Blogs

AI, Storytelling & The Future of Communications: A Conversation with Diane Schwartz

By Brandi Michele Sims,MBA posted 2 days ago
AI, Storytelling & The Future of Communications: A Conversation with Diane Schwartz Artificial intelligence continues to dominate conversations across the communications industry, but amid the excitement, uncertainty and nonstop headlines, one thing remains clear: storytelling still matters. On a recent episode of the Brandinc PR Podcast , I sat down with Diane Schwartz, CEO of Ragan Communications, to discuss the evolving role of AI in PR, leadership and the future of communications. As the first female CEO in Ragan’s 56-year history, Diane has helped lead major industry conversations surrounding innovation, communicator training and AI adoption through ...

7 ways PR professional destroy their credibility on a regular basis, and how to fix them

By Katharine D. Paine posted 2 days ago
This post started with a conversation with my good friend who is a psychotherapist and doesn’t have a clue about what I do. I was explaining my frustration with a recent report I’d seen that was claimed millions of dollars in lost potential value as a result of one campaign an agency organized. Her response was “that’s like one of my clients who is struggling to keep a job, saying that her mother owed her millions because had not her mother mistreated her as a child, she would have been a rocket scientist.” Yup, that’s the perfect analogy for so many of the value claims I’ve heard over the years. I’ve spent four decades measuring media value. I’ve seen ...

What AI Gets Wrong About Crisis Communications Without Human Strategy

By Brandi Michele Sims,MBA posted 4 days ago
What AI Gets Wrong About Crisis Communications Without Human Strategy There’s a reason crisis communications still makes seasoned PR professionals sweat. One wrong statement. One delayed response. One tone-deaf automated reply circulating online at lightning speed, and suddenly a brand is no longer managing a narrative. The narrative is managing them. On a recent episode of The Brandinc PR Podcast, I sat down with Lisa Cole to discuss something more communications leaders need to be paying attention to right now: AI’s growing role in crisis communications and why human strategy still matters more than ever. As AI tools continue integrating into communications ...

Why PR Professionals Need to Pay Attention to AI Visibility Right Now

By Brandi Michele Sims,MBA posted 5 days ago
Why PR Professionals Need to Pay Attention to AI Visibility Right Now There’s a shift happening in digital visibility that I genuinely do not think enough people in communications are talking about yet. For years, the conversation centered around SEO, social media strategy, Google rankings, backlinks, hashtags, and discoverability through traditional search. But now? Consumers are changing behavior in real time. They’re no longer just typing searches into Google. They’re opening ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI platforms and asking direct questions: “Who’s the best esthetician near me?” “Find me a hairstylist that specializes in textured hair.” “Who ...

AI Is Changing Search. Here’s What That Means for PR Professionals

By Brandi Michele Sims,MBA posted 6 days ago
On a recent episode of the The Brandinc PR Podcast , I sat down with Jimi Gibson, VP of Brand Communication at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency for a conversation that every communications professional, entrepreneur, and brand strategist needs to hear right now. In a digital landscape where AI search tools are changing how audiences discover businesses, Jimi unpacked why visibility is no longer just about SEO rankings or polished branding. It’s about authority, credibility, and human connection. One of the biggest takeaways from the episode was this: your company logo alone will not carry your visibility in the AI era. Consumers and search platforms ...

Your Executive Presence Starts Before You Speak

By Brandi Michele Sims,MBA posted 7 days ago
Your Executive Presence Starts Before You Speak One of the most interesting conversations I’ve had recently on the Brandinc PR Podcast was with international keynote speaker and communications strategist Jasmine Romaine. We talked about executive presence, confidence, and the subtle communication signals that shape how people perceive us professionally. One point she made immediately stuck with me: “Your smile is your first impression.” At first glance, it sounds simple. But the deeper we got into the conversation, the more I realized how often communications professionals focus heavily on messaging while overlooking presence. As PR professionals, we ...

The Hidden ROI Risk of AI: Workforce Fatigue and Human Sustainability

By CHARLE-JOHN CAFIERO posted 10 days ago
As A.I. Boosts Productivity, Organizations Risk Building High-Performing Systems Atop Exhausted Employees, A Liability Rarely Captured In Roi Calculations. By: Charlé-John Cafiero As organizations race to integrate artificial intelligence into every layer of business, most leadership conversations remain centered on speed, automation, efficiency, and return on investment. But according to Jungian scholar Glen Slater , a far more consequential risk is being ignored: the psychological condition of human beings expected to function alongside these increasingly intelligent systems. The deeper concern is not just job replacement. Advancing AI systems ...

