.” The rest is largely the departing and incoming leaders thanking each other.

While the communications might not signal much of a path forward, the leadership decisions certainly do. The head of the most affected business unit is out today, but Calhoun will give some runway to transition the company. A new board chair will lead the search for the new CEO.

Who will they choose? Who can step into such a role? And how will he or she help usher in a new era of trust for Boeing?

It’s going to be an interesting year.

Editor’s Top Reads:

• Days after Princess Catherine announced she is undergoing treatment for cancer, the British media is blaming Americans, both in the media and on social media, for the conspiracy theories that festered while the princess was out of the public eye. The New York Times noted that the infamous British tabloid press was unusually restrained even as wild rumors circulated online, and that English papers refused to publish some photos of Catherine that American-led TMZ was happy to publish. But there was also an acknowledgement from experts that the royal family’s silence and the release of an edited photo allowed for those rumors to run wild. As we wrote on Friday, it’s almost impossible to balance an individual’s right to privacy with the voracious appetite of the public. But the release of that doctored photo certainly seems to have tipped the family’s hand into revealing information, perhaps before they were ready to.
• Axios has identified 12 news bubbles that define how Americans receive information. Developed based on conversations with influencers, media executives, C-suite leaders and more, the list includes categories like “Musk-eteers” (a mostly male group who love X, Elon Musk and Joe Rogan); New Age Grandmas (older women who use Facebook primarily to keep up with the grandkids – but who sneak a little news in, too); and Passive-ists (those who just don’t consume much news at all). The entire list is worth reading and absorbing for PR professionals who often must pop into several of these bubbles to reach their target audience. Expect the news sphere to continue to fracture, making the role of media relations ever more complicated.
• The European Union continues to investigate and penalize American tech giants for allegedly failing to comply with its new, sweeping Digital Markets Act, CNN reported. The DMA is intended to increase competition and choice in the digital spaceand means big changes for major players already in the space. Among the investigations underway:
  • Meta’s option for customers to pay a monthly fee to remove ads may not be enough for the EU, whose commission wrote that, “the binary choice imposed by Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ model may not provide a real alternative in case users do not consent, thereby not achieving the objective of preventing the accumulation of personal data by (large companies).”
  • Apple and Google may be hampering other companies’ ability “to freely communicate and promote offers and directly conclude contracts, including by imposing various charges.”
  • Google may not be doing enough under the act to ensure that competing services show up in search results versus its own products, such as Google Flights.

It all could spell major changes for these companies – both in Europe and back in the United States, which seems to be following the EU’s lead and launching several antitrust investigations of its own.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post The Scoop: Boeing undergoes major leadership changes amid escalating crisis appeared first on PR Daily.

Following weeks of speculation and questions, Catherine, Princess of Wales, revealed Friday that cancer was found following her January abdominal surgery and has been undergoing chemotherapy, the BBC reported.

Many communications professional have been watching the Princess Catherine situation closely after an edited photo of Catherine and her three children was retracted by wire services, causing a PR scandal and deepening the mystery around the princess’ absence.

But the reason is now all too clear.

Catherine said in a video message that the unspecified form of cancer was discovered after a previously disclosed abdominal surgery. She needed time to recover from that operation and has only recently begun chemotherapy, she said.

Read more: After the Princess Catherine photo disaster, have this conversation with your clients

In the video message, she said, “William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.”

“I am well and getting stronger every day,” she added.

A message from Catherine, The Princess of Wales pic.twitter.com/5LQT1qGarK

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 22, 2024

In addition to Catherine’s diagnosis, her father-in-law, King Charles III, is also undergoing treatment for cancer.

Why it matters: It’s not easy being a royal. Yes, they get fairy tales and fancy lives but lose all semblance of privacy.

We now know that the radio silence and lack of public appearances by the princess were due to serious illness rather than something more nefarious. But while a regular person has the right to conceal their illness if they choose, that same luxury is simply not afforded to a monarch-to-be.

In the absence of information, the frenzied, fevered rumor mill filled in the blanks with the worst, most conspiracy-laden theories possible.

From the outside, it’s impossible to say who drove the PR strategy of silence, though a dignified lack of comment has long been a hallmark of the royal family. But it’s possible that Catherine herself, striving to keep some autonomy over herself and her family, insisted on waiting to reveal the news until it became clear that the scandal would not subside without a clear, direct explanation of what had been going on with one of the most visible women in the world.

It’s a horrible, heartbreaking situation. There’s no real way to win here. The conspiracy theories won’t end, especially not with cancer cropping up twice in the same family at the same time. Catherine will continue to have to fight for any shred of privacy, as even her medical records were breached.

It’s all a sad, weary echo of the life (and death) of Princess Diana, Catherine’s late mother-in-law whom paparazzi hounded until the very moment she was killed by their voracious appetite for another photo of her.

It also calls to mind another recent scandal over the non-disclosure of a medical condition. Lloyd Austin, the U.S. defense secretary, came under fire for failing to disclose to the White House or his temporary replacement that he had been hospitalized for cancer surgery.

All of this demonstrates how messy and complicated communications can be when it comes to a personal health issue.

There are no easy answers here. No finger-wagging maxims about what you should always do in these situations or what you should never do. Only that if you find yourself in a situation where you are helping a principal, client or even a friend deal with whether or how to disclose a medical issue that is impacting their official duties, lead with empathy. With listening. By releasing what information you can while fighting like hell to preserve as much privacy as the client wants.

There will be times when this balance is difficult — even impossible — to maintain. When stakeholders’ right to know will outweigh an individual’s own personal tragedy.

If that day comes, be as kind, as sensitive and as understanding as you can be.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for Princess Catherine and all those battling cancer.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post Princess Catherine reveals cancer treatment after weeks of PR unrest appeared first on PR Daily.

There is hardly a university in the world that hasn’t hosted political activity on campus. They’re critical sites for getting young voters registered, encouraging civic participation and giving students a voice in political discourse.

However, even the highest-ranking schools have stumbled in recent years when navigating contentious, politicized topics and student activity around them. Notably, Harvard struggled to time and align its messaging around the outbreak of the ongoing Israel-Hamas crisis last year.

The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) has this dynamic well in hand: Year after year it has been dubbed a “Voter-Friendly Campus” by the Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project and the national association for Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (which goes by the legacy acronym NASPA).

The school does so in large part thanks to the work of its Student Affairs department.

But it’s going to be a big year — and especially for UIC, because the 2024 Democratic National Convention will be held just three miles from its campus in August.

Joy Vergara, assistant vice chancellor for student engagement at the university, spoke to Ragan about how her teams and other departments are preparing for the coming election season. She discussed the importance of ethics and compliance guidelines, annual training and efforts to ensure inclusive expression on campus.

Open expression comes first

UIC’s Student Affairs department prioritizes and encourages open expression on campus, including politically oriented events organized by students, faculty and departments.

Its open expression policy emphasizes the importance of facilitating “the free exchange of ideas and the expression of dissent within the university community,” UIC states, provided any demonstrations are done “in a peaceful and non-disruptive manner.”

Empowering the community to engage in these events using university facilities and spaces requires a constant commitment to preparedness, including communicating and implementing safety measures to ensure events do not get out of hand.

“A lot has changed since the last election,” Vergara said. “We are anticipating that there will be more open expression, so we are having more discussion around staffing. We want our students to debate the topics, and we want our students to bring in different speakers. We just want to make sure safety measures are in place so our students can have these different discussions, whether it is left, right, in the middle or independent.”

Open expression and academic freedom policies are distributed and reinforced each semester through the Dean of Students Office.

Student Affairs plays a lead role in creating safe environments for peaceful demonstrations and political events, collaborating with event organizers, demonstrators, faculty or staff sponsors, campus police, and the Public Affairs, Emergency Operations and Dean of Students Administration departments. According to the university’s grid of open expressions policies, procedures and responsibilities for open expression, these parties:

• Annually create and review guidelines and “Incident Action Plans” around demonstrations and political events.
• Outline and document plans and participants in each event to ensure campus safety officials are informed and prepared.
• Monitor events and demonstrations to ensure they adhere to guidelines and do not become disruptive, and activate security and safety protocols, as well as disciplinary action if necessary.
• Monitor social media and news coverage around the events and prepare official statements and responses as needed, as well as respond to media requests for comments and information.
• Maintain open communication with the organizers and demonstrators before, during and after the event.
• Conduct an “After-Action Report,” which is “a detailed critical summary of a recent incident made for the purposes of reassessing decisions and considering possible alternatives for future reference.”
• And far more besides.

Training is critical

All of the above requires a highly trained staff who is well-versed in protocol, communication and ethics every step of the way.

Vergara said that annual ethics training is mandatory for faculty and staff. As someone who has worked at the university for 10 years, she’s done 10 separate ethics training sessions, all of which covered communications around political activity and events. These trainings, which are conducted online with reporting mechanisms to ensure accountability, are guided by on-campus ethics and compliance officers.

Ethics often come into play when external speakers and participants — say, a political activist or candidate — are invited to participate in on-campus political events, and when external organizations rent space for political activities.

“We always want to make sure that the student organizations know what they’re allowed to host on campus, who they can bring to campus,” said Vergara. “There might be stakeholders that disagree with whoever they bring in on campus. And so the student organizations and leaders provide some guidance. We have to carefully navigate what we help our students host versus what the university is allowed to host or not.”

These situations can present fine lines between what is allowed and what isn’t, so it’s important to clearly define what political activities are prohibited. “When the staff is well versed in that, we can ultimately prepare for what the students may want to do and how people may react,” Vergara said.

Student Affairs is also responsible for managing annual registrations of student organizations and communicating with students about what they are permitted to do on campus.

They also lean heavily on the expertise around departments focused on political science, race and beyond. Resources such as “Diversity Dialogue” courses and faculty research are also offered to help staff and students engage in productive conversations around difficult topics. “We can tap into some of this expertise if we’re not feeling confident enough to lead these facilitations,” said Vergara. “Faculty and staff can help you in the knowledge gap.”

Planning ahead

As this sure-to-be contentious election cycle heats up, Vergara and her department are focusing on consistent communications of those open expression policies each semester to ensure students, faculty and staff are able to engage while the other operations of the university continue.

The DNC in August will not only make the campus host to a range of political events and activity, it will also impact campus transportation and logistics. UIC will work with the city and the national conventions to keep the university’s day-to-day operations running smoothly and address any safety concerns as they arise.

Vergara stressed that communicating “time, place and manner” for open expression is critical.

“We need to allow coursework and academic work to proceed and make progress,” she said. “We need to make sure that the community understands when there’s a time and place and manner when open expression could occur.”

Joy Vergara will join Ragan at our 2024 Employee Communications and Culture Conference, April 16-18, in Chicago. Learn more and register.

Jess Zafarris is director of content at Ragan and PR Daily.

The post How university communicators are preparing for a heated election season appeared first on PR Daily.

Off the record, on the record, on background. The terms are commonplace for PR professionals but are often used incorrectly. And that can be very dangerous.

I’ve dealt with various record requests as a PR rep, as an editor and as a reporter myself. These terms can be confusing. Use the below guide to ensure you understand – but perhaps more importantly, include this as part of your media training for clients and principals. A confident executive saying “well, this is off the record, BUT” could well wind up as front-page news tomorrow.

Basic definitions

On the record is the default status for talking to a reporter in a professional capacity. It means anything you say in an interview can be quoted and reported on, with your name attached. You should assume that anything you say to a reporter is on the record unless they have stated otherwise.

That part is important, so let me repeat it, this time in bold: you should assume that anything you say to a reporter is on the record unless they have stated otherwise.

Off the record is, of course, the flip side of that. Nothing in that conversation should be included in coverage, either as a direct quote, a summary or a reference. Nothing.

