My co-worker, Justin, is on the local board of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), our professional association. He said he was interested in studying to attain accreditation in public relations (APR). Good for him, I thought. In fact, if he finds it useful, we just might include this among the stepping stones to a certain level of leadership for the PR staff in the firm. We’ll support you, let me know how it goes, I told him.

I hadn’t done it, studied for accreditation. Didn’t know much about it. PRSA was not part of the culture where I worked early in my career, and becoming accredited just didn’t come up in the 15 years since Linda and I founded our integrated communications firm in Kansas City. As PR defines itself as an “emerging” profession, having or not having the accredited designation is not decisive in our freedom to do the work. In fact, of the 275,000 the Bureau of Labor Statistics says work in public relations, only 5,000 have this designation.

Who really knows or cares what APR stands for anyway? Or, AICP, ASE, CCIM, CLU, ChFC, PE, SIOR (just a few of the certifications I pulled from names in my Outlook database)? In the professional designation alphabet soup sweepstakes, the clear winners are CPA, DDS, JD, and MD. Most people know what those mean, and really want you to have one if you are their service provider.

In recent years, I have come to appreciate the rigor required of strategic communications campaigns submitted for PRSA’s awards program. They have to show clear goal setting, strategy, steady execution, and measureable results for clients. The association’s professional development opportunities for co-workers also have value. So being the strategic thinker that I am, I tried (really, really tried) to think my way through justifying requiring accreditation of more junior staff when I had not required it of myself.

When you have a well-stated goal, it clears the decks for defining what you need to do, how much and by when – the architecture of any good plan. I wanted to know if accreditation should be among the considerations for advancement among our senior PR team members. I needed to participate, study and take the test myself to be credible in that decision making – and I needed to do so before I let my focus go elsewhere.

So I did. And here is what I learned: That the process validated the discipline and rigor our firm has long brought to strategic planning and campaign execution. That research should be front and center for any firm’s in-house capabilities, not relegated to the specialist closet. That I really don’t like theory. That while accreditation alone is insufficient preparation for firm leadership, it is a worthy building block in the foundation.

I did pass, I am relieved to say, accredited in public relations. Now I know what it means.

Customers with credit troubles can avoid expensive security deposits with pay-as-you-go plans. Savvy savers can reduce their energy bills by running the dishwasher and clothes dryer during off-peak hours on new time-of-use rate plans. Folks who are concerned about the environment can celebrate an electric grid that uses energy more efficiently, reducing the demand for more power plants, and thus, emissions. New residents can have their power turned on instantly with the click of the mouse, and not have to worry about scheduling an appointment between 8 a.m. and noon.

The power companies benefit too, by reducing overhead, enhancing their ability to identify and fix problems quickly, having the ability to control large portions of their systems remotely, and analyzing and responding to energy demand more efficiently.

But despite all the benefits, there is a small but vocal group raising concerns about the radio waves these meters use to communicate with the electric utility.

The power company in my hometown is currently embroiled in a controversy involving this very topic.

I have to admit that the first time I read about the controversy, I was kind of surprised. I’ve been working with electric utilities for my entire professional career, and I can rattle off a long list of issues that have the potential to create controversy…but this one had never crossed my mind.

It was a good reminder that when you’re developing a communication plan and going through that trusty SWOT (or TOWS) analysis, you have to keep an open mind. It’s easy to overlook potential threats, especially when you’re launching a new product or service that is several orders of magnitude better than the thing it’s replacing. It’s equally easy to dismiss potential weaknesses when your organization is great at what it does and has a long history of doing it well.

But a vivid imagination and a willingness to consider the unlikely is exactly what it takes to build a great plan – whether it’s a routine communication program, a new product or service launch, or a crisis management plan that you hope never has to be used.

So next time you’re working on a plan, don’t be so quick to cast aside the off-the-wall ideas that come up in the brainstorm session. Write them down. Revisit them later. Ask a friend or colleague. Punch them into Google and see what comes up. You might be surprised…and you might also be recognized as the one with the vision that helps your organization avoid (or at least be prepared for) a big problem.

This year, I’ve asked our intern applicants to submit a cover letter that explains why they chose to pursue a career in public relations. I decided to take this approach for several reasons, the most important of which is a desire to find candidates who really “get” what it means to work in this industry, and want to do it for the right reasons.

It occurred to me that if I expect others to articulate a clear and compelling rationale for why they pursued a career in PR, I should be able to do the same. So the following is my response to that question.