Inside the Industry: A New Member Feature Series

By Kelly Ross posted 11 days ago
Welcome to Inside the Industry , a new member feature series from the PRSA Entertainment & Sports Section highlighting the professionals, perspectives and personalities that make up our community. Whether you work directly in sports and entertainment communications or simply share an interest in the community, this series aims to strengthen relationships, expand professional networks and celebrate the people behind the stories, events, brands and experiences that bring audiences together. We’re kicking off the series with @Brandi Michele Sims,MBA , a Member-at-Large on the PRSA Entertainment & Sports Section Executive Committee who brings a ...

A.I. Is Scaling Faster Than Our Capacity To Stay Human- A Philosophical Perspective

By CHARLE-JOHN CAFIERO posted 22 days ago
A.I. Is Scaling Faster Than Our Capacity To Stay Human As A.I. exponentially crosses sectors, it outpaces human relevance. Glen Slater warns it may drive workforce displacement while quietly eroding our capacity for independent thought, identity, and meaning. When I tuned into the seminar room for “Jung, A.I., and Psychological Integrity,” I knew to expect a Jungian POV. Most talks I attend about A.I. end up being about efficiency or the next big app, but this one threw me off, in a good way. Instead of ROI or automation, Slater asked us to pause and think about how all this innovation might actually be shaping us, deep down. He goes into ...

PR Strategy as a Leadership Operating System

By Brandi Michele Sims,MBA posted 04-24-2026
PR Strategy as a Leadership Operating System When Samantha and I sat down to record this episode, I expected a great conversation about entrepreneurship. What I got was a full reframe of how I think about running my own agency. Her core argument is this: PR professionals are trained to bring clarity to chaos. We do it instinctively for clients. But the moment we turn the lens inward — on our own positioning, our own decision-making, our own systems — most of us go blank. Samantha's book draws from nearly two decades of real campaign experience, client pivots, and the internal systems she built at Junipr to create a framework ...

Dirty Data Is Costing Hospitality Brands More Than They Realize

By Michelle Lam posted 04-17-2026
Dirty Data Is Costing Hospitality Brands More Than They Realize Written By Michelle Lam In today’s hospitality landscape, data is no longer optional, it’s operational currency. Yet many restaurants, bars, and hospitality groups are running campaigns on fragmented, outdated, or inconsistent data. The result? Misaligned targeting, wasted media spend, and missed opportunities to connect with the right audience at the right time. Dirty data shows up in subtle but expensive ways: duplicated customer profiles, inaccurate guest preferences, outdated contact lists, or disconnected reservation and marketing systems. When ...

The New Rules of Reputation Management

By Chelsea N. Bennett,MA posted 04-09-2026
Public relations is changing. For years, many people thought of PR as media coverage, announcements and visibility. Those things still matter, but they are no longer enough. Today, public relations is about something bigger: trust. In a world where information moves quickly and reputations can shift just as fast, the real work of PR is helping organizations communicate with clarity, consistency and credibility. That is why the new rules of reputation management look different from the old ones. It is no longer enough to have a good message. The message has to be timely, thoughtful and grounded in reality. It has to reflect what people are actually experiencing, ...

Our agency skipped the party and went straight to Greece

By Ali Brady posted 03-25-2026
As a team member of Philosophy Communication, I'm proud to say that we are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. To mark the milestone, I wanted to share our "Big Idea" celebration: taking the whole team to Athens, Greece. This thought leadership needs to be shared! Philosophy Communication Marks 25 Years of “Shaping Thought” with Anniversary Expedition to Greece Employee Experiential Trip Celebrates Great Work and Great Lives Philosophy Communication , a marketing and public relations agency, is proud to announce its 25th anniversary. To honor a quarter-century of serving clients and the dedicated team that made it possible, the agency ...

