Great news! You don’t have to pay a professional photographer hundreds of dollars for your next headshot. LinkedIn is going to help you look beautiful for free. This, plus more in our Weekly Rewind.

Love it or hate it — AP style is here to stay

Grammar errors in press releases are painfully obvious to the reporters who live and breathe by the stylebook and can ultimately dissuade them from picking up your coverage. We know there are a ton of rules to master, but here are some of the top AP style fundamentals every PR pro should know:

• Hyphens
  • Hyphenate the words that go together when using adjectives to modify words. Generally, words that end in “-ly” are adverbs and shouldn’t be hyphenated.

• Punctuation
  • AP style generally doesn’t use the Oxford comma so therefore, do not use a comma before the last item in a simple series.

• Dimensions
  • When writing about height, weight or other dimensions, use figures and spell out words such as feet, miles, etc.

Read the rest of the tips for a thorough refresher!

Know Your Purpose

According to PR News, “every minute of every day, there are 1,300 more blog posts, 360,000 more tweets, 1.7 million more Facebook posts and 2 million more Youtube videos.” We’re drowning in content and communication professionals have to fight to get their client’s voices heard. So how do you stay afloat? Make sure your content is centered around the company’s purpose, ensuring a clear connection to the brand’s reason for being. Stand out from the crowd with these surefire ways to improve your content marketing.

We’ll Do It Live!

By now you’ve most likely seen — or at least heard about — the video showing a BBC live skype interview from a professor’s home office when he’s interrupted by his children. It’s produced lots of laughs, but it’s definitely a little cringe-worthy when you first watch it — #awkward! PR Daily breaks down the viral clip and offers helpful tips to give clients when on live television.

Our favorite tip is “preparation, preparation, preparation.” Dry runs are critical, and you should brace yourself for any curveball. In our experience, the more you practice the more confident you’ll become and that’s the key to being able to roll with it!

Finally, A Filter For Your Headshot

Have you ever uploaded your LinkedIn profile picture and thought, “If only I could add a filter, my headshot would look so much better and I’d definitely land that PR gig?” Well, now you can! LinkedIn has rolled out six photo filters, along with the ability to crop images and edit brightness, contrast, saturation and vignette. LinkedIn’s product manager said, “Not only does your profile photo help you get recognized on LinkedIn, it can often help you connect to an opportunity, whether that’s a new job or an invitation to speak at an industry event.” Put your best face forward and get that filter just right!