Press releases remain a cornerstone of public relations, but their format and distribution have undergone significant changes. What started as simple text announcements sent to newsrooms has morphed into rich, multimedia content pieces that serve multiple communication objectives. Today’s press releases work harder – they attract journalists, reach consumers directly, boost SEO rankings, and generate social media buzz. This evolution reflects broader shifts in how people consume information and how search engines index content.

Text-only press releases no longer meet modern communication needs. Research from PR Newswire shows that multimedia press releases generate up to 9.7 times more views than traditional text releases. Major brands like Apple and Tesla now regularly include high-resolution images, videos, and interactive elements in their announcements.

The digital age has fundamentally changed how organizations face and respond to crises. What starts as a single negative comment or review can spread across social networks within minutes, potentially damaging a brand’s reputation before teams even know there’s a problem. Social media amplifies both positive and negative messages, making swift, strategic crisis management more critical than ever. The most successful organizations now combine traditional crisis communication principles with digital-first approaches, monitoring conversations across platforms and responding with carefully crafted messages that resonate with multiple stakeholder groups.

A strong crisis management strategy starts long before any issues arise. Organizations need established protocols, trained teams, and clear communication channels ready to activate at a moment’s notice. The first step is creating a dedicated crisis response team that includes representatives from communications, legal, operations, and executive leadership. This team should meet regularly to review and update crisis plans, conduct simulation exercises, and ensure all members understand their roles.

Public relations has entered a new era where artificial intelligence, automation tools, and data analytics shape how organizations communicate with their audiences. These technologies now form the backbone of successful PR campaigns, offering unprecedented abilities to understand audience behavior, predict trends, and measure impact. PR professionals who master these tools gain significant advantages in crafting targeted messages, responding to crises, and demonstrating clear ROI for their efforts. The integration of AI and automation into PR practices marks a fundamental shift from traditional approaches, enabling teams to work more efficiently while delivering more impactful results.

PR measurement has traditionally relied on manual tracking and basic metrics. Today’s AI-powered analytics platforms provide deeper insights through advanced data processing capabilities. These systems analyze vast amounts of online conversations, media coverage, and social interactions in real-time, giving PR professionals immediate feedback on campaign performance.

Public relations function as a strategic asset for organizations aiming to foster and sustain positive relationships with their stakeholders. The true value of PR reveals itself most clearly during crises. 

When faced with unexpected challenges, organizations must adeptly navigate a complex landscape of public opinion, media scrutiny, and potential regulatory consequences. Effective PR can determine whether an organization experiences a swift recovery or endures prolonged reputational damage.

The cannabis industry is constantly changing and while there are many things that are pushing the movement forward when it comes to state-specific laws, there are still plenty of gray areas.

However, no matter which way someone looks at the market, the cannabis industry, which includes cannabidiol (CBD) products, has been getting increasingly popular.

Recently, the social giant Facebook announced that it would start testing ads inside its virtual reality system Oculus Quest. The company announced that the ads would be tested inside one of the games of the device, called Blaston, by Resolution Games. Additionally, the public was informed that the ad program would then continue to expand into other games.

The goal of this testing effort was to enable the company to create a self-sustaining platform that could help VR development in the future. Sometime later, Facebook started putting up ads inside some of the virtual reality apps offered in the Oculus Quest device.

Creating an effective crisis management plan can be a hard task for any communication team. Not only because of risks associated with potential crises—including everything from the damage of reputation to loss of key customers—but because creating a detailed crisis communications plan for an unknown event is a challenge.

Facing these challenges, many communication teams prefer to bury their heads in the sand and wait for a crisis to happen before making an appropriate communication plan. But, studying well-known crises—among them Lance Armstrong, Virginia Tech, BP, and Dreamworld—crisis communication teams should learn that waiting until the last minute to plan for one is the worst strategy of all.

Crises come and go, and many, like the pandemic, can’t even be foreseen. Nonetheless, those that seriously affect the brand, its employees, operations, and leadership can have devastating and long-lasting effects. The acceleration of social media has added to the challenges of crisis communications, an impact that a Pentland Analytics study says has doubled the impact on shareholder value.

The study also found that those companies that responded well saw an average increase in the value of 20% while those that didn’t experience a 30% decrease. In a world where today’s COVID-19 crisis is much bigger than the brand but can have a tremendous effect on its business and operations, it’s highly advisable and not too late to craft and employ a social media crisis management strategy.