The press release is dead! That's what many have been saying since the emergence of social media. The press release is still here though – perhaps somewhat advanced and taking up new forms such as social media release of video release etc. Dying or not, the press release in whatever form is still a valuable tool to transmit information and announce company messages. To have these messages heard, or in this case read, you need to make sure that you not only have written a well-thought-of and structured release, but you need to grab people's attention.

And that's where text might not always suffice.

People are visual creatures. We consume images 60,000 faster than text; we remember 80% of what we see and do, and only 20% of what we read.

Perhaps this is one reason why visual content can increase your press release visibility by 5,000!

Surprised? It's a massive number, I know, but it is based on a recent analysis of over 1 million press releases.

PR Newswire discovered that in contrast to text-only pieces visual content improves the performance of press releases enormously:

Social media for business sustainability is going mainstream. That's what the latest Social Media Sustainability Index found. But how did that happen? And most importantly why? What is the potential of social media for sustainability communications and how does it add real business value? Read along to find out, I am about to enlighten you, or more precisely, a dear friend of mine is about to do so.

One year ago I had the pleasure of having a Google+ Hangout with the most enthusiastic person I know – Julie Urlaub.

Julie kindly agreed to participate in an interview with me as part of my research for my second BA dissertation that was also published as a book.

Julie is a true pioneer when it comes to social media for sustainability. She lives and breathes it and she is extremely passionate about her work.

She is Founder and Managing Director of Taiga Company – a sustainability and social media consulting firm specialising in sustainable storytelling. Julie is also the author of The Business Sustainability Handbook.

She not only understands the potential of social media for sustainability, but also successfully advises clients how to make best use of it and encourages people around the world to adopt a greener lifestyle.

The key to successful leadership lies in being human. That's what Unilver's CEO Paul Polman deeply believes in. You wouldn't really expect that to be the most important attribute for one of the world's most influential leaders and especially for a male executive, considering how the general perception of a great leader is the domineering, command-and-control and know-it-all male.

But with the increasing requirement for full transparency, interconnectivity and a values-led approach, it seems that there's something missing in today's prevailing leadership style.

A "female" touch.

The social media world is moving so fast that we can barely keep up. Social networks are constantly introducing new features, improvements of existing features or even completely new designs (Facebook and Twitter). Keeping up with that pace and being in line with the latest change is a serious challenge for any person using social media for business or communications purposes.

Remember the social media cheat sheet I posted in January? Well, it's no longer relevant or correct. And that's just after 5 months. Nevertheless, I believe such infographics are extremely useful, which is why when I stumbled upon an updated and enhanced version yesterday I thought I had to share it with you.

Below you'll find an extensive infographic with all image dimensions for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube. The visual also offers guidance on the characters length for various posts, titles and descriptions as well as Facebook ads.

This is pretty neat to hang on the wall or save on your desktop and look for reference whenever you need a specific image or text parameter.

We all know what blogging is, but have you heard of vlogging – the abbreviation for video blogging? When was the last time you watched a tutorial on YouTube, for example a video explaining how to make a trendy hairstyle or how to build a website? We have all seen such videos, so even if you didn't know the term (and now you do), I'm sure you have experienced a vlog (i.e. video blog).

Vlogging - advanced blogging

What this means is that there are many people out there who, instead of writing long pieces and publishing in text format on a blog, create interactive video content on private YouTube channels, aiming at adding value for subscribers and not readers.

Among PR professionals these people are known as vloggers (i.e. video bloggers), or as they prefer to call themselves YouTubers.

Especially in the beauty industry YouTubers have become extremely influential making a pretty nice living only via vlogging. Sounds interesting? It sure is and this is what we are about to explore.