Finally, the last status is on background, which is the most complicated terminology. On background often means that the information may be used either via quote or a summary, but without a specific name attached. This is often used to not put the focus on a person, such as attributing a quote to “a company spokesperson” as opposed to “Jane Doe, head of communications.”

A less common term you may hear is “deep background.” The AP defines this as, “The information can be used but without attribution. The source does not want to be identified in any way, even on condition of anonymity.” This is often used when a journalist needs to speak to a subject matter expert to understand a topic enough to write about it with authority, but the identity of that expert doesn’t necessarily need to be in the story.

When in doubt about the definitions of any of these terms, ask up front.

A journalist’s obligation

In a perfect world, a journalist will always make the record status of a conversation clear. I like to tell people upfront, “I’ll be using this in an article, so everything we discuss is on the record. Is that OK?” It’s also fine to make it clear that nothing you say is on the record: “Hey, this is just a getting-to-know you chat, so let’s stay off the record unless we both decide something comes up that’s worth reporting on. Is that OK?”

But not all reporters do this. So again, assume that anything you say to a reporter is on the record unless otherwise negotiated.

Because going off the record or on background is always a negotiation. And it must happen before you say whatever you don’t want to be reported.

Reporters have an ethical obligation to preserve a source’s trust by respecting agreements about going off the record or on background. Breaking that rule is considered a deep faux pas. But that does not mean you can simply preface a statement by saying, “this is off the record” and expect that to be respected. Both sides must say yes.

There have been several high-profile situations, including one that involved Elon Musk, where sources sent emails to reporters flagging information within as “off the record.” But because the reporter in question never agreed to be off the record, they published the contents of those emails. They were within their ethical rights to do so. You also generally can’t say something, then backtrack with “that was off the record.”

It’s rarely to your advantage to go off the record with a reporter. Even if they can’t report what you told them off the record, they can investigate it and try to find an on-the-record source. But if you do want to give it a try, approach it like this:

“I’d like to go off the record with my response because…Will you accept those terms until we both agree to go on the record again?”

Get a clear yes or no. And if it’s a no, then move on. Change topics.

The trouble with background

Again, background is the squishy middle ground between on and off the record. Some  journalists have grown sick of it.

In 2021, The Verge updated its public ethics policy to change its stance around “on background” reporting. As the outlet’s editor-in-chief, Nilay Patel, wrote at the time:

There are many reasons a reporter might agree to learning information on background, but importantly, being on background is supposed to be an agreement.

But the trend with big tech companies now is to increasingly treat background as a default or even a condition of reporting. That means reporters are now routinely asked to report things without being able to attribute them appropriately, and readers aren’t being presented with clear sources of information.

This all certainly feeds into the overall distrust of the media, which has dire consequences in our current information landscape, but in practice, it is also hilariously stupid.

It’s worth reading the full story for some deeply cringey examples of PR professionals demanding to be on background in ridiculous ways. Don’t be one of them.

The Verge clarified that it will only accept on background requests “at our discretion and only for specific reasons that we can articulate to readers.”

While it may be awkward for PR professionals, it’s good for journalism. The public’s ability to evaluate the credibility of a source by knowing who they are is vital. If you aren’t comfortable with putting a name to your spokesperson (whoever they may be), you need to reevaluate your strategy.

Remember: reporters are not your friend. They are professionals there to get a story. Most aren’t out to burn you either, but protect yourself and your organization by deeply understanding and aggressively negotiating these terms.

Get more expert insight into smartly working with the press during PR Daily’s Media Relations Conference, June 6 in Washington, D.C.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post How to safely go off the record with a reporter appeared first on PR Daily.

Time and again, research reminds us that Hispanic Americans are one of the most diverse groups in this country. While we discuss them demographically as one homogenous group, Hispanic people can identify as many races, be domestic or foreign-born, trace their origins to 20 different nations, and speak a variety of languages, including Spanish, English or the plethora of native languages spoken in Central and South America.

Read more: How Black Americans get news

By the same token, the way this group likes to get their news can vary widely, according to data from Pew Research. By understanding these patterns and preferences, PR professionals can better reach and influence this critical demographic.

English, Spanish or both?

One of the first questions a PR pro must answer is which language will best reach their target audience. A slight majority (51%) of all Hispanics prefer to get their news in English. Only 24% of people who identify as Hispanic prefer their news primarily in Spanish, while 23% have no linguistic preference.

However, the data grows more complicated as we dig a bit deeper.

Hispanic people born in the United States overwhelmingly (79%) prefer to get news in English. Since more than two-thirds of Hispanic Americans are native-born, this is significant. Only 3% of American-born Hispanics prefer to get their news in Spanish, while 17% are fine with either language.

To put it plainly, English (perhaps combined with some Spanish) is the most important language for reaching the largest chunk of the American Latino population.

These numbers shift when we look at Hispanic immigrants, but not as dramatically as you might expect. Twenty-two percent of immigrants prefer to get news in English, while 47% want Spanish instead. An additional 31% have no preference.

The bottom line is that being granular in your targeting and better understanding what segment of the Hispanic population you’re targeting will help you choose the most effective outlets to target, or what language to use in social media and other materials.

The most popular news sources

About half of all Hispanic adults get news from Latino-specific media at least sometimes, the survey found. Again, we see a significant split between immigrants and American-born people, with 69% of immigrants preferring Hispanic news sources versus just 33% of native-born. But it’s clear there is still utility in pitching outlets like Telemundo, Univision and others, especially if aiming for that immigrant population.

Most Latinos prefer to get their news from various digital sources. Twenty-one percent prefer social media; 19% go directly to news websites or apps; 18% use search; and 7% like podcasts. Twenty-three percent have a preference for TV, and just 4% each prefer print or radio.

But those are preferences. Most Hispanic people receive news from multiple sources, and their consumption broadly echoes that of Americans as a whole, with 87% getting news at least sometimes from digital sources; 62% from TV; 48% from radio; and 32% from print. So don’t be afraid to experiment with a broad range of new and old-school media to reach this audience. But perhaps veer a bit more toward digital sources overall.

Interest in news

One challenge to reaching Hispanics through media relations efforts is that many simply don’t follow the news. Just 22% say they follow the news closely all the time, a 6-point YOY decrease. Seventeen percent never follow the news at all. These numbers lag news interest in other ethnic groups, a disparity Pew Research attributes, at least in part, to age. Latinos tend to be younger than other demographics, and young people simply don’t follow the news as closely.

This might present opportunities for media relations with sources other than hard news outlets. Think influencers, podcasts, social media or more entertainment-focused news sources.

There are challenges to connecting with the Hispanic market in media relations, just as there are with any group. But with smart targeting, cultural awareness and creativity, it can always be done.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post By the Numbers: A nuanced portrait of how Hispanic Americans get their news appeared first on PR Daily.

This story has been updated to clarify that Griner has not conducted one-on-one interviews since her return. 

Securing the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from wrongful detention in Russia was a monumental feat of politics and negotiations.

But PR also played a critical role.

“It was about screaming from the mountaintop and trying to have the public and ultimately the government and White House pay attention to us, because we knew that without the government support and the support of the White House, she probably wasn’t going to come home,” Calder Hynes told PR Daily. Hynes is senior vice president of global communications at Wasserman, the sports and entertainment talent agency that has represented Griner for years.

Wasserman coordinated efforts to release Griner from her nearly 10-month imprisonment in Russia, a massive undertaking that required working with not only the government, international attorneys and hostage experts, but also the WNBA, USA Basketball and the court of public opinion.

In an interview with PR Daily, Hynes and Griner’s longtime agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas revealed how they worked to first keep the incident quiet – and then how to ensure every American viewed Griner as their sister, daughter or neighbor.

This story was in part developed based on reporting from “Inside Brittney Griner’s Russia arrest, detainment and release,” written by ESPN’s T.J. Quinn, for details around Griner’s arrest and detention. All quotes with Kagawa Colas and Hynes are from interviews with PR Daily.

An early morning call and an international incident

Kagawa Colas was awakened early one morning by a call from a colleague. There was a problem. The information they had was slim, just a text from Griner’s wife, Cherelle, that the basketball star had been arrested as she returned to Russia to kick off her play with UMMC Ekaterinburg due to her possession of two marijuana vape cartridges.

Brittney Griner and Lindsay Kagawa Colas after Griner’s release from Russian detention. Photo provided by Wasserman.

At first, this was just another problem to solve. A day in the life of a sports agent.

“We were still hoping that this was going to be a sports diplomacy issue that could be solved,” Kagawa Colas told PR Daily. “Some misunderstanding. She has a prescription for this medically prescribed cannabis oil. I’m sure we can figure this out.”

“The initial (PR) approach was, let’s try to keep this out of public knowledge. Move past it,” Hynes recalled.

But the timing meant that this would be more than a minor drug bust. Griner was detained on Feb. 17, 2022.

One week later, Russia invaded Ukraine.

From quiet to loud

For more than two weeks, few people outside Griner’s immediate circle knew of her detention. But on March 5, Russia itself broke the news of her detention, forcing her team’s hand.

“That was one of those early signals that she was a political pawn,” Kagawa Colas said. “And they were going to start using this as a negotiation.”

That began a new, cautious phase of efforts. The team wanted to correct misinformation and advocate for Griner, but they didn’t want to exacerbate the situation unnecessarily.

“It was more about being factual, trying to provide the public and the press with what they needed, keep them close, while at the same time not trying to go out there with an agenda or pushback about why she’s there, or why she isn’t, or what the treatment is in regards to her safety,” Hynes said. “We couldn’t really start a back and forth with the Russian government.”

But the months of Griner’s confinement dragged on. By August, she had been sentenced to a staggering nine years’ incarceration. By November, she was transferred to a Russian labor camp, where she was tasked with carrying bolts of cloth — she was too tall to perform the sewing other women did — and breaking ice. The cold weather required her to cut her trademark locs after they kept freezing.

At home, the campaign to bring her home began to ramp up.

“Early, it was ‘be quiet,’” Kagawa Colas remembered. “‘Let’s not raise her value. Let’s see if we can resolve this quietly.’ Then it was, ‘if we want to keep her visible and make sure she’s a priority at the White House, how do we do that without compromising the White House and compromising the negotiation?’”

One issue — and opportunity — was Griner’s identity. She is Black. She is a lesbian. She presents in ways that are gender-nonconforming. That allowed Biden’s political opponents to turn her into a wedge issue to strike at the president, with the fires further stoked by Russian-backed bots on social media. The more controversy around her, the more she could be used as a pawn by Vladimir Putin and his regime. But the team had to speak up. The time for silence had passed.

“How do we simultaneously decrease her value in a trade to make a trade easier, while also ensuring she’s a priority? That is a needle to thread,” Kagawa Colas said.

The answer was a campaign that emphasized unity.

‘BG is for everybody’

The Wasserman team decided that Griner’s multi-layered identity was an asset, not a liability.

“Maybe you can’t see yourself in Brittney Griner, but we’re going to tell you why you actually can,” Kagawa Colas said. In the PR campaign, they emphasized that Griner is the daughter of a veteran and a former law enforcement officer. Her favorite holiday is the Fourth of July. She’s an American hero, having won two Olympic gold medals for her country.

But her Blackness and her sexuality were not avoided either. The Wasserman team said these were obvious reasons that she was detained. As a result, Black women in media became some of the most valuable and powerful voices in the campaign.

“They intimately understood the story,” Hynes said. “And they understood the challenges more easily. They were much more understanding and open to covering the story with a little bit more of a personal connection. But more than anything, we didn’t need to go through all the explanation to them about the lesson. The whys of all this.”

And some did use Griner’s identity to tear her down or even say she should remain in Russia. But the Wasserman team tried to stay above the fray, pointing out that Griner has rights as an American and if you believe in those rights, you should be advocating for her.

The other challenge was that Griner, locked up in Russia, could not speak for herself. She needed advocates. One of those was Kagawa Colas. The other key player was Cherelle Griner, Brittney’s wife.

