| Chelsea Kiko 
In today’s crowded and competitive content landscape, stagnation can be dangerous. PR and marketing practitioners have to keep learning and building out their skill sets, or risk being left behind. Fortunately, attending webinars can be an excellent (and often free!) way to expand your expertise. Webinars cater to both visual and audio learners’ needs; they offer the opportunity to hear from industry experts without having to travel; and when an archived recording is provided, they enable attendees to learn on their own time. Of course, as with any other type of educational content, there are a lot of webinars to choose from and it can be easy to miss out. The good news: We’ve gone through our 2015 webinars and selected five of the best for your viewing and listening pleasure. From learning how to write press releases that get discovered online to measuring your content’s success, the below list offers a few ways to spend your free time between now and the new year. And if you’re too busy toasting 2015, bookmark this post and make a resolution to watch the webinars that best fit your needs in 2016. Balancing Content & Data to Power PR Results: The webinar to watch when you’re hearing a lot of talk about "data," but struggled with math in college. Content cannot be successful without the right data used to measure it – reporting the right numbers to your boss is just as important as the content you create. Learn how to interpret data and use reporting to not just justify, but also inform your content marketing plan. Press Releases that Stand Out in the Digital Age: The webinar to watch (and share) when someone tells you press releases are dead. Press releases are among the most widely used tools that PR professionals can employ to earn media coverage and tell their story to their audiences. And yet, even within the industry, there are a surprising number of misconceptions about them. Learn how to create press releases that not just grab journalists’ and customers’ attention, but also drive traffic and leads, and ultimately contribute to revenue. How to Find Your Blog’s Focus and Avoid Blogger Burn Out: The webinar to watch when you want to convince your CEO to blog. A brand blog can be a great resource for attracting new audiences and showcasing your employees’ expertise, passion and writing skills. However, blogs can also be very challenging to successfully launch, maintain and promote. Three long-time bloggers share their secrets for keeping blog content interesting so you can reap the ultimate benefits of having a blog. You Had Me at Hello. Tips for Building Relationships with Influencers: The webinar to watch when you want journalists to take you seriously. Many communications professionals overlook the importance of having a solid relationship with journalists in their industry. Trust, transparency and mutual engagement are just a few characteristics that journalists need from communications professionals. Tune into this webinar to learn how to re-think your media relations strategy with a personalized approach that fosters credibility. Crisis Communications Planning in the Social Media Age: The webinar to watch when you never think a crisis will happen to you, until it does. "As communicators we deal with crisis all the time. If we do our jobs well, most people won't know they ever happened," said Victoria Harres, PR Newswire’s VP of Strategic Communications and Content, during this webinar. With social and digital media platforms instantly reporting news, it’s important to have a thorough plan in place for handling crises. Learn how to create and implement your crisis management plan so that your brand can effectively – and transparently – communicate with customers and stakeholders when a crisis does happen. We can’t wait to bring you a brand-new slate of webinars in 2016. Follow @PRNewswire and @PRNEvents for up-to-date webinar schedules and registration links so you don't miss out on the great content and speakers we’re featuring next year! Author Chelsea Kiko is PR Newswire's events and digital marketing coordinator. Follow her at @ckiko47. | 
