Next Communications

Tarrant County College lets blog double as a public forum

2009-11-06T11:51:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, the Tarrant County College (TCC) Office of Public Relations & Marketing shared a blog post requesting public feedback on a new chancellor. The post* read in part:

The TCC Board of Trustees has begun the search process for a new chancellor, the chief executive officer of the College. Later this month, board members will conduct a workshop to draw up and approve a job description, and they would very much like your input.

What qualifications, experience, characteristics, and attributes do you think the next TCC chancellor should have? Please give us your comments, and/or react to the comments of others.

Why this works
I can tell you from experience that sometimes it's difficult to get feedback from your community if you work for a public educational institution (unless you've angered them in some way) on important matters. Just look at voter turn-out and you can see how (dis)engaged people are when they get distracted.

What TCC has done here for their community is provided another channel for voices to be heard. They could still hold public meetings in addition to the board meetings as ways to get thoughts, but using the blog post is a smart and efficient way for TCC to collect the thoughts on the "qualifications, experience, characteristics, and attributes" for a new chancellor. Here's hoping their community steps up to the plate and delivers views that will help shape a profile to fit their leadership needs.

*As an added bonus for education PR folks, TCC provides a link to their social media regulations in the post.

Starting clean for #Movember

2009-11-01T23:49:00.002-06:00

The fact that I am not a hairy man makes me (and my wife) happy. My inability to grow facial hair into a full beard or goatee leaves me to wonder where my genes came from since there are beard and moustache-wearing guys among my male relatives. It usually doesn't bug me too much accept during the month of Movember because I know my mo won't be as robust as most of the others. But then, that's not the point.

Movember
Movember is a moustache growing charity event held during the month of November every year that raises funds and awareness for men's health - specifically prostate and testicular cancer. The month-long campaign this year will benefit The Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

The Movember campaign is one worth checking out even if you don't want to participate because it has integrated some social media outposts like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter profiles in addition to a sites for the foundation and launch. The fun has an edge and seriousness to it.

Here's the Intro video for 2009:

The cause is worthy. The rules are easy. The campaign is cool. The benefits are noble. Change the face of men's health. Grow a Mo.

Besides, what else do you have going this month? And so goes day #1 of Movember.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T08:00:00.003-05:00

Taking a slight detour from my typical posts for something on arguably my favorite holiday.

I really dig how this educator has a little fun, a good personality, an engaged audience, and uses a bit of a performance mentality and techniques all while being a math teacher.

The observational geometry quiz at 2:24 is pretty cool too. (The audio in the clip is a little low, so you may want to turn up your volume a bit.)

Happy Halloween.

Keep conversations going by not showing-up empty handed

2009-10-29T13:16:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago while preparing for a speaking engagement, a few thoughts crossed my mind to share about social media integration.

I was preparing to participate on a panel entitled Creating Sustainable Conversations Online during the Dallas PRSA's Communications Summit. (Fellow panelists included Christi Day and Chad Sour and was moderated by Lauren Benson.)

Thankfully, we were provided with a few lead-in questions prior to coming to the panel to get the conversation going and topics flowing.

Three questions stood out for me as being particularly useful to ask yourself when thinking about how to effectively integrating social media strategies within a broader communication effort.

What do you hope to achieve through Social Media?

Clarity of message - Understanding that control of the message is a bit of an illusion, but since we are in the social web, we can provide clarity to it to bring it closer in line with our communication objectives.
Consistency in information - Make sure your organization's voice is one that can be replicated across communication channels.
Listen to (and for) issues - Be available for conversations. It may not always be comfortable, but is important for your community to 1.) know you are listening and 2.) understand that you care.
Provide assistance when and where possible.

Why were you there in the first place?

You must be present to win - We believed in the concept early on that conversations were occurring online with or without us.
We wanted to be available for those conversations or miss out on opportunities.

How do you keep conversations going and keep them coming back for more?

Don't show up empty-handed to the pot-luck - Provide useful and relevant information along with feedback for and conversations with your community.
Bring the tastiest content and they'll want more (and may even tell their friends about it.)