“Cherelle was just an average American person, had not been a public figure, had not been in the limelight, had not done any media and not really engaged,” Hynes said. “And we were all of a sudden asking her to do an interview on ‘Good Morning America’ with Robin Roberts.”

The Wasserman team helped with media training, giving Cherelle the tools she needed as quickly as possible to succeed in a difficult role. From looking the part to telling her emotional story clearly, she got a crash course — and succeeded.

“Talk about a person who has the utmost strength in all this,” Hynes said. “Cherelle just really delivered.”

Beyond the media relations, there were rallies and events in Arizona, where Griner still plays with the Phoenix Mercury WNBA team, and partnerships with the NBA. Every measure was meant to ensure that attention stayed on Griner and the public remained invested in the effort to bring her home. #WeAreBG was used as a rallying hashtag to encourage others to advocate for and see themselves in Griner, used by both regular people and celebrities like NBA star Carmelo Anthony to keep her name in the news.

 

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And then in December, nearly 10 months after Griner was stopped at customs in Moscow, officials reached a deal. Her freedom was secured in exchange for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a federal prison sentence.

Freedom

When Griner was returned to the United States and reunited with her wife, the team took a moment to celebrate.

“It was overwhelming. It was confusion. It was excitement. It was just pure joy,” Hynes said. “I got very emotional, and I cried because I don’t think I understood how much pent-up emotion I had over this.”

But the moment of celebration was brief. There was still a great deal of work to do.

Even choosing which photo of Brittney and Cherelle reuniting would be released to the media had to be carefully orchestrated.

“We wanted to balance both the historic significance of the moment, the personal, emotional side that grounds the story, and I think they’re the most compelling,” Hynes said.

Brittney Griner reunites with her wife Cherelle after spending nearly 10 months in detention in Russia. Photo provided by Wasserman.

The military and the government were involved, necessitating time and sensitivity as Griner readjusted. But there were also hundreds of interview requests pouring in. So far, Griner has stuck to press conferences and has not yet sat for one-on-one interviews.

“We all realized very quickly that obviously getting her home was the goal, but in her larger story and for our dealing with her, if you want to put it in the context of a PR campaign, it was actually only the first phase. It’s on to this whole next chapter of Brittney’s life,” Hynes told PR Daily.

But overall, Hynes said the campaign reaffirmed his belief in the power of PR to accomplish important things.

“It was gratifying that it seemed like a true-blue PR campaign, even today, can have a really tangible impact on this really positive outcome.”

The return

Griner returned to the court for the 2023 WNBA season, where she shot a career-high 61.8% and was again named an All-Star. Her memoir, “Coming Home,” will be released later this year.

“Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets,” Griner said in a statement about the book. “But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare.”

A documentary with Disney and ESPN on her experiences is also forthcoming. And so, Kagawa Colas says, is a new emphasis on activism and helping other people who are wrongfully detained, including Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich.

“We’d like to think that awareness around wrongful detention has been raised,” Kagawa Colas said. “And we helped people gain a better understanding of how important it was to do whatever is necessary to get Americans home. I hope that’ll be a part of her legacy, how many people have come home in the wake of her detention and our campaign bringing her home.”

Because as Hynes pointed out, basketball is only one part of the greater arc of Griner’s life.

“(The detention) is a core part of her identity. Her whole image and persona is just shifted now and long term for her. A lot of this is about setting her up for what she wants to do when she’s ultimately done playing. Who is she gonna be?”

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post The PR team who helped bring Brittney Griner home on how they kept her in the headlines appeared first on PR Daily.

After a fairly quiet period of updates last week, social media platforms are announcing a ton of new features. Some might cause you to raise an eyebrow, but others could seriously up your social media game.

Let’s get into it.

LinkedIn

In a move that will be either prove to be brilliant or a miserable failure, LinkedIn confirmed it will incorporate gaming into the professionally focused app, TechCrunch reported. Expected to be simple puzzle games similar to the massively popular Wordle, app researchers found that it’s possible that employees from different companies will be able to compete together against other organizations. This could be a great tool for internal team building — or an awkward fit for a platform that’s meant to be all business.

In more traditional LinkedIn news, the app is tweaking its collaborative articles function on the feature’s one-year anniversary. The AI-generated prompts allow users to share their experiences on a variety of topics.

New features for collaborative articles include:

• A focus on prompts that ask people to speak to personal experience.
• An “unhelpful” button to help weed out low-quality content.
• Updates to the algorithm that matches users to prompts.
• A mobile experience that now mirrors the desktop design.
• Expanded distribution that can match organic content.
• A collaborative article search filter.

Finally, new thought leader ads will allow companies to sponsor any post from a first- or second-degree connection, not just those from employees. The creator must approve the sponsorship before it appears, but this could be a unique way to surface content that matters, even if it wasn’t made by you.

TikTok

Even though TikTok’s future in the United States is in doubt, the company is still rolling out plenty of updates and even contemplating a whole new app.

Blog The SpAndroid did some digging and discovered strings of code that seem to indicate a separate TikTok Photos app in the works. That’s right, after years of Instagram chasing TikTok, TikTok is now creating its own Instagram clone. Photos can already be posted in TikTok itself, but this would create a new option. TikTok has not confirmed the app yet, but it’s certainly an interesting concept for marketing and PR pros to watch.

TikTok has also rolled out a new library of Sounds for Business — Voice Clips. These clips, voiced by popular creators on the app, are on a variety of small business-related topics and are free to use. Whether or not you’ll want to is another question. Take a listen for yourself.

Finally, TikTok unveiled a new Creator Search Insights tool that helps show what people are looking for on the app, which is now one of the world’s most popular search engines. The results are searchable by topic and  also show “gap topics,” or content users search for but for which there isn’t a great deal of content, creating a unique opportunity for creators.

Instagram

There are no new concrete announcements of new Instagram features this week, but plenty of intriguing hints leaked by the intrepid users who hunt through code for insight into coming attractions. Here’s a quick rundown:

• A survey hints at some new features that may be implemented into Meta’s Verified program, including the ability to add links in Reels, a dedicated customer service phone line and priority advertising reviews, among others.
• Instagram may soon allow you to attach files to DMs, though this feature might only be available for businesses.
• Photo Carousels could expand to 15 photos.
• A Spins feature could allow people to add their own audio and text to your Reels footage.

If any of these come to pass, you can read about it right here.

Snapchat

Snapchat is giving users the ability to opt-out of a core part of its functionality: the disappearing DM. Currently, if you want to save a message, you must do it manually each time. But in a feature currently in testing, users could choose to save all DMs from a conversation forever. Users would have the ability to change settings on each conversation so you don’t have to save every message from everyone, and in-chat notices would ensure everyone in the conversation knows how the messages will be handled.

Reddit

In a move that is certain to enrage Reddit users, the soon-to-be public company has announced a new set of ads that’s quite difficult to distinguish from organic content. Dubbed free-form ads, advertisers can share multiple media types in a single ad. “As our most native ad format yet, free-form ads are designed to look and feel similar to the type of content redditors share with each other, inviting maximum engagement from the community,” according to the announcement. These will likely be great for advertisers, but do be aware of the backlash from the notoriously advertising-averse community.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is hyped to become a transformative force across all industries. According to Next Move Strategy Consulting, the global AI market was valued at $95.6 billion in 2021 and is predicted to grow with a 32.9% compound annual growth rate to reach $1.85 trillion by 2030.

As the use of AI expands, it has the potential to revolutionize HR and corporate communications by linking data with content, but we must use it responsibly. According to Top Trends in Privacy Driving Your Business Through 2024, a report by Gartner®, “By 2025, regulations will necessitate focus on AI ethics, transparency and privacy, which will stimulate — instead of stifling — trust, growth and better functioning of AI around the world.” Let’s explore what this might look like.

First, recognize AI for what it is: Artificial

While AI output is fascinating at this stage, remember that it’s only as good as its inputs. AI rehashes and rewrites existing content, just a bit more cleverly than traditional plagiarism. While people currently use AI to write news stories, concerns about job displacement are not unfounded. However, it’s essential to recognize that AI’s contribution to corporate communications is much more nuanced than merely replacing human writers. Yes, AI can quickly generate text, yet the output is limited to the quality and integrity of the sources it has processed. Rather than replacing human writers, AI is more likely to become a time-saving assistant, allowing communicators to gain insights from data and focus more on strategy and creativity.

How will AI assist employee communications?

1. Use communications analytics data to inform content strategy. One of the significant challenges in corporate communications is understanding message uptake. Communications analytics data like PoliteMail’s Benchmark Report reveals that employees are willing to spend about a minute with an average email, with the highest engagement observed in messages of just thirty seconds or less to read. It won’t be long before AI makes this type of data analysis available as real-time recommendations, with variable tuning based on the message content and intended audience. Internal comms and HR teams may leverage AI tools as an editor to quickly condense lengthy content into more concise, reader-friendly message summaries. For example, internal comms could ask an AI tool to take a Teams meeting transcript and produce a bullet list summary for broadcast distribution.

2. Optimize communications for higher engagement. AI excels at pattern matching and machine learning. So, when teams apply these tools to content analysis and communications metrics, they can enhance both assets’ value. Effective communicators possess strong intuition and language skills, and adding data-driven insights to evaluate the impact of their work will expand their reach and improve desired outcomes. For example, PoliteMail provides an AI-driven subject line suggester trained on attention rate data. Based on past performance, the tool suggests subjects likely to garner more attention. The communicator provides the content and ideas — what are we communicating and why — and AI helps optimize the how and the word choice.

3. Maintain a consistent brand voice. Beyond visual brand guidelines that define a company’s logo, font, and colors, corporate communications teams seek to maintain a consistent brand voice (the company’s style, attitude and tone). With its ability to learn patterns, AI can help a diverse team of writers execute a more consistent brand voice by mimicking a specific fashion, point of view and character. By training AI to edit content to align with an organization’s defined brand voice, communicators can ensure a cohesive identity. An organization could train an AI on its brand voice by inputting its current collateral library that fits the brand voice. Some have seen tools like ChatGPT accomplish this when prompted to rewrite a speech in the style of Teddy Roosevelt or write a story in the style of Mark Twain.

Say Hi to AI

While AI is a powerful up-and-coming tool, companies should view it as a collaborative partner rather than a replacement for human intelligence. Leveraged responsibly, AI can help streamline content production and provide valuable data-driven insights that help comms teams produce more engaging content. Used strategically, AI can elevate corporate comms by strengthening content strategy, optimizing communications for reach, readership and engagement, and defining and maintaining a robust and consistent brand voice.

The post 3 ways AI assists internal communications appeared first on PR Daily.

Despite its name, South by Southwest is not easy to navigate. But getting lost in the thousands of sessions, meetups, exhibits and concerts in Austin, Texas every March is much of its appeal. As I explored this year’s festival, I found myself at the intersection of Contradiction and Promise.

Within the first few hours, I attended keynotes and panel discussions stuffed with paradoxes: AI is good; AI is bad; opportunity awaits you; the end is coming. If you’re a lifelong learner with an open mind, this type of discourse is like a bee to honey.

One session focused on interpersonal communication, social atrophy and the need for humans to be more civil. That’s a lot to take in, but workplace expert Amy Gallo reminded us of the multiplier effect that one good deed produces. Considering the political discourse in the U.S. this election year, her tips on how to work with difficult people seemed reasonable and achievable for attendees. (During tough conversations, she advised, “Always grant someone their premise.”)

Not too far down the hallway was a keynote about “Billion Dollar Teams” fueled by generative AI. Ian Beacraft, founder and chief futurist of Signal and Cipher, spoke optimistically about the pervasiveness of AI and a future where one person can run a billion-dollar company, thanks to AI. In a nod to Publicis Chief Growth Officer Rishad Tobaccowala, he reiterated that “The future does not fit in the containers of the past.”