From a very early age, there were lots of signs that I would end up in this field. I was extroverted, loved analyzing and constructing arguments, enjoyed learning new things (especially when they were complicated), and was always fascinated by current events (particularly news related to government and business).

But just because you have certain personality traits, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re destined to work in a particular field.

The real defining moment came when I was a freshman in high school. You see, when I was in eighth grade, my mom passed away after a long battle with HIV/AIDS. This was back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s – a time when this disease was making headlines and causing fear, and prior to the advent of “the cocktail” of medications that has improved and extended the lives of people living with HIV.

Her diagnosis as HIV-positive was an ironic turn of events, because prior to her own diagnosis, she had volunteered at the local health clinic providing HIV counseling and testing. She also spoke to community groups about the disease, making her among the first wave of volunteers in Maine to do so.

After learning she was HIV-positive, she continued speaking and training, but instead of talking from the perspective of a health professional, she spoke as a person living with the disease.

She was just one of many voices working hard to change and shape the national dialogue about this new and scary topic…and I saw first hand what happened as a result of those efforts.

I watched as school districts changed policies to encourage better education about the disease. I saw support services expand and people’s attitudes begin to shift. And close to home, I witnessed our community overwhelm my family with love and support at a time when other families in similar situations in other parts of the country were ostracized and maligned.

When she passed away, I knew it was my turn to be part of the solution. I spoke to my school board. I did interviews in the newspaper. I visited other schools and talked to kids my age about HIV/AIDS. And as luck would have it, it turned out that I was pretty good at this public relations thing.

When I started thinking seriously about college, I figured out that I could actually make a living using these skills. So I went to the University of Southern Maine and double majored in communication and political science. From there I went to the University of Kansas for graduate school, where I studied how rhetoric shaped public discourse and popular opinion.

After KU, I moved to Kansas City and started at Sturges Word. My clients come from a wide variety of industries. Some are government, and some are corporations. Some are for-profit, others not-for-profit. All are doing things that make the communities, customers and clients they serve better and stronger…and every morning, I get to wake up, walk down 9th Street, sit at my desk, and do my part to take their complicated ideas and make them understandable to the world. And that’s really cool.

Tradition and history give us a sense of place. They let us know who we are, where we came from and what we stand for. But they can also be an obstacle to our growth and evolution. There is a delicate balance we must achieve between knowing where we came from, and knowing where we’re going.

This is a challenge for any community, culture or company that has a history worth celebrating.

Take, for example, America’s rural electric cooperatives. This year marked the 75th anniversary of the Rural Electrification Administration, and over the next few years, rural electric cooperatives all across country will be celebrating their 75th anniversaries. In doing so, they must walk a fine line.

The history and tradition of these co-ops reinforce a culture of exceptional service to members and dedication to the communities they serve. Electric co-ops were established to bring power to those who were ignored by larger companies serving urban areas. They transformed the economies of small towns and lives of America’s farmers. This is an important contribution to our country, and one that should be celebrated. But it is equally important to look toward the future, and articulate a vision for how they’ll serve their members for the next 75 years.

In honor of the World Series, I’d like to illustrate my point by comparing three MLB teams.

The Tampa Bay Rays: A team without tradition
The Rays had an awesome season, finishing with the best record in the American League…but you’d hardly know it by looking at the sea of empty seats inside their antiseptic domed stadium. The Rays joined the league in its last round of expansion in the late 90s, so they haven’t had a long time to build up tradition. But even more challenging than that, they play in a city and state where many of the residents are transplants. It’s hard to build loyalty when most of your would-be have only a weak connection to the area.

It’s depressing watching baseball in an empty stadium, but it’s extra super depressing to watch a good team play in an empty stadium because nobody cares…at least fans for lousy teams have an excuse not to show up, which brings me to the Royals.

The Kansas City Royals: Hanging on to bygone glory days
The Royals have the opposite problem. Over the past decade, they’ve been perennial basement dwellers. Unlike the Rays, most Kansas Citians are from either the immediate metro region, or rural areas within a four-hour drive. They desperately want to cheer for the Royals, but the Royals give them nothing to cheer about.

Instead, they’re forced to relive their glory days. Last week, The Kansas City Star ran an article marking the 25th anniversary of the Royals’ lone World Series victory. It’s just sad to watch…like Al Bundy reminiscing about the time he threw four touchdowns in a single game for Polk High. There’s no hope for the future, just a nostalgic look back.

