Following the social media and marketing trends for 2013 it is clear that visuals will be a major driver of the communications and storytelling activities of brands. We can already see a number of companies who have put some great efforts into utilising visuals as a marketing tool to effectively capture people’s attention and engage with them. Visual content is therefore without doubt the new black – just as I’ve said in an article I wrote for Muddywall.

This shift towards visual content has provoked another powerful trend – the rise of infographics.

In another article for Muddywall, I highlight that leveraging infographics can help brands extend reach, drive traffic, improve SEO as well as increase social sharing and engagement.

There’s a simple reason behind why infographics provide so many opportunities – people are naturally more drawn to visual forms of communication than having to read lengthy text. What’s more, being presented with data in a visual way allows us to more quickly and easily perceive and understand complex information.

I personally love infographics! I’m sure you’ve noticed that already, considering how many infographics I’ve shared here and the fact that I myself created one, which summarised the survey findings of my dissertation.

Back in October last year I reported the results of a research by Cision on how social media has affected the work life of journalists in the UK and why this matters to PR. As the researchers called it, this was a study on Social Journalism. Earlier this month Cision & Canterbury Christ Church University released the global findings of the same study, examining how journos around the world use social media and how it impacts their work.

Over 3,650 journalists from 11 different countries participated in the online survey.

The results have captured some interesting recent developments in how journalists and media professionals use social media for work. However, there were no major changes regarding contact between PR professionals and journalists with email, telephone and face-to-face remaining the three most common ways to communicate with each other.

As to be expected, the study found that the country was the most significant factor influencing patterns of social media use by journalists as well as their attitudes. This again, is no surprise, because cultural differences not only affect our beliefs and how we communicate with others, but also the way we do things, including our work activities.

Remember the famous TNT Drama campaign in Belgium I shared with you last year? Yes, that one, with the amazingly surprising and shocking end that left you breathless and laughing? Well, TNT has now produced the second guerrilla marketing stunt of its drama series, as I am naming them now (hopefully we'll see more in the future).

The sequel took place in the Netherlands to promote the launch of the TV channel in the country. The video has already reached more than 1 million views in less than two days!

This time the campaign involved the public into all the ‘drama.’ It’s really entertaining to watch the people, who were drawn into the action, not understanding what’s going on around them.

I’ll stop talking now because I don’t want to ruin it for you; just watch it for yourself!

Less than one in five of the general public believes that business leaders and government officials will make ethical and moral decisions. This was one of the main findings of this year’s Edelman Trust Barometer – the 13^th annual trust and credibility survey by one of the leading public relations consultancies in the world Edelman.

With 31,000 respondents in 26 countries, the study found that in general there are significantly lower levels of trust in business and governments and the traditional authority figures such as CEOs or prime ministers, but also in the media. According to Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, what we are seeing today is “a crisis of leadership”.

50% of respondents said they trusted businesses to do what’s right, however only 18% believed that business leaders will tell them the truth in a difficult situation, suggesting that trust in leaders’ ethics and morality are very low. This massive gap between trust in business and trust in business leaders is an indication that the general public is much less confident in chief executives, but rather in company employees.

On the other hand, academics, technical experts and a person like yourself are nearly twice as trusted as a chief executives or government officials.

Now that you’ve seen the survey results of my dissertation about social media’s impact on PR and read the interview I conducted with Heather Yaxley, it’s time for the next interview to go online.

Below you’ll see the responses of Shelley Fletcher-Bryant. Shelley is a Strategic PR & Marketing Consultant, Business Owner at Firegrass Communications and Co-Founder at Ladies That Tweet. She is a CIPR Accredited Practitioner and award winning PR specialist with more than 12 years' experience in marketing and public relations. Shelley has worked both in-house and agency, managing campaigns and projects on a local, regional, national and international level for clients. You can follow her on Twitter @shelleyfletcher.

Q: How do you think the emergence of social media changed PR? Is it a positive or a negative impact and why?

It is both positive and negative; it provides opportunities to reach and engage with a broader market and communicate more effectively with both your customers and the media, however, the availability of social media channels means that everyone can now be a publisher, editor and journalist.