People who need people

Beacraft shared future-of-work scenarios, such as the manager-employee meeting in which the manager is in AI form. In this possibly far-fetched scenario, your boss won’t need to show up for your check-in because their AI version will suffice. This technology may be coming to an office near you. How this impacts manager communications is something we might want to bake into the 2025 strategic comms plan.

Bleeding-edge technology like generative AI means fewer paper cuts and more time for strategic and satisfying work. The average employee spends 32 days a year searching for documents or information, said Beacraft. With AI, that time will be whittled down to hours. What will they be doing with that extra time, assuming they still have a job? Beacraft’s assertion was they’ll forge better social connections, and teams will be more efficient. “The small team is the ultimate flex,” he said.

There is undoubtedly a dark side to AI, just as there are with other technologies. Whether you’re a communicator, a teacher, a doctor or a lawyer, future teams will be built with AI and people in mind.  The good news, promised Beacraft, is that people will have more time for other people.

Lastly, I stumbled upon a standing-room-only session led by Noah Kagan, author of the new book “Million Dollar Weekend,” and founder of the wildly successful, entrepreneur-focused software marketplace AppSumo. Kagan extolled the virtues of hard work and grit and the power of that first dollar earned.

The room was full of what Kagan calls “wantrepreneurs” whose business ideas ranged from custom jewelry to a local hiking app. Promise permeated the room. There was no talk of AI, as Kagan focused on time-tested advice such as “Just Ask.”  Successful people seek help from the people around them — family, colleagues and friends.

As we integrate AI into our work lives, we’ll be doing this together, not alone. Just ask for help. We’ll be leaning into one another for insights and ways to make the workplace, our communities and the world more human.

These three SXSW sessions underscore the paradoxical new world we’re stepping into: We want to understand AI, to embrace not fear it. We want social connection — we know we need that to be whole. And we shouldn’t stop dreaming, even if we can’t stand up a million-dollar business in a weekend.

Diane Schwartz is CEO of Ragan Communications. 

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The rocky real estate market endured another seismic shift Friday when the National Association of Realtors agreed to settle a massive lawsuit brought by homeowners. As part of that settlement, a century-old rule requiring home sellers to foot a 5-6% commission to be split between buyers and sellers agents in order to be included in the Multiple Listing Service will end, the Washington Post reported. The NAR also agreed to pay $480 million in order to settle multiple class action lawsuits.

While a federal judge must still approve the settlement, there is already widespread speculation about what impact the settlement will have on the housing market. NAR critics are celebrating the settlement, claiming it will reduce housing prices. Research and advocacy organization Consumer Federation of America estimates it could save Americans a collective $30 billion a year.

But naturally, this presents huge challenges for real estate professionals, who suddenly must prove their worth in ways they’ve never had to before.

So far, the NAR has released a dry, detail-oriented statement describing the settlement and denying wrongdoing.

“This will be a time of adjustment, but the fundamentals will remain: buyers and sellers will continue to have many choices when deciding to buy or sell a home, and NAR members will continue to use their skill, care, and diligence to protect the interests of their clients,” said NAR President Kevin Sears in the statement.

Why it matters: This represents a unique challenge for an entire industry. After a century of having an intense degree of control over the Multiple Listing Network (MLS), a critical tool for buying and selling homes, to protect realtor compensation and allow buyers to use an agent at no cost to them, everything seems set to change.

NAR will have a difficult battle ahead. Not only must they educate consumers on why a realtor is worth their money, they must convince members of the profession to stay when their compensation is suddenly uncertain. Some estimates suggest that as many as two-thirds of the country’s 1.5 million realtors could leave the profession. It’s certain that compensation models will change drastically, with the Post suggesting that a-la-carte pricing, flat-fee pricing and reduced services will likely all be on the table.

This is certainly a frightening moment for realtors. But a strong, fast PR campaign can help them convince a cash-strapped public of the need for their services. By focusing on positioning real estate agents as trusted guides in a complex and expensive process, they might be able to usher in a new — albeit different — era for the industry.

Editor’s Top Reads:

• Boeing’s woes continue to compound by the day. No, this isn’t a repeat of a Scoop item from last week. A Boeing 737-800 flying for United safely landed — missing an exterior panel. Unlike the infamous Alaska Airlines flight that lost a door in flight in January, no one noticed the panel was missing until the flight was parked at a gate in Medford, Ore.. It was also discovered that a known faulty switch cover was the cause of a frightening incident on a Latam Airlines 787 Dreamliner that injured 50 people. A flight attendant bumped the seat switch (which should have been covered), causing the pilot to lurch into the controls and cause a sudden change in altitude. Every mounting incident chips away more at trust from both airlines and the public, not to mention the government. Boeing must move quickly to explain these incidents and how it will fix things. At the moment, the company is still bleeding, badly. It must staunch the flow before it can begin to heal.
• If a TikTok ban does become law, that’s unlikely to be the end of the story. The Wall Street Journal notes that a free speech battle would likely ensue if Chinese-owned ByteDance is faced with a choice between selling the company or ending distribution in the U.S. How successful that suit would be remains an open question, with many of the free speech matters involved still untested in American courts. In November, however, a judge ruled that the state of Montana could not ban TikTok, since Tiktok “provided a unique form of communication for some users, and Montana hadn’t justified its move to cut off the platform entirely.” According to the Wall Street Journal. First we’ll see if the bill passes the Senate; then we’ll see how courts respond. Have you brushed up on your Reels strategy lately? No reason, just asking.
• In vitro fertilization is presenting a messaging quandary for Republicans who have long argued that life begins at conception, NPR reported. The popular treatment helps couples conceive by implanting fertilized eggs — but often leaves some of those eggs unused when children are successfully conceived. Republicans’ messaging that life is made the moment a sperm cell meets an egg cell has worked within the party, leading to a brief ban of IVF in Alabama, though that was quickly walked back via legislation. Still, the party is now left attempting to reconcile its messaging with the popularity of the treatment among many families struggling to conceive. Watch for how this continues to play out in the upcoming election.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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The death of John Barnett, the Boeing employee who exposed the company’s shoddy safety practices, spotlights the enormous pressure that corporate whistleblowers face.

Barnett, a former quality control engineer, was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in his truck in a hotel parking lot in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was testifying in a deposition about the safety of the company’s aircraft. Barnett tried to raise concerns internally, but was ignored and eventually transferred, the New York Times reported.  He retired in 2017, but went public with his story in 2019.

It’s an experience Sherron Watkins knows well. Watkins is the former vice president of corporate development at Enron who spoke out about the energy company’s fraudulent accounting practices. That, in turn, led to a 2001 SEC investigation that brought down the company and its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, and sent several former executives to prison, including former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

“I’ve certainly met a lot of people with whistleblowing experience and the actions against a whistleblower are very, very predictable” Watkins said. “Enron was attempting to do all those things to me, but they imploded too fast so my period of suffering the same fate as most whistleblowers was shorter.”

From a communications and PR perspective, whistleblowing incidents are fraught with their own set of personal and professional risks. But they’re also an opportunity to set up or reinforce safe channels for employees to report misdeeds and prevent internal concerns from blowing up into a public crisis.

[Related: Join Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, exclusively for communications leaders]

The plight of the whistleblower

“Most whistleblowers don’t have much power and they’re speaking about wrongdoing in a very powerful organization,” Watkins said. “And the powerful organization is trying to discredit them, maybe fire them, blackball them, spread rumors about them and also isolate them. And that … is probably when they’re at their lowest.”

Sadly, it’s not unprecedented for someone to take their own life. Watkins pointed to the example of Enron executive Cliff Baxter, who killed himself in January 2002. While not technically a whistleblower, Baxter, the company’s vice chairman, had protested the suspect transactions and retired when that went nowhere. He was later sued along with all the company executives.

Baxter expressed concern that he “was painted with the same brush as the bad guys,” Watkins said. “His suicide note said, ‘Where there was once great pride, now there is none.’”

So, what’s a communicator to do?

A moral decision point for PR and comms

Whistleblowers become enemies to the company when they go public, Watkins said, and PR departments will be pressured to follow the company line and attack the messenger.

“That was happening to me at Enron,” she said. “The PR people were ready to start smearing you, dropping little things, use other people to smear you.”

“I think that’s morally demoralizing for PR departments to be forced to do that kind of stuff, but they are nine times out of 10, if they’re working for a company that doesn’t want the truthtellers’ information out there.”

Just as whistleblowers face personal and professional risks, so do PR and comms professionals charged with crafting a response. It’s potentially a career terminating move to fight back against leaders dead-set on retaliation, Watkins said, and circumventing executives by going to the board of directors is problematic.

“I don’t have the right answer for PR folks,” she said, but suggested trying to slow responses down, using influencing skills to get people on your side and playing devil’s advocate to executives. “A lot of the problem within Enron is they really thought they could bluff their way through things.”

One other option is to hire an attorney and become a whistleblower yourself. The whistleblower program created under the Dodd-Frank Act, passed by Congress in 2010, offers protection and a cash payout from the SEC if the company is found to have engaged in wrongdoing.

Set up a safe channel to report wrongdoing

One way companies, and communicators, can support whistleblowers is by taking preventative steps and setting up safe channels for employees to report bad behavior, like a private tip hotline. These reporting channels should be managed by a third party and ensure that tipsters remain anonymous in order to be effective, Watkins said.

“Companies ought to strive for having a really good robust system where you never try to figure out who is blowing the whistle,” she said. “Instead, you investigate what they’re reporting and you fix it. In that situation, the person doesn’t bear the brunt of whistleblowing, all the negatives. They’re never discovered (and) they see the company correct it.”

That approach builds employee loyalty, but it’s also just good business. Watkins cited studies by George Washington University professor Kyle Welch that prove that companies with robust reporting systems have a higher return on investment and lower litigation costs.

Share what you’re doing with tips

It’s at this point that communicators can make a difference by strengthening the lines of communication between employees and company leaders. Comms teams can report on what’s being shared via the hotline, express thanks to those reporting it and how the company is addressing any issues raised.

“From a communication standpoint, it’s very important that the communications internally from upper management speak to the good ideas that have come out of the hotline system, the problems we averted that came out of the hotline system,” Watkins said.

That kind of preventative approach to wrongdoing is preferable to the other option: an employee going to the media or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“That means they’ve tried internally and it’s falling on deaf ears,” she said.

Leadership matters

From Watkins’ perspective, things have improved greatly in the 20-plus years since the Enron debacle. The Dodd-Frank Act and the SEC’s creation of the Office of the Whistleblower following the 2008 financial crisis have forced companies to clean up their act.

“Companies should adopt the philosophy that, ‘We might as well know where our skeletons are, know where the elephants in the room are and correct it ourselves,’” Watkins said. “Preventative is better than being exposed.”

More broadly, the bigger message is that safety and accountability actually can save the company money in the long run. That’s where communicators can play an important and influential role. Boasting about their fantastic employee hotline is a critical first step in having an effective internal reporting system, according to Watkins.

“Leadership matters and what the leaders are saying really matters,” she said. “What they’re rewarding (and) what they’re talking about is just so important.”

Sherron Watkins is a distinguished advisor, business ethicist and member of the advisory committee for Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, our members-only group of senior level communications leaders. Members also have exclusive access to in-depth resources, including insights from Watkins and a whistleblowing compliance kit.

Mike Prokopeak is director of learning and council content for Ragan Communications. Follow him on LinkedIn.

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Maddie Knapp is a senior media relations strategist at Intero Digital Content & PR Division, formerly Influence & Co. 

AI in public relations isn’t just changing the game — it’s completely rewriting the rules. In 2024, AI’s imprint on PR will be profound, offering tools and techniques that are reshaping how we pitch topics, monitor media, and build relationships. A 2023 Muck Rack survey found that 61% of PR pros were already using AI or planned to explore it.