The Boston Red Sox: Embracing tradition while chasing greatness
In contrast to the Rays and Royals, the Red Sox represent the perfect blend of the past and present. The Sox have many proud traditions to celebrate. Legendary players like Cy Young, Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski. They play in baseball’s cathedral – Fenway Park – a place where generations of parents have taken their children to see their first game.

Despite all that tradition, they went more than 80 years without a championship…and yet the fans continued to fill the ballpark night after night. They supported the team partly because of tradition, but also because the management consistently tried to produce a better product…and the fans knew it. They celebrated the past, but articulated a clear vision for the future.

Whether you’re an electric cooperative or a Fortune 500 company, these three teams can teach us a lot about the right way to balance the past and present. The Rays, Royals and Red Sox have all experienced both triumph and failure. Yet each team has a very different relationship between its past and its future.

If you’re planning an anniversary celebration for your organization, be sure to spend as much time looking forward as you do looking back. When you’re putting together the commemorative book, try to harness the spirit of the people in those old black and white photos. What would those folks say if they were confronted by the challenges of today? They didn’t build a great organization by reminiscing about the way things used to be…they did it by imagining what was possible.

Finding the right balance between celebrating what you’ve achieved and learning from those accomplishments to build a stronger future is a great way to build a loyal fan base for generations to come.

Though most major airlines have a robust social media monitoring and response program, a story written today by one of my favorite Wall Street Journal reporters/bloggers shows the significant diversity in the approaches they take.

For most airlines, the approach seems to be an extension of regular customer service. Tweet a complaint, and you’ll get a response that is consistent with the airline’s standard policy in that situation.

At least one airline, Delta, takes a different approach. According to this story, Delta’s social media strategy is like customer service on steroids. The folks who monitor social media chatter about the airline are empowered to bend rules and go beyond standard customer service protocols to make things right for customers.

This raises an interesting dilemma. On one hand, I am big fan of empowering front-line employees to use their discretion and immediately address customer service issues – a model made famous by the Ritz Carlton. And I’m an equally big fan of using social media for helping customers.

On the other, Delta’s approach creates a shameless double standard. Essentially, the message they’re sending is “if you have the power to make us look bad and cause a public relations nightmare, we’ll do something. Otherwise, tough noogies.”

The magic of the Ritz Carlton model is that it applies to all employees interacting with customers in all situations…not just those causing a scene in the hotel lobby.

Coincidentally, another report published today named Delta the meanest airline in America.

Look. I am not some naïve fool who thinks the world is filled with unicorns, rainbows and kittens. I know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and that people who have the power to influence the opinions of others get preferred treatment. I get it. I am, after all, a PR guy.

What I’m suggesting is that maybe Delta doesn’t “get it.” Social media is a feedback loop. If your customer service policies are so bad that the only way a person can seek redress of their grievance is through public shaming, it might be time to look at the rest of your operation.

I know it’s impossible for every front-line employee of a major corporation to flawlessly serve as a brand ambassador. I know you need scripts and policy manuals to ensure CSRs deliver consistent service and control costs.

But at the same time, you need to have a better escalation procedure for solving problems…and more important, that policy should be the same for all your customers, whether they are standing at a counter, talking on the phone, or tweeting to the world. Remember that integrity is doing the right thing even when nobody is looking.

Airlines, including Delta, should be commended for being innovators in embracing social media as a way to interact with their customers and solving problems. It’s a fantastic tool for building relationships and engaging in meaningful conversations. But that’s just the first step in the process.

Next, they need to take the information they gather through social media, and use it to improve the rest of their operation.

Then, then need to apply those same standards to all points of customer contact, not just the embarrassing ones, because any good PR person will tell you that double standards, hypocrisy and arbitrary policies look just as bad as (if not worse than) bad customer service.

In a world of social media, don’t you think somebody might notice that double standard? The Wall Street Journal did.

The gist of the argument is “how am I supposed to take you seriously as a professional when you’re using an email address straight out of 1997, especially if you’re a PR or technology consultant?”

They noted how simple and inexpensive it is for even the smallest of businesses to purchase a personalized domain name for email and web purposes.

Other participants raised security concerns about using those services, and how common it is for those accounts to be hacked, spoofed and otherwise compromised, all of which are party fouls when dealing with confidential information and serious business matters.

