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.

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.

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.

I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest fears is making a mistake, letting somebody down, and never knowing it happened. How can I learn from my mistake, grow as a professional, and make amends for something I don’t even know happened?

For years, when a company messed up, most of the time they’d never know about it. Most people just don’t have the time or inclination to complain about bad outcomes, unless it involves a really important topic. Instead, most folks just stop patronizing the business and tell friends about the bad experience. The business never knows it happened, never has a chance to apologize and fix it, and can’t take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Social media has transformed the way people share experiences – both good and bad. Word of mouth that used to percolate slowly through a group can now be broadcast to the world instantly. Whether that is good news or bad news depends on what actions you’re willing to take.

If you’re eager to engage in a conversation with your customers, build deeper relationships, and seek opportunities to improve your product or service, then the social media revolution should be a blessing to your business.

Unless you’re perfect, your company is perfect, and all of your customers are perfect, the day will come when somebody makes a mistake or a customer is confused. When that day comes, you should be crossing your fingers that somebody brings it to your attention.

When a customer chooses Facebook, Twitter or another social media outlet as the channel for asking question or voicing complaint, you’ve just been handed a golden opportunity to improve your business, show the world that you care about your customers, listen to what they say, and do everything you can to take care of them.

Also keep in mind that if one person asks a question, odds are pretty good that lots of other people are wondering the same thing. By providing the answer in a public forum, you’re building a living FAQ document – an archive other customers can easily access to find answers to common questions. It also helps a company identify areas where it might need to improve its systems and processes.

Of course, there are some industries where confidentiality considerations preclude a company from providing a complete answer in a public forum. For example, we have worked with a handful rural electric cooperatives around the country, and it would be inappropriate for them to discuss a specific customer’s account information in public. But the co-op could give general information about common reasons something might happen in the public forum, and follow up by phone or email to discuss the specific concern directly.

Companies that operate in heavily regulated industries should consult legal counsel for guidance on the rules governing what can and can’t be said through social media channels. Most of the time, the communications team and the legal team should be able to work out a solution that makes everybody happy.

People are remarkably forgiving. It’s amazing how far a simple statement like, “I’m sorry. Here’s what I’m going to do to make it right,” will go toward resolving an issue. If you want to create a satisfied customer, deliver great service. If you want to create a loyal customer for life, act with integrity when you make a mistake.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for rural access to high-speed internet service. Today’s Kansas City Star has a great article about the digital divide between urban and rural areas, and the challenges this disparity presents to people and businesses across rural America.

In 2010, high-speed internet access isn’t a nice-to-have toy that lets people update their Facebook status and download music. It’s an indispensible part of everyday life and commerce. For anybody who might question that assertion, I challenge you to check your email with dial-up and get back to me. I bet the average broadband user won’t last two minutes waiting for his or her inbox to load before angrily closing the browser window in frustration.

There’s been a lot of hand wringing among politicians and policy makers over how to fix this problem – but the solution seems painfully obvious. All you have to do is look back 75 years to see how we electrified rural America.

In the 1930s, we faced the exact same problem with electric service that we see today with broadband service. Stringing expensive poles and wires down miles of sparsely populated country roads to serve a handful of customers didn’t make economic sense to for-profit utilities. So the government stepped in and offered low-cost loans to consumer-owned cooperatives willing to help bring power to their local communities.

All across rural America, people united to transform their communities and ensure they had the same technology and opportunities as their urban brethren.

Now keep in mind, these weren’t government handouts…they were loans the cooperatives paid back over time.

Sturges Word has been fortunate to work with cooperatives across America, and we’ve seen first hand the amazing work cooperatives do in their communities. They are reliable utility providers, powerful engines for economic development, and outstanding community partners.

Many utility cooperatives, including current and former clients of ours, have worked hard to help bring broadband to rural areas, but they can’t do it alone. If we’re serious about ensuring equitable access to basic services for all Americans, we should stop talking about the problem, and start solving it. We have a proven model and an established network of reliable providers…all we need now is the policy leadership to make it happen.