Now, understanding how to use AI in public relations isn’t about technology taking the wheel; it’s about us driving smarter, with AI as our supercharged GPS.

Custom GPTs: Tailoring pitches with AI precision

Custom GPTs in PR are like having a secret weapon in your arsenal. These AI-driven tools are designed to create content that fits your exact needs, illustrating how to use AI in PR. Let’s break down their impact across four key pitch types:

1. Expert pitches: Think of custom GPTs as your expert whisperer, crafting pitches that sound like they’ve come straight from the horse’s mouth. AI can analyze the latest trends, reports and expert articles, ensuring your pitch reflects current industry insights. It can even mimic the tone and style of industry leaders.

Imagine you’re preparing a pitch about sustainable energy. While you might not be the top expert in this field, you can still create an impactful and authoritative pitch. Start by gathering a diverse range of recent articles from reputable publications on sustainable energy. This collection should include various formats like opinion pieces, news reports, and interviews. Use ChatGPT to analyze these articles, focusing on their language, style, recurring themes, keywords and overall tone. The goal here is to understand how sustainable energy topics are typically presented and discussed in your target industry.

Then, train a custom GPT model using these insights. This model will learn to replicate the writing style, thematic focus and tone observed in your research. By doing so, your custom GPT can generate pitch drafts that resonate with the style and substance of existing industry content. Your pitches will be more aligned with industry standards and targeted to your audience. This strategy enhances your efficiency, allowing you to focus on refining and personalizing your pitch rather than starting from scratch.

2. Data-driven stories: AI’s ability to process and analyze large datasets is unparalleled, helping to identify compelling patterns and trends and turning them into narratives that are both informative and captivating. These stories can be used to back up claims with hard data, making your pitches more credible and authoritative.

And by analyzing a journalist’s past work and preferences, AI can tailor pitches that resonate on a personal level. It moves beyond throwing darts in the dark to using a guided missile that hits the bullseye of relevance and engagement. Personalized pitches cut through the noise, increasing the likelihood of your story being picked up.

Let’s say you are leading a supply chain company’s PR. To make an impact, start by gathering all kinds of related data. You want the nitty-gritty on how global supply chain hiccups are playing out, how the company is excelling in logistics, and what customers are saying. Next, use AI to sift through the data and unearth nuggets that prove that the company is outperforming the chaos better than the competition. With these insights, craft a pitch that’ll make a big splash, showing off stats and numbers that back up your claims. This approach does more than tell people that the company is top-notch; it shows them.

3. Announcements:Need to make a quick announcement? AI’s efficiency ensures your news hits the mark, fast. Whether it’s a corporate update, an important event, or a crisis response, AI can quickly digest the necessary information and produce clear, concise and impactful announcements.

Imagine you’re the PR strategist for a tech company that is about to announce a huge partnership with another organization that will optimize technical systems. The main goal is to spread the word in a way that is catchy, fun and gets everyone buzzing. Use AI to take a deep dive into the latest market trends, competitor news and past successful announcements. Next, give AI all the exciting details about the partnership so it can craft an engaging announcement that nails all the key points while keeping it on-brand.

AI can take the messaging one step further. You know the message needs to hit different notes for different folks. AI can help you spin your message a few ways — more in-depth for the technology crowd and more formal for the business audience. The message ends up sharp, adaptable and in sync with your target audiences.

4. Influencer collaborations: The best part about using custom GPTs is that the more information and feedback you give them, the better they perform and the more personalized they become. And personalization is where AI really flexes its muscles. A custom GPT adapts to different influencer styles, making sure your brand message harmonizes with their content, style and audience engagement. This ensures that your message is not only consistent with your brand, but also resonates with the influencer’s followers.

Let’s say you are a PR professional working for a healthcare company that just released a wellness app. The goal is to drive consumer interest through the influencer market. After identifying a diverse group of influencers, AI can analyze the content and engagement style of each influencer, understanding what kind of messages resonate best for their followers. Using GPT insights, you can craft customized content for each influencer’s style and the specific media platform. As the campaign evolves, GPT monitors performance and suggests adjustments to maintain relevance. The approach ensures the wellness app’s message resonates with diverse audiences and enhances engagement across platforms.

Incorporating AI and PR strategies means striking a balance between automated efficiency and human ingenuity. AI can assist in heavy lifting, allowing us to focus on strategic aspects. This year, let’s harness AI to make our content more efficient, impactful, emotionally resonant, and ethically sound. That’s a narrative we can all get behind.

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Women dominate the field of marketing. That means female leaders wield incredible power in shaping how customers – and even the wider culture – view the products and services their organizations offer.

That doesn’t mean the road has always been easy for women in the industry. There are still glass ceilings to break, old prejudices to overcome and the challenge of balancing family and career – all while being exceptional practitioners of their craft.

The 2023 winners of PR Daily’s Top Women in Marketing have overcome these challenges with skill, determination and grace. The 2024 honorees will be no exception – will you be among them? Your last chance to enter is March 22, 2024.

While we wait to celebrate this year’s crop of marvelous marketers, let’s take a year back at just a handful of last year’s winners to see what landed them on the awards list.

Lainey Johnson, EY Americas head of brand and paid media

Lainey Johnson manages marketing investments exceeding $30 million annually and that incorporate creative ideas into the marketing mix, including “Real Time Insights,” a series of 90-second news-segment-style episodes. These episodes, hosted by CNBC’s Caroline Woods from an EY-branded set at CNBC’s Headquarters, feature EY thought leaders and strategic partners. The series integrates into news programming, demonstrating EY’s expertise while boosting brand consideration.

Additionally, Johnson spearheads “Leadership in Action,” a master class series in collaboration with the Wall Street Journal, featuring prominent CEOs discussing decisive moments in their companies. The series not only resonates strongly with EY’s target audience but also demonstrates impressive engagement statistics, with users spending over four times above benchmark engaging with the content.

Johnson also introduced “Real Time Business – Financial Services Edition” in partnership with Reuters, aiming to humanize EY and shed light on the financial services industry. The program featured 10 digital videos and audio cut-downs that garnered exceptional engagement, surpassing Reuters’ overall benchmarks with 544K LinkedIn video views and 12.4M audio listens.

Her commitment to creating engaging content that serves audiences as much as it serves the brand earned her place among the Top Women in Marketing 2024.

Read more about Johnson.

Barrie Gruner, executive vice president of Hulu marketing and publicity

Under Barrie Gruner’s leadership, Hulu’s have achieved remarkable success, setting new records in the streaming industry.

One standout example of Gruner’s expertise is her work with the critically acclaimed “Only Murders in the Building.” Leveraging innovative tactics like TikTok Branded Effect, Digital Ambient Rooms and a pop-up museum activation, Gruner’s team celebrated the series and deepened fan engagement, resulting in “Only Murders in the Building” becoming the most-watched comedy in Hulu’s history.

The launch of “The Kardashians” on Hulu also witnessed success thanks to Gruner’s robust marketing and social campaigns, including social media units, custom content, extensive out-of-home advertising, immersive press events, and influencer experiences. @KardashiansHulu gained one million followers on Twitter in just 48 hours, achieving the largest social footprint of any Hulu launch.

For the promotion of “The Handmaid’s Tale” season five, Gruner’s team made history by becoming TikTok’s first advertiser in North America to run a paid ad using the newly launched Story Selection Ad, leading to a 268% increase in average engagement.

Gruner’s commitment to new technology and storytelling set her apart among her peers.

Read more about Gruner.

Marissa Beck Viola, VP of global brand experience for M&M’s Ecosystem

Marissa Beck Viola’s bold approach to omni-channel storytelling and her dedication to creating new connection points for the next generations of consumers have positioned her at the forefront of the industry.

M&M’S introduced the world to Purple, a peanut-shaped female spokescandy who celebrated uniqueness and purpose. Beck Viola and her team executed a comprehensive digital and earned media relations campaign, anchored by engaging video content. Purple’s introduction generated more than 120 million social media impressions within the first 24 hours, along with over 9 billion global media impressions. This initiative led to double-digit sales growth year-over-year and cemented M&M’S as Gen Z’s favorite CPG brand, as recognized by Morning Consult.

Next, Snickers continued its successful Rookie Mistake of the Year campaign, emphasizing the brand’s core message: “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” This integrated program spanned the NFL season, featuring rookie hunger-related mistakes, and engaged consumers through TV, online video, social media and in-store activations. The campaign achieved a nearly 50% increase in social media entries, garnered over 1.5 billion earned media impressions, and resulted in more than 24,000 QR code scans on packaging, ultimately boosting sales for the brand.

Lastly, Skittles undertook a significant challenge by bringing back its lime flavor after a nine-year hiatus. Beck Viola orchestrated an apology tour that began with a live press conference and continued across various platforms, including Twitter, Times Square billboards and a post listing every consumer who had complained. The campaign generated over 5 million streaming minutes on Twitch, a 1,000% increase in searches for Lime SKITTLES, 27 million media impressions, and double-digit sales growth. This campaign earned two Gold Cannes Lions awards.

Beck Viola’s commitment to making a big splash while keeping customers front-and-center cemented her place as one of the Top Women in Marketing 2023.

Read more about Beck Viola.

Mars is a member of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council. Level up your communications – join today.

Abbie Griffith, Edelman managing director & US head of operations, Health

Abbie Griffith pioneers Black female leadership and helps people across the agency fulfill their own dreams of making it in the field.

In the last year, Griffith spearheaded the transition of Edelman’s U.S. Health sector away from working in siloed, centralized markets to a “One Edelman” approach, where teams pull in specialists and colleagues from across the country to deliver the best work possible. Under this model, Griffith served as a source and connector of more than 375 colleagues across the sector.

When preparing for the launch of new long-acting monoclonal antibody Evusheld, AstraZeneca engaged Edelman to develop a fully integrated, multimillion-dollar campaign to drive adoption and awareness of its importance in the fight again against COVID-19. The campaign, “Up The Antibodies,” was a multipronged effort involving celebrities, influencers, content and policymaker engagement. The face of the campaign was Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges.

Griffith is also a founding member of GRIOT, Edelman’s employee resource group for Black employees, as well as a founding and steering committee member of the Edelman Global Culture Committee, which ensures the company’s core values are reflected in all client programs and employees’ daily interactions.

Her work as a connector and advocate have placed her firmly among the Top Women in Marketing.

Read more about Griffith.

Don’t miss your opportunity to be on this list next year. Enter today.

The post These 4 women are changing the game in marketing appeared first on PR Daily.

The battle over the fate of TikTok in the United States continues to rage. China is already signaling that it will not meekly permit the sale of one of its most prized homegrown assets, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Chinese government’s communications with ByteDance, owner of the uber-popular app, indicate the government would see the app banned in the U.S. before they allow its sale to an American company.

And who would buy the app is an open question. Many are interested, of course, but there are obstacles. CNN reports that obvious  suitors like Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft or Amazon could face antitrust concerns were they to purchase TikTok.  But several groups of buyers are also interested, including one led by former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and another by former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, reports indicate.

Remember: a sale isn’t yet imminent. The bill to force a sale or face a ban has passed the House but faces an uncertain future in the Senate. Still, let’s gaze into a crystal ball of what could happen if push comes to shove and TikTok suddenly disappears in the U.S..

A similar scenario played out in India in 2020. The reasons for the ban were different, resulting in fallout from border skirmishes between India and its neighbor China. In retaliation, TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps were banned overnight, leaving 200 million users of the app without their favorite scrolling habit.

CNN reports that initially, several homegrown apps sprung up, trying to become the new home for all those users. But they eventually fizzled and the big players in the microvideo space, such as YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, ultimately reaped the rewards.

But others simply couldn’t match the magic of TikTok.

“The way one was gaining reach and followers on TikTok is [still] incomparable to any other platform out there at the moment,” Clyde Fernandes, executive director— artist management at influencer marketing and manager firm Opraahfx, told CNN.