One person said an AOL email address was like a digital mullet. I love that term, and have committed myself to using it at least once a week.

While I found the debate mildly entertaining, it did get me thinking about the image we project to clients and customers based on the technology choices we make.

I turned 30 earlier this year, and I believe people my age (give or take a couple years) have an interesting perspective on the internet and the digital revolution, because we were growing up while it was growing up.

When I started kindergarten, I think our entire school had one computer, my worksheets were reproduced on a ditto machine, and my teachers showed educational films that were made out of actual film. When I graduated from high school, my entire school was wired with high-speed internet, we had rooms filled with computers, and overheads were giving way to PowerPoint.

Now folks in my generation are buying houses, starting families, moving up the corporate ladder, and doing all those other things grownups do.

We are decision makers, and we judge the professionalism of your brand based (at least in part) on the technology you use. We don’t view technology as a cool value-add. We view it as a minimum standard you must meet before we will take you seriously.

I think the utility industry provides a fine illustration of why it’s important to put your best digital foot forward.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with several rural electric cooperatives on various public relations and community outreach programs. Electric cooperatives are well-run professional utilities providing outstanding customer service and reliable electricity to millions of homes and businesses across the United States.

Unfortunately, because they primarily serve rural areas, some people wrongly perceive these organizations as less capable or sophisticated than their urban counterparts. This perception is simply not true. In fact, electric co-ops are often early adopters of new technology (like smart meters), because the rural areas they serve present unique challenges these innovations can help solve.

Of course, the average customer isn’t going to know all that information when they move to a new town and want to turn on the electricity at their home. All they’ll know is what they see on the co-op’s website, and for the growing number of people who grew up in the internet age, they have high expectations for that site.

To me and the people in my generation, your website is your front door (and one could make a compelling argument that Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are vying for that distinction). If it’s clean, well organized and professionally written, then we assume the company behind it must be too. It it’s not…well, you get the idea.

In the case of electric co-ops, the deck has already been stacked against them by an unfair and bogus stereotype. But whether a stereotype is right or wrong doesn’t change the fact that it exists. It just means you have to work twice as hard to overcome it.

Another challenge co-ops face is a lack of high-speed broadband access in many of the areas they serve. Some might think this lack of broadband means an up-to-date website is a bad idea. In reality, slow internet access is just another reason why it’s incredibly important that these organizations provide clean, simple, professional-looking pages. An old website that is poorly designed and has gotten cluttered with information over its life is more likely to load slowly and cause problems for end users. A skilled web programmer can work within those constraints to optimize the site – dial up will always be painfully slow, but steps can be taken to ease burden.

I singled out electric co-ops in this post because I’ve worked with so many of them, respect and enjoy the industry, and understand some of the unique challenges they face, but these principles apply to any industry (Remember we started out talking about a LinkedIn discussion among a bunch of PR people).

Most companies I know expect their employees to be neatly dressed so customers and clients will view them as serious and competent professionals. The same is true for your presence on the web and various social media channels. Don’t let your clients or customers see you sporting a digital mullet.

When we go to the store to buy ice cream, we have a tough time making a decision. Of course the simple solution would be for each of us to purchase the flavor we prefer, but we’re headstrong young professionals who are determined to reach consensus.

The first time we had this trouble, we attributed it to differences about what sounded good on that particular occasion. But after the third time we had a 10-minute negotiation in the frozen foods section, we realized there might be a larger issue at play.

Here’s the gist of it. I’m a features and benefits guy. She’s more into the entire consumer experience.

I want solid flavor base paired with a tasty mix-in. Things like mint chocolate chip, cookie dough or Heath Bar crunch.

She wants what she describes as “a narrative.” Things like Georgia peach cobbler, birthday cake bonanza, or Maine black bear.

I think her flavors are too complicated and trying to be something they’re not. If I want cobbler, I’ll eat cobbler. She thinks mine are too boring. Desert should be fun and adventurous, she says.

We’ve settled on banana split, because it is interesting enough to capture her creative spirit, and I viewed it as all of the standard components of a banana split merged into one package.

This exercise reminds me of a common debate in the world of marketing strategy. There are many marketing folks out there who will tell you features and benefits selling is passé. There are others who will tell you branding is just a gimmick.

The truth is they’re both important. In a world where our choices are limited only by our imagination, a strong brand will help your product or service stand out, be memorable, and resonate with target audiences. But brands that seem to be all style and no substance rarely succeed. Features and benefits still need to be solid, and they must be readily apparent to the customer who is looking for them.

