If you work in PR and are interested in the latest thinking on the media industry, PR planning, media analysis and social media, these are the must-read stories from the last week.

This week’s top PR and social media picks:

• A survey on global PR trends found that 82% of PR firms want a standard measurement tool. Firms also see measuring ROI as the greatest barrier to using social media. (One starting point is to monitor social media content, which our tool Gorkana Radar can help with.)
• The PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association) held its annual conference on Thursday, centred on the theme “The Future of the PR Industry”. We weren’t there but the hashtag #FutureofPR revealed that key focal points included the need for qualitative metrics over AVE in media analysis and the importance of setting measurable objectives — two notions we strongly agree with.
• The National Readership Survey (NRS) found that Tesco magazine is now the UK print title with the highest readership, overtaking The Sun. Although media commentator Roy Greenslade warned not to compare “apples and pears”, Econsultancy pointed out that brands are mastering the so-called “pubtailing” (publishing + retailing) model.
• Agency Universal McCann (UM) digested findings from the NRS on the print vs. digital reach of national newspapers. Notably, while 91% of Times readers only access the print edition, 54% of Guardian readers are online-only.
• Retired Tory politician Lord McAlpine announced plans to sue Twitter users who claimed he was involved in child abuse allegations. So what exactly are the legal implications of tweeting defamatory statements? (In short, the same as with printing them.)
• Research from Gartner Inc. predicted that by 2015 a quarter of all companies will have a Chief Digital Officer.
• Meet the mind behind Barack Obama‘s Twitter handle, including the thinking behind the now-iconic “Four more years” photo.
• EE‘s “Fenton 4GEE Remaster” ad, a take on one of 2011′s most memorable viral hits, continued to rack up views:

Can’t see the video? Click here.

• How Twitter reduced the US election to soundbites and oneliners. (Kind of inevitable, considering the wealth of material.)
• Susan Boyle‘s publicity team was widely mocked for using an unintentionally humorous hashtag to promote her new album. Although The Drum suspected the original tweet may have been a hoax, the importance of vetting anything published on social media was reaffirmed.
• In a bizarre move, McAfee founder John McAfee, who is currently wanted for questioning in relation to a murder, decided to pour his paranoid, convoluted thoughts into a blog while hiding out in Belize. (Expect a Hollywood biopic within two years.)
• Marketing optimisation company Monetate created a nifty infographic on the importance for retailers of crunching big data.
• US spoof site The Onion dug into “social media experts” with a TED talk-style video parody. It was reminiscent of last month’s clever “BS Detector” ad from Adobe, in which marketers are punished for using “buzzwords”:

Can’t see the video? Click here.

• Gorkana interviewed John Doe founder Rana Reeves. Among other things, Reeves reflected on the PR agency’s recent US expansion and the need for greater diversity of all types within the industry.
• Firefly Comms‘ Head of Digital Phil Szomszor argued that social media should be part of the B2B marketing mix. (We agree!)
• Any guys put off from growing Movember moustaches for fear of looking creepy should watch this spot by ad agency Taxi.
• The New York Times asked Twitter to shut down a parody account over copyright infringement of its logo. The account, The Times Is On It, has now been reinstated (with a modified avatar).
• Weird news of the week: after Pepsi held back some of the prize money won by a family who entered a competition 11,000 times, the family complained to the ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) — and won.

Infographic of the week: Social media sites as American high school stereotypes

Infographic by Wix.com