Why it matters: If TikTok is banned, there will be no exact replacement. Just look at how many competitors have tried to match the glory days of Twitter – and all have fallen short.

But that doesn’t mean its function as a PR, marketing and influence tool can’t be replaced. As India found, Shorts and Reels already have essentially the exact same function, albeit without that magical algorithm that keeps users constantly scrolling. If you aren’t already posting short-form content on these alternative platforms, this is the time. Don’t wait until everyone is trying to build an audience there.

It’s entirely possible the Senate will get cold feet and this will all blow over. But the very uncertainty of this ongoing situation and how many different near-death blows have struck TikTok mean it’s inherently unstable and unreliable. Don’t rely on any one platform for your social media and PR success. Keep a healthy mix of tactics going, and always have your plan B ready to roll.

Editor’s Top Reads:

• In other high-stakes international acquisition news, Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steel manufacturer, seeks to buy U.S. Steel, and American politicians aren’t happy about it, NBC News reports. President Joe Biden says that U.S. Steel should remain owned by, well, the U.S., while Nippon Steel is taking a smart PR tactic of claiming that the acquisition would strengthen the U.S. against China. “Through increased financial investment and the contribution of our advanced technologies to U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel will advance American priorities by driving greater quality and competitiveness for customers in the critical industries that rely on American steel while strengthening American supply chains and economic defenses against China,” a statement from Nippon Steel reads. It’s a clever PR tactic, even if exporting steel manufacturing [exporting ownership of one of the biggest companies, not exporting actual manufacturing?] to another country to strengthen America’s national security seems counterintuitive. We’ll continue to see how the U.S. and Japan wrestle with the court of public opinion.
• Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s OpenAI are also duking it out in the PR realm – and Musk is winning, according to Business Insider. Legal experts agree that a recent lawsuit from Musk against OpenAI for forsaking its non-profit roots will likely be dismissed, but it’s still striking blows against the AI giant. The media coverage generated for Musk’s own xAI due to the lawsuit has rocketed him ahead of the competition, helping the public and other stakeholders become familiar with his competitor – and fast “Elon Musk is the best PR stuntsman I’ve ever seen,” Kyle Arteaga, CEO of tech PR company The Bulleit Group, told Business Insider. “Elon doesn’t care about winning this lawsuit, all he’s doing is stealing OpenAI’s media attention and putting a sliver of doubt in developers’ heads.”

  We’re not recommending lawsuits as a PR tactic – but be aware they could be used against you.

• Finishing off on a lighter note, collaborations that combine seemingly unrelated products into creative (and often disgusting) mashups are becoming more and more popular as both a PR tactic and a way of driving actual sales. The BBC points to products like Hidden Valley Ranch flavored Burt’s Bees lip balm and Kentucky Fried Chicken Crocs as examples of how going “unhinged” can pay off with both earned media and earned sales A collab between Absolut vodka and Heinz for a vodka-infused pasta sauce resulted in 500 million earned media impressions and 7.1 million organic impressions on TikTok. What partnerships exist that you can tap into, even if they seem insane?

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post The Scoop: This is what happened when India banned TikTok appeared first on PR Daily.

Gabriel De La Rosa Cols is a principal at Intelligent Relations.

The recent release of a doctored photo of Princess Catherine, formerly known as Kate Middleton, and her family sparked widespread concern about the use of digital editing tools. But it also showed the ease with which conspiracy firestorms can arise from seemingly innocuous actions. 

If you haven’t heard the story, several news agencies, including the Associated Press and Reuters, recently shared a family photograph of Catherine, Princess of Wales. The photo seemed to have been intended to prevent any more speculation over her health after she went virtually missing from the public eye since her abdominal surgery two months ago. However, those news agencies later retracted the photo and reported that there was evidence of photo manipulation. 

Since then, a number of conspiracy theories have emerged about the state of the British Royal Family, Catherine’s health and pretty much anything else trolls can think of. And an apology from Princess Catherine insisting that the edits were merely the result of her own amateur efforts did nothing to stop the conspiracy storm. 

So what happened here? And what should public relations professionals do to prevent similar incidents for their clients in a time when photo manipulation and AI-generated images are making it harder to know what is real or fake? 

Loss of credibility

Clearly, media entities that are rightly focused on maintaining their credibility won’t stand for doctored images or anything else that might indicate a lack of honesty. The moment various publications realized the photo was doctored, not only did they retract it, but the photo immediately became a fantastic example of what not to do if you want a good relationship with the media. 

Even after the retractions, the image did plenty of damage: the same media entities that published the image were beset by conspiracy theorists. As a result, some media companies have watched their credibility lose ground to unscrupulous actors who just want to foment rumors. 

This should matter to us because part of our job as public relations professionals is maintaining good relationships with media entities and journalists. We’re here not only to help our clients, but also to make sure the stories we ask media personnel to promote are credible and won’t hurt their reputations. Needless to say, if we fail in that mission and it results in a similar PR fiasco because of an edited or AI-generated image or a false story, we’re going to have a very hard time convincing the same reporter or publication to view our client as a source in the future. 

Basically, we need to avoid anything that looks like a lack of transparency on our part. The problem with Princess Catherine’s picture wasn’t that an amateur photographer decided to touch up a photo. The problem was the appearance of dishonesty, and that’s something that will really hurt the public image of any brand or famous spokesperson involved. Unfortunately, these types of incidents will continue to happen as more public figures and brands place a greater emphasis on digital technologies and/or AI-generated images. 

Avoiding the firestorm

PR professionals are responsible for ensuring the authenticity of the content they send to the media on behalf of clients. Of course, you might not even be aware that your clients are using AI or editing to change images until some news station takes an issue with a photo you’ve sent over. But I think it’s fair to say that the Princess Catherine story at least gives you some leverage to open a discussion with your clients about the need to be cautious. 

For the most part, edited images or images made with AI can suggest that your client has something to hide. So even if your pictures are a bit grainy or outdated, that’s preferable to something that clearly reveals that it has been edited. 

You can also look for signs of an edited image yourself. In the case of the Princess Catherine image, there were clearly misaligned and missing objects. An AI-generated image often has smooth or blurry textures, colors, or unnatural lighting. If you discover an image has been edited or could give the impression of being edited or AI-generated, you might need to ask for a new image you can share. 

Remember, if this is a mistake a high-powered PR team meant to protect royalty from criticism can make, then it’s also a mistake any of us could fall into. If you suspect your client may have doctored a photo, make sure not to send it out to the media. And maybe sit down and discuss how recent events have shown it’s just better to be transparent from the start. Your clients will thank you in the end.

The post After the Princess Catherine photo disaster, have this conversation with your clients appeared first on PR Daily.

Muck Rack’s annual State of Journalism report is a must-read for any By the Numbers fan. It’s chock full of useful data on how journalists work, the state of their industry, their views on AI and much more.

But let’s be real. You’re mostly curious about the section on pitching and why you aren’t getting any darn responses.

The problem with pitching

Here’s the good news: Journalists value PR pros. The survey, which received responses from more than 1,100 journalists, primarily from the U.S., found that 70% believe that journalists are at least somewhat important to their work. After all, PR pros can help reveal interesting trends, connect reporters to experts, offer viral promotions and more.

But that doesn’t mean pitches are always helpful. In fact, 49% of respondents said they seldom or never respond to pitches. Twenty-four percent said they respond about half the time, 18% usually do and 8% always do.

Cheers to the 8%.

And it certainly isn’t due to lack of pitches that journalists aren’t responding. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they get at least six pitches per day, with 12% contending with a whopping 21 or more pitches every day. Perhaps those who are combatting 100 or more pitches on a weekly basis can be forgiven for not always giving a response.

But by far and away, the biggest reason journalists don’t respond to pitches is that they simply aren’t relevant to their coverage area. Seventy-nine percent cited lack of relevance as the top reason they’ll deny a pitch, which reveals a serious problem with targeting in the PR industry.

“Spray and pray” is not an effective pitching method. If you’re still reporting how many pitches you’re distributing, you’re measuring the wrong thing. Better to distribute a handful of pitches to vetted journalists rather than risk becoming one of these forgotten, mis-targeted attempts cluttering an inbox forever.

So, what does make for a good pitch besides smart targeting?

There isn’t an easy formula for this. The vast majority (83%) do prefer to be pitched 1-1 via email rather than in a mass barrage or via phone. But beyond that, there’s little consensus for a day of the week (64% say they have no preference) or time of day (44% say before noon, but that leaves plenty who prefer a time after noon). There is a preference for shorter — 65% prefer pitches that are less than 200 words. And a slim majority (51%) say you should only follow up once, preferably within 3-5 days.

Beyond that, you’ll likely want to focus on building a relationship and just ask your identified reporters when and how they want to be pitched. Every journalist is a unique human being with their own personal preferences and job requirements. The best thing to do is simply to ask — and to be empathetic.

Because journalists are dealing with a lot.

A journalist’s life in 2024

Everyone is busy. Let’s get that out of the way. But journalists are becoming even more intensely worked as their numbers dwindle while the pile of news to be reported on seems to grow ever larger.

Muck Rack’s survey found that 36% of journalists have dealt with layoffs or other downsizing at their organization in the last year. Sixty-four percent work more than 40 hours a week, and 79% report working outside the standard 9-5 hours. Many (46%) do all this for less than $70,000 per year.

They’re also turning in a great deal of work, though the exact volume of the stories they produce can vary widely. Thirty-six percent produce a reasonable five stories or less per week, but 22% are responsible for 11 or more, a massive workload. Add that on top of their bulging inboxes and it all makes for a difficult, stressful career.

Read the full Muck Rack report here.

To further hone your pitching, join us for PR Daily’s Media Relations Conference in Washington, DC June 5-6.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on X or LinkedIn.

The post By the Numbers: What journalists really think of your pitches appeared first on PR Daily.

AI continues to shape our world in ways big and small. From misleading imagery to new attempts at regulation and big changes in how newsrooms use AI, there’s no shortage of big stories.

Here’s what communicators need to know. 

AI risks and regulation

As always, new and recurring risks continue to emerge around the implementation of AI. Hence, the push for global regulation continues.

Consumers overwhelmingly support federal AI regulation, too, according to a new survey from HarrisX. “Strong majorities of respondents believed the U.S. government should enact regulation requiring that AI-generated content be labeled as such,” reads the exclusive feature in Variety. 

But is the U.S. government best equipped to lead on regulation? On Wednesday, the European Parliament approved a landmark law that its announcement claims  “ensures safety and compliance with fundamental rights, while boosting innovation.” It is expected to take effect this May.

The law includes new rules banning applications that threaten citizen rights, such as biometric systems collecting sensitive data to create facial recognition databases (with some exceptions for law enforcement). It also requires clear obligations for high-risk AI systems that include “critical infrastructure, education and vocational training, employment, essential private and public services, certain systems in law enforcement, migration and border management,” and  “justice and democratic processes,” according to the EU Parliament.

The law will also require general-purpose AI systems and the models they are based on to meet transparency requirements in compliance with EU copyright law and publishing, which will include detailed summaries of the content used for training. Manipulated images, audio and video will need to be labeled.

CNBC reports:

Dragos Tudorache, a lawmaker who oversaw EU negotiations on the agreement, hailed the deal, but noted the biggest hurdle remains implementation.

“The AI Act has pushed the development of AI in a direction where humans are in control of the technology, and where the technology will help us leverage new discoveries for economic growth, societal progress, and to unlock human potential,” Tudorache said on social media on Tuesday.

“The AI Act is not the end of the journey, but, rather, the starting point for a new model of governance built around technology. We must now focus our political energy in turning it from the law in the books to the reality on the ground,” he added. 

Legal professionals described the act as a major milestone for international artificial intelligence regulation, noting it could pave the path for other countries to follow suit.