Depending on the nature of the product and marketplace, it’s likely that one will be more important than the other, but in nearly every instance they both deserve attention.

When was the last time you stopped to ask what flavor your audience likes, and whether or not that’s the flavor you sell? It might be time to tweak the recipe.

Of course this final message is nothing like the original message, and a good time is had by all.

I was reminded of this game while reading one of the many news stories and blog posts regarding Jason Whitlock. For our friends and clients outside of Kansas City, Jason Whitlock was a longtime sports columnist at The Kansas City Star known for taking controversial stands on issues. He recently parted ways with the paper.

His departure has been the subject of more media reports, blog posts and water cooler discussions than I care to think about. There was even a three-hour special interview (dubbed “The Explanation”) simulcast on radio and TV in which he shared his side of the story. Plenty of accusations have been made about who’s at fault, and what the real story is.

I’ll let others handle that debate, but there is one part of this soap opera that folks in my business should notice.

Many reports claim that Whitlock is now working as an online columnist for Fox Sports with a contract worth approximately $2 million over three years. There’s no question about whether or not he’s writing for Fox. You can go online and read his columns for yourself. What is being debated is the size of the contract.

To many folks, that number seems awfully high for an online-only deal, and some reports say Whitlock himself has never confirmed it. Despite this uncertainty, the $2 million number has been repeated time and again. It even made its way into a New York Times article on the issue…The gray lady. Our national newspaper of record. All the news that’s fit to print.

Hearne Christopher, another former Star reporter and current blogger, wrote an interesting post yesterday about how this rumor evolved into fact and made its way into America’s finest newspaper.

Do I know how much Jason Whitlock is making at Fox Sports? No, I don’t. I have no idea, and I really don’t care…but that’s not the point.

The point is how quickly the truth can get lost in a social media world. Maybe that number is true. Maybe it’s not. I don’t know who to believe, and (as far as I know) nobody with direct knowledge is doing anything to address the confusion. In this situation, the fact in question is of little consequence to our daily lives, so the confusion just makes for one more wrinkle in an entertaining side show.

But when the issue is more substantial, confusion and ambiguity are often just as bad as (and sometimes worse than) misinformation. How would you feel if it was your brand, your company, or your reputation at stake? What if the number in question was your stock price? Or the amount you were going to raise your customers’ electric rates? Or the number of people your firm had to lay off?

A misplaced decimal point in one social media outlet could quickly spiral out of control if left unchecked.

Would you even notice if that happened? Are you listening to the conversation? Do you have a plan in place to quickly correct erroneous information?

I know that lots of businesses look at social media and say “that’s not the right strategy for us.” In almost all of these cases, I suspect social media engagement deserves a seat at the marketing strategy table, but I’m willing to set that argument aside for the sake of this discussion. Fair enough. Maybe social media isn’t the highest and best use of your resources, but you still need to be listening and have a plan for response. Most buildings will never burn down, but we don’t think twice about investing in sprinklers, fire alarms, smoke detectors and insurance. It would foolish not to.

Your organization’s reputation deserves the same level of protection.

A distorted message makes for a great game when you’re five. When you’re a grown up running an organization and the message gets distorted, a good time is rarely had by anyone…except your competitors.

Strategic communication plans need to be connected to the client’s business plan. If the tactics in communications plan have no connection to the business plan, it becomes difficult to have an impact on a company’s bottom line.

At SWC, we take it a step further than just discussing a client’s business plan and objectives. We talk to employees at every level of the organization from the C-suite to the front lines to understand who their target audiences are, the attitudes, experiences, and behaviors of those audiences, and what those audiences need to hear and understand for the client to achieve its business objective.

This conversation along with the business objective guides the tactics and strategies we put in place to reach the target audience. It allows us to identify the proper communication channels and craft messages that will resonate with each audience.

By taking the time to understand who our client is, how their organization operates, and who their audiences are, we are able to mitigate concerns and produce results.

A recent PRSA Tactics article cited five strategies that will help people successfully network.
1. Have a Wingman
2. Do your homework
3. Be on your game and participate in conversation
4. Prepare questions
5. Follow up

Understanding how to work a room and coming prepared with a mission will make networking more productive, generate business leads and possibly be enjoyable. Remember everyone is there to talk about their business and find new prospects so make it easier for them and yourself by following the tips above.