Beyond Measuring Outputs to Measuring Behavioral Outcomes from a great Yankee Chapter PRSA workshop

By Katharine D. Paine posted 03-25-2026
Beyond Measuring Outputs to Measuring Behavioral Outcomes: The Latest Trends in PR Measurement By Katie Paine / March 24, 2026 By Angela Dwyer, APR, VP of Insights at Fullintel, and Katie Paine, Founder of Paine Publishing (aka the Measurement Queen) If you can’t show how your work changed behavior, did it really make an impact? Public relations measurement is at a turning point. While many organizations still report impressions and media volume, leaders increasingly expect communications teams to demonstrate influence on real-world outcomes—awareness, trust, and behavior . In a recent PRSA Yankee Chapter pane ...

Rethinking PR Workflows: New Industry Research Highlights Mental Health Pressures in Public Relations

By Brandi Michele Sims,MBA posted 03-09-2026
Rethinking PR Workflows: New Industry Research Highlights Mental Health Pressures in Public Relations Public relations professionals have long worked in a fast-paced environment. Between media deadlines, evolving client expectations and crisis communications, the role often requires practitioners to respond quickly while maintaining strategic clarity. A new industry survey from PR.co highlights just how demanding that environment has become. According to the report, 60% of PR professionals say they feel overwhelmed weekly or even daily . While heavy workloads are certainly a factor, the findings suggest that the issue extends beyond volume of work. The ...

One Campaign Won’t Change What The Audience Thinks Of Your Brand

By Michelle Lam posted 03-06-2026
Imagine visiting a new city like New York or any major global destination. The way you feel about that place doesn’t come from a single thing. On the contrary, it comes from the entire ecosystem of experiences: world‑class dining, concerts, bars, clubs, entertainment residencies, conventions, and immersive attractions. All of these touch points together create what we think of the city and build strong destination appeal. The same principle applies to brand building, shaped by countless small details, not only one campaign. Starting from what is written about you online: articles in media outlets, comments, Google reviews (interesting fact: around 70% of people ...

Stop Counting What You Did. Start Measuring What Changed

By Katharine D. Paine posted 03-03-2026
If you want to know more about measuring impact, join us for the Yankee Chapter event next week! Stop Counting What You Did. Start Measuring What Changed. The communications profession has spent years perfecting the art of measuring the wrong things. We built sophisticated, channel-by-channel frameworks — PR metrics for PR, social metrics for social, influencer metrics for influencers — and told ourselves we were being rigorous. But we were confusing activity for impact. Today’s audiences move seamlessly across a vast and shifting constellation of sources — forming opinions through podcasts, peer networks, newsletters, short-form video, and channels ...

Why PR Budgets Get Cut, and how to protect yours

By Katharine D. Paine posted 03-03-2026
For years, PR professionals have complained: we don’t have enough resources to do the job properly. According to Cision’s Inside PR 2026 report, two-thirds of PR managers cite resource pressures as a major concern. Meltwater’s State of PR report echoes that finding, with 24% of respondents naming budget constraints as their primary issue. Not surprising if, according to the Meltwater report, 4 in 10 PR professionals believe that leadership has a limited understanding of what their PR team actually does. The root cause is a tagline I used back in the ‘90s – Management is from Mars; PR is from Venus. If you haven’t read John Gray’s book I’m not surprised, ...

Is Live Commerce the Next Frontier for PR? Insights from Livestream Pioneer John Petrocelli

By Brandi Michele Sims,MBA posted 02-25-2026
As public relations professionals, we’re constantly navigating the evolution of media, platforms, and audience behavior. One shift that deserves more attention in our space is the rise of e-commerce livestreaming—particularly on platforms like TikTok Live. On a recent episode of The Brandinc PR Podcast , I had the opportunity to speak with John Petrocelli, Founder & CEO of Bulldog DM and a pioneer in the livestream industry. John has helped power some of the most watched livestreams in the world and has worked with Fortune 500 brands to create large-scale digital experiences. One of the key takeaways from our conversation: livestream commerce is not ...

PR in 2026: What Today’s Communicators Need to Prepare for Now

By Brandi Michele Sims,MBA posted 02-19-2026
PR in 2026: What Today’s Communicators Need to Prepare for Now By Brandi Sims, Founder of Brandinc PR Public relations is in the middle of a quiet reinvention. While headlines focus on AI tools and shifting social platforms, what’s really happening beneath the surface is bigger: PR is becoming more human, more decentralized, and more strategic at every level. As agency leaders, in-house communicators, consultants, and educators, we’re being asked to do more than secure coverage. We’re now responsible for shaping brand authority across traditional media, digital platforms, and even AI-generated environments. Here are five trends I see defining PR in ...