Last week, the bloc brought into force landmark competition legislation set to rein in U.S. giants. Under the Digital Markets Act, the EU can crack down on anti-competitive practices from major tech companies and force them to open out their services in sectors where their dominant position has stifled smaller players and choked freedom of choice for users. Six firms — U.S. titans Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and China’s ByteDance — have been put on notice as so-called gatekeepers.

Communicators should pay close attention to U.S. compliance with the law in the coming months, diplomats reportedly worked behind the scenes to water down the legislation.

“European Union negotiators fear giving in to U.S. demands would fundamentally weaken the initiative,” reported Politico.

“For the treaty to have an effect worldwide, countries ‘have to accept that other countries have different standards and we have to agree on a common shared baseline — not just European but global,’” said  Thomas Schneider, the Swiss chairman of the committee.

If this global regulation dance sounds familiar, that’s because something similar happened when the EU adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, an unprecedented consumer privacy law that required cooperation from any company operating in a European market. That law influenced the creation of the California Consumer Privacy Act two years later. 

As we saw last week when the SEC approved new rules for emissions reporting, the U.S. can water down regulations below a global standard. It doesn’t mean, however, that communicators with global stakeholders aren’t beholden to global laws.

Expect more developments on this landmark regulation in the coming weeks.

As news of regulation dominates, we are reminded that risk still abounds. While AI chip manufacturer NVIDIA rides all-time market highs and earned coverage for its competitive employer brand, the company also finds itself in the crosshairs of a proposed class action copyright infringement lawsuit just like OpenAI did nearly a year ago. 

Authors Brian Keene, Abdi Nazemian and Steward O’Nan allege that their works were part of a datasite NVIDIA used to train its NeMo AI platform. 

QZ reports:

Part of the collection of works NeMo was trained on included a dataset of books from Bibliotik, a so-called “shadow library” that hosts and distributes unlicensed copyrighted material. That dataset was available until October 2023, when it was listed as defunct and “no longer accessible due to reported copyright infringement.”

The authors claim that the takedown is essentially Nvidia’s concession that it trained its NeMo models on the dataset, thereby infringing on their copyrights. They are seeking unspecified damages for people in the U.S. whose copyrighted works have been used to train Nemo’s large language models within the past three years.

“We respect the rights of all content creators and believe we created NeMo in full compliance with copyright law,” a Nvidia spokesperson said.

While this lawsuit is a timely reminder that course corrections can be framed as an admission of guilt in the larger public narrative,  the stakes are even higher.

A new report from Gladstone AI, commissioned by the State Department, consulted experts at several AI labs including OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Meta offers substantial recommendations for the national security risks posed by the technology. Chief among its concerns is what’s characterized as a “lax approach to safety” in the interest of not slowing down progress,  cybersecurity concerns and more.

Time reports:

The finished document, titled “An Action Plan to Increase the Safety and Security of Advanced AI,” recommends a set of sweeping and unprecedented policy actions that, if enacted, would radically disrupt the AI industry. Congress should make it illegal, the report recommends, to train AI models using more than a certain level of computing power. The threshold, the report recommends, should be set by a new federal AI agency, although the report suggests, as an example, that the agency could set it just above the levels of computing power used to train current cutting-edge models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini. The new AI agency should require AI companies on the “frontier” of the industry to obtain government permission to train and deploy new models above a certain lower threshold, the report adds. Authorities should also “urgently” consider outlawing the publication of the “weights,” or inner workings, of powerful AI models, for example under open-source licenses, with violations possibly punishable by jail time, the report says. And the government should further tighten controls on the manufacture and export of AI chips, and channel federal funding toward “alignment” research that seeks to make advanced AI safer, it recommends.

On the ground level, Microsoft stepped up in blocking terms that generated violent, sexual imagery using Copilot after an engineer expressed their concerns to the FTC.

According to CNBC:

Prompts such as “pro choice,” “pro choce” [sic] and “four twenty,” which were each mentioned in CNBC’s investigation Wednesday, are now blocked, as well as the term “pro life.” There is also a warning about multiple policy violations leading to suspension from the tool, which CNBC had not encountered before Friday.

“This prompt has been blocked,” the Copilot warning alert states. “Our system automatically flagged this prompt because it may conflict with our content policy. More policy violations may lead to automatic suspension of your access. If you think this is a mistake, please report it to help us improve.”

This development is a reminder that AI platforms will increasingly put the onus on end users to follow evolving guidelines when we publish automated content. Whether you work within the capabilities of consumer-optimized GenAI tools or run your own, custom GPT, sweeping regulations to the AI industry are not a question of “if” but “when”.

Tools and use cases 

Walmart is seeking to cash in on the AI craze with pretty decent results, CNBC reports. Its current experiments surround becoming a one-stop destination for event planning. Rather than going to Walmart.com and typing in “paper cups,” “paper plates,” “fruit platter” and so on, the AI will generate a full list based on your needs – and of course, allow you to purchase it from Walmart. Some experts say this could be a threat to Google’s dominance, while others won’t go quite that far, but are still optimistic about its potential. Either way, it’s something for other retailers to watch.

Apple has been lagging other major tech players in the AI space. Its current biggest project is a laptop that touts its power for other AI applications, rather than developing its own. But FastCompany says that could change this summer when Apple rolls out its next operating systems, which are all but certain to include their own AI. 

FastCompany speculates that a project internally dubbed “AppleGPT” could revolutionize how voice assistant Siri works. It also may include an AI that lives on your device rather than in the cloud, which would be a major departure from other services. They’ll certainly make a splash if they can pull it off.

Meanwhile, Google’s Gemini rollout has been anything but smooth. Recently the company restricted queries related to upcoming global elections, The Guardian reported. 

A statement from Google’s India team reads: “Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses.” The Guardian says that even basic questions like “Who is Donald Trump?” or asking about when to vote give answers that point users back to Google searches. It’s another black eye for the Gemini rollout, which consistently mishandles controversial questions or simply sends people back to familiar, safe technology.

But then, venturing into the unknown has big risks. Nature reports that AI is already being used in a variety of research applications, including generating images to illustrate scientific papers. The problems arise when close oversight isn’t applied, as in the case of a truly bizarre image of rat genitalia with garbled, nonsense text overlaid on it. Worst of all, this was peer reviewed and published. It’s yet another reminder that these tools cannot be trusted on their own. They need close oversight to avoid big embarrassment. 

AI is also threatening another field, completely divorced from scientific research: YouTube creators. Business Insider notes that there is an exodus of YouTubers from the platform this year. Their reasons are varied: Some face backlash, some are seeing declining views and others are focusing on other areas, like stand-up comedy. But Business Insider says that AI-generated content swamping the video platform is at least partly to blame:

Experts believe if the trend continues, it may usher in a future where relatable and authentic friends people used to turn to the platform to watch are fewer and far between. Instead, replaced by a mixture of exceedingly high-end videos only the MrBeasts of the internet can reach and sub-par AI junk thrown together by bots and designed to meet our consumption habits with the least effort possible.

That sounds like a bleak future indeed – and one that can also change the available influencers available to partner on the platform.

But we are beginning to see some backlash against AI use, especially in creative fields. At SXSW, two filmmakers behind “Everything Everywhere All at Once” decried the technology. Daniel Scheinert warned against AI, saying: “And if someone tells you, there’s no side effect. (AI’s) totally great, ‘get on board’ — I just want to go on the record and say that’s terrifying bullshit. That’s not true. And we should be talking really deeply about how to carefully, carefully deploy this stuff.”

Thinking carefully about responsible AI use is something we can all get behind. 

AI at work

As the aforementioned tools promise new innovations that will shape the future of work, businesses continue to adjust their strategies in kind.

Thompson-Reuters CEO Steve Hasker told the Financial Times that the company has “tremendous financial firepower” to expand the business into AI-driven professional services and information ahead of selling the remainder of its holding to the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

“We have dry powder of around $8 billion as a result of the cash-generative ability of our existing business, a very lightly levered balance sheet and the sell down of [our stake in] LSEG,” said Hasker. 

Thompson-Reuters has been on a two-year reorg journey to shift its services as a content provider into a “content-driven” tech company. It’s a timely reminder that now is the time to consider how AI fits not only into your internal use cases, but your business model. Testing tech and custom GPTs as “customer zero” internally can train your workforce and prepare a potentially exciting new product for market in one fell swoop. 

A recent WSJ feature goes into the cost-saving implications of using GenAI to integrate new corporate software systems, highlighting concerns that the contractors hired to implement these systems will see bottom-line savings through automation while charging companies the same rate. 

WSJ reports:

How generative AI efficiencies will affect pricing will continue to be hotly debated, said Bret Greenstein, data and AI leader at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. It could increase the cost, since projects done with AI are higher quality and faster to deliver. Or it could lead to lower costs as AI-enabled integrators compete to offer customers a better price.

Jim Fowler, chief technology officer at insurance and financial services company Nationwide, said the company is leaning on its own developers, who are now using GitHub Copilot, for more specialized tasks. The company’s contractor count is down 20% since mid-2023, in part because its own developers can now be more productive. Fowler said he is also finding that contractors are now more willing to negotiate on price.

Remember, profits and productivity are not necessarily one in the same. Fresh Axios research found workers in Western countries are embracing AI’s potential for productivity less than others – only 17 % of U.S. respondents and 20% of EU said that AI improved productivity. That’s a huge gap from the countries reporting higher productivity, including 67% of Indian respondents, 65% in Indonesia and 62% in the UAE.

Keeping up and staying productive will also require staying competitive in the global marketplace. No wonder the war for AI talent rages on in Europe.

“Riding the investment wave, a crop of foreign AI firms – including Canada’s Cohere and U.S.-based Anthropic and OpenAI – opened offices in Europe last year, adding to pressure on tech companies already trying to attract and retain talent in the region,” Reuters reported. 

AI is also creating new job opportunities. Adweek says that marketing roles involving AI are exploding, from the C-suite on down. Among other new uses:

Gen AI entails a new layer of complexity for brands, prompting people within both brands and agencies to grasp the benefits of technology, such as Sora, while assessing its risks and ethical implications.

Navigating this balance could give rise to various new roles within the next year, including ethicists, conversational marketing specialists with expertise in sophisticated chatbots, and data-informed strategists on the brand side, according to Jason Snyder, CTO of IPG agency Momentum Worldwide.

Additionally, Snyder anticipates the emergence of an agency integration specialist role within brands at the corporate level.

“If you’re running a big brand marketing program, you need someone who’s responsible for integrating AI into all aspects of the marketing program,” said Snyder. “[Now] I see this role in in bits and pieces all over the place. [Eventually], whoever owns the budget for the work that’s being done will be closely aligned with that agency integration specialist.”

As companies like DeepMind offer incentives such as restricted stock, domestic startups will continue to struggle with hiring top talent if their AI tech stack isn’t up to the standard of big players like NVIDIA.

“People don’t want to leave because when you don’t have anything when they have peers to work with, and when they already have a great experimentation stack and existing models to bootstrap from, for somebody to leave, it’s a lot of work,” Aravind Srinivas, the founder and CEO of Perplexity, told Business Insider, 

“You have to offer such amazing incentives and immediate availability of compute. And we’re not talking of small compute clusters here.”

Another reminder that building a competitive, attractive employer brand around your organization’s AI integrations should be on every communicator’s mind. 

What trends and news are you tracking in the AI space? What would you like to see covered in our biweekly AI roundups, which are 100% written by humans? Let us know in the comments!

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Justin Joffe is the editorial director and editor-in-chief at Ragan Communications. Before joining Ragan, Joffe worked as a freelance journalist and communications writer specializing in the arts and culture, media and technology, PR and ad tech beats. His writing has appeared in several publications including Vulture, Newsweek, Vice, Relix, Flaunt, and many more.

The post AI for communicators: What’s new and what matters appeared first on PR Daily.

TikTok faces yet another potential challenge from the U.S. government. The House today passed a bill, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which seeks to force TikTok parent company ByteDance to divest its U.S. business.

The bill, which may encounter more opposition in the Senate but has the potential to become law, is the latest move against the social media app from U.S. legislators who have concerns about national security and the Chinese parent company’s user data practices.

While previous legislation at the federal, state and city level have banned the app from government devices, this bill would have more sweeping implications: The ban would penalize app stores from carrying and updating the app. It’s a notable gambit with stateside implications beyond just socialization and entertainment for its more than 150 million U.S. users, considering that more than 5 million U.S. businesses are active on the app, and it’s estimated to contribute billions to the U.S. GDP.

Social media strategy on TikTok and its vertical-video competitors will be a hot topic at PR Daily’s upcoming 2024 Social Media Conference, March 27-29, and that conversation will be shaped by the passage or failure of this latest bill. We spoke with experts who will grace our stage to get their take on what this means for the future of the app.

Why it’s different

This attempt at a ban is unusual for its overwhelming bipartisan support in the House, especially around national security — and for its speed and decisiveness.

“This could potentially be more serious and real for TikTok,” said Karen Freberg, professor in strategic communication at the University of Louisville. “From what I’ve seen, this has caught everyone by surprise not just for the initial ban being brought up again, but how swiftly it made it through Congress today.”

While legislators seemed to fumble with the mere concept of the app in prior discussions and ban attempts, they’re more targeted with their approach this time around.

“This proposed legislation specifically targets ByteDance’s ties to China and establishes a clear process for addressing perceived risks,” said Carlos Gil, longtime social media leader who also operates the sneaker resale brand HypeSection, which has more than 300,000 followers on TikTok and has benefited from organic growth and engagement on the platform. “Moreover, there seems to be a heightened sense of urgency among lawmakers to address these concerns, which could increase the likelihood of the ban being implemented.”

But it’s a double-edged sword because, as Gil points out, it’s also a news source for U.S. users and presents free speech implications in that regard. “It highlights the need for a consistent and transparent approach to regulating social media platforms to ensure the protection of user data and uphold constitutional principles,” he said.

Implications for TikTok and beyond

If the ban is successful and a divestment remains in limbo, the move could impact the way brands and organizations that have been successful on TikTok interact with and build their audiences. They may have to pivot to other platforms and communities, and potentially lose access to audiences they have cultivated in the past.

“The latest attempt at a TikTok ban could have devastating implications for the creator economy and small businesses alike,” Gil said. “The potential ban serves as a stark reminder of the precarious nature of relying solely on social media platforms. While platforms like TikTok offer unparalleled reach and visibility, they also represent ‘rented land,’ where users have little control over their longevity.”

That said, this presents an opportunity for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and other platforms capitalizing on vertical video — which it now appears will include X, formerly known as Twitter — to help creators and brands invest more time with them.

“This could lead to heightened competition in the social media landscape, with platforms vying for user attention and loyalty through innovative features and content offerings,” Gil said.

What now?

Freberg noted that brands will need a plan for either outcome. In the event of a ban, she advised brands and organizations to “embrace the different results this could bring to their business and make plans for what to do if TikTok is banned, (and) be actively communicating with creators and influencers they are working with on the platform so they know they are supported. These individuals have built their brand on the platform, and are probably going to raise questions, concerns, and be scared about the uncertainty.”

Gil recommends ensuring that your organization’s content and marketing mix is diversified across channels, and especially includes owned channels such as newsletters and websites. “Building a robust digital presence beyond social media ensures business continuity even in the face of platform upheavals, reinforcing the adage that businesses are only as good as the platforms they inhabit while they remain relevant,” he told PR Daily.

TikTok has reshaped the social media landscape — but what does the future hold for the app, and how should your organization think about it? Find out more from these speakers and many more at PR Daily’s 2024 Social Media Conference, March 27-29, at Disney World.

Jess Zafarris is director of content at Ragan and PR Daily, as well as an author, editor, journalist, speaker, social media engagement strategist and creator. Follow her anywhere @jesszafarris and connect with her on LinkedIn.

The post What a potential U.S. TikTok ban means for your social media strategy appeared first on PR Daily.

TikTok is undeniably the most talked about social app in the media these days. But if some members of Congress get their way, we could see big changes in the social landscape amid a larger tech war between the United States and China.

According to The New York Times, the proposed bill, which has already passed the House, wouldn’t ban TikTok, per se, but would rather implement a mechanism that will seek to force ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the app, to sell it. The legislation comes amid concerns that the Chinese government could use TikTok as a way to gain the personal data of American TikTokers, or even as a pathway to spread misinformation.

If ByteDance can’t or won’t sell TikTok if this proposed law is adopted, then the U.S. government could force app stores to delist TikTok. In addition, the Justice Department could also be empowered to punish any company that works with or offers TikTok for download.

But the bill still has something of an uphill battle toward passage — despite passage in the House, it faces uncertainty in the Senate.

Why it matters: When the most popular social media app of the day is facing a potential sale or “ban” by the American government, it’s time to take notice. With 170 million users in the United States, this bill wouldn’t wipe TikTok off people’s phones overnight, but would instead make updates harder to access and thus degrade the functionality of the app.

This bill would also force a rethink for many people working in the PR and social media spaces. Many of the biggest brands out there have at least some presence on TikTok, ranging from token accounts to a major marketing engine.

In the world of social media, platforms often wax and wane in popularity over time, but we haven’t seen one face the major opposition that TikTok is up against right now. But if you’re a PR or social media pro, pay attention to the developments out of Washington over the coming days — it could impact your strategy in a big way.

Editor’s Top Picks:

• The European Union has passed the first major legislative act that deals with the regulation of AI. According to CNBC, the EU AI Act categorizes the levels of risk associated with a given AI technology. This rating list also includes an “unacceptable” category — any tech that falls within this would be banned. In an age in which many organizations and governments fear the potential power AI could, this is a notable event. Will other countries or international organizations take steps to rein in AI? Maybe. But back stateside, keep an eye on whether pressure mounts to put some sort of guardrails in place in an attempt to keep up with the rapid spread of AI tech.
• Airbnb guests no longer have to worry about being spied on in the homes and rooms they rent on the platform. According to a report in The New York Times, Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras, claiming customer privacy as a priority. The change came after reports stating that some hosts were using cameras to spy on people renting their properties. Airbnb also stated that the new rules will provide customers with greater clarity on what to expect during their stays. Whether or not this change was a direct response to customer accusations of host spying, we can’t know for sure. But Airbnb was likely listening along the way.
• It’s an election year again, to seemingly no one’s excitement here in America. But if you wanted to consult Google’s Gemini AI tool about November’s contest, you might need to look elsewhere. According to The Guardian, when asked about either presumptive candidate in this fall’s election, Gemini responds that it’s still figuring out how to answer the query. “As we shared last December, in preparation for the many elections happening around the world in 2024 and out of an abundance of caution, we’re restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” Google stated. The rise of generative AI might end up playing a major role in political disinformation, and Google is trying to get ahead of it to avoid any potential chaos or bad press this fall. We’ll see if any other AI platforms follow Google’s lead, or if a different path forward emerges.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.

The post The Scoop: Potential TikTok changes after House votes for ban appeared first on PR Daily.

Social media was fairly quiet on the updates front this week — but Google made up for it with some major changes, including core algorithm changes. Take a look at what’s new, what will make your job easier and how you may need to re-learn how you use X.

X

The platform, long known for its microblogging, is now getting … regular blogging. The new Articles on X feature is available for Premium+ subscribers and Verified Organizations, according to an announcement posted last week. The posts will have basic formatting options as well as video and image embed capabilities. The articles will appear directly in followers’ timelines, which could be an interesting way of getting more eyeballs on a notable post.

X owner Elon Musk announced that a new, “very clean” timeline will soon roll out, nixing some of the most basic controls, including the like, reply and repost buttons. Only view counts will be shown, with other functions available via touch controls: “Swipe right to reply, left to favorite, tap & hold for all other actions,” Musk posted. No word on how this functionality would play out on desktop.

Threads

Threads has now rolled out its in-stream camera option and drafts functionality to all users, bringing it more in line with most other social media platforms.

Reddit

Reddit is rolling out a new suite of tools for businesses on the community-based social platform. Currently in beta testing, Reddit Pro will eventually serve as a dashboard to help organizations build an organic presence on Reddit, according to the announcement.

Features will include:

• An AI tool to help organizations find relevant conversations, subreddits and topics to engage with.
• Organic post analytics.
• Publishing tools, including scheduling and drafts.
• A dashboard to help measure overall organic engagement.

Naturally, there will be easy integration to put paid boosts behind posts.

In early testing with brands including the NFL, Wall Street Journal and Taco Bell, brands saw a 35% boost in organic engagement when using Pro.

This is a big move forward as the platform continues to position itself as more advertiser-friendly ahead of its IPO.

TikTok

TikTok will begin rolling out a subscription offering to all creators on the app. Previously, the option was available only to LIVE creators. While initially only available by invite only, subscriptions will eventually roll out to all, giving creators a new revenue stream and new community engagement options.

As Congress yet again rattles its saber about banning the clock app, TikTok has deployed a pop-over to ask users to contact Congress and demand that the app stay, including an easy “call now” option.

But Business Insider reports that this tactic may have backfired.

It worked all right: people did call, with some offices receiving more than 50 calls on the matter. Though they called to support TikTok, the move apparently led some wavering representatives, especially among Republicans, to push for opposition to the app.

We’ll see if this is really lights out for TikTok.

Google

Not exactly social media, but news you need to know anyway: Google has made another core algorithm update. While Google never gives full details on how its algorithm works, it says the major changes this month were designed to keep spam and low-quality results out of search engine results pages.

“This update involves refining some of our core ranking systems to help us better understand if webpages are unhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people. This could include sites created primarily to match very specific search queries.”

This and previous updates reduce low-quality results by up to 40%, Google said.

Among other changes:

• Google will focus on penalizing large-scale, low-quality content creation in a way that’s agnostic about whether it was created by humans, AI or both. “This will allow us to take action on more types of content with little to no value created at scale, like pages that pretend to have answers to popular searches but fail to deliver helpful content.”
• The search engine is also cracking down on otherwise great websites that offer low-quality content a home. “We’ll now consider very low-value, third-party content produced primarily for ranking purposes and without close oversight of a website owner to be spam. We’re publishing this policy two months in advance of enforcement on May 5, to give site owners time to make any needed changes.”
• Finally, Google will deal with expired domain abuse, where spammers purchase expired domains that formerly had great reputations and proceed to fill them with low-quality content, banking on the former owners’ credibility to help them get clicks.

As always, the best way to deal with Google algorithmic changes is to focus on solid, human-centric content.

Google is also overhauling how it views Marketing Mix Models, analyses that help businesses measure their effectiveness across platforms. As cookies begin to fade from the modern internet, MMMs could be an alternative for better understanding user behavior.

Meridian will be Google’s new open-source MMM, focusing on increased accuracy, transparency, actions you can act on and education.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has spruced up its “interesting views” feature to see who’s creeping on your profile. Social media expert Matt Navarra reports that you can now more easily sort views to see if someone may be able to help you find a job, is a LinkedIn influencer and more.

The networking app has also announced new career development tools. Next Role Explorer will help people understand their job journey and what skills they need to level up, even creating customized Learning Plans to help them get there. They’re also making it easier for users to find and express interest in internal roles so they can grow in their current company rather than looking elsewhere — surely a powerful tool for keeping talent in-house.

YouTube

YouTube will now only show video recommendations if you’re logged in or have watched a few videos to fuel the algorithm, Android Police reported. Otherwise, you’ll be greeted with a blank screen.

For more social media insight, joins us at PR Daily and Ragan’s Social Media Conference at the Walt Disney World resort, March 27-29!

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on X or LinkedIn.

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