What about you? How would you answer these questions?

Facebook Fan Page Rules for a School District

2009-10-21T22:37:00.000-05:00

For those of you looking for an example of a school district's Facebook policies, guidelines, rules, etc., I submit for your consideration the 'Mansfield ISD Facebook Fan Page Rules of Engagement.'

These rules were posted earlier today on the District's Facebook Fan Page as a 'Note' to help set the rules and community expectations for the fan page usage.

(It probably would have been better to have these posted before we acquired over 600 fans, but better late than never.)

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The Mansfield ISD Facebook Fan Page is provided for the district community by the Mansfield ISD Department of Media & Communication Development. We will update this page as often as possible to share as much as we can about Mansfield ISD and the achievements of the students and staff as well as other relevant district community information.

All posting of comments on this page are at the discretion of the page administrators. The intent of this policy is not to keep any negative or critical information from being posted, but to protect the privacy and rights of Mansfield ISD staff and students. Naming specific employees or students in a negative way will not be allowed (and is just generally rude.) The page administrators will review all postings to make sure they do not run afoul of the rules nor of the district’s Acceptable Use Guidelines regarding Internet access and practices.

We welcome your thoughts and comments and look forward to what you have to say. However, we will not leave postings that:

Break the law or encourage others to do so. This includes respecting copyright and fair use laws. If you are talking about somebody else’s work, reference this or the person, and where possible include a link.

Contain abusive or inappropriate language or statements. This includes remarks that are racist, homophobic and sexist as well as those that contain obscenities or are sexually explicit.

Easily identify students and/or staff in defamatory, abusive, or generally negative terms.

Do not show proper consideration for others’ privacy or are considered likely to offend or provoke others – i.e. don’t pick fights or goad others into inflammatory debates. Nobody likes a bully.

Are spam – i.e. repeatedly posting the same comment or comments that are simply advertising/promoting a service or product. If you wouldn’t want to receive it yourself, don’t post it.

The page administrators reserve the right to not post or remove any comments at any time, for any reason…but we hope that won’t ever be necessary.

If you have a comment or would like to report an inappropriate comment for us to review, send an email to blog@mansfieldisd.org. (Yes, it’s the same e-mail as our district blog.)

Please note, you can also receive e-mail and phone text messages of our updates as they are posted through the settings of your personal Facebook account.

Thank you for stopping by and/or being a fan of Mansfield ISD.

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What do you think? Are these a decent set of fan page rules for a public school district? I'd appreciate any thoughts on these rules.

Going Green for Good and #BAD09

2009-10-15T12:19:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, October 14, the Greater Ft. Worth PRSA chapter held a program entitled The PR Impact of Being Environmentally Proactive, and had the following speakers:

Chris Smith - Environmental Defense Fund (Texas)
Tom Burke, APR - IBM
Brian Boerner - City of Ft. Worth Environmental Management

Most people understand that being environmentally conscious is good for the environment, but the question remains is it good your company or client? Each panelist provided green and sustainability perspectives from their organizations and what it can mean for progress.

If not now, when?

One of the most interesting things about the program was just how much this theme seemed to resonate with attendees. From a public relations standpoint, we should always pay attention to how our organizations are perceived. The environmental impact view is just one more lens through which we need to monitor and help counsel leadership. Does this mean we need to be experts in environmental policy? Not necessarily, but it does mean we need to determine what our stakeholders expect from us in the areas of being green and sustainable meaning we look to meet business needs in ways that minimize environmental impacts.

The lessons went a bit beyond public relations since the speakers provided insight from global, national and city perspectives. The topic was also perfectly timed for the Blog Action Day 2009 theme of Climate Change.
(hence the #BAD09 in the post's title)

I appreciated what Chris Smith provided from the Environmental Defense Fund. Her organization seems to be taking the smart approach in targeting practical solutions based on science, business, and communities to find environmental ideas that work. She presented a short clip from a video of Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund that is worth a watch.

I found a related video on the EDF channel on Climate Change. (I loved the call to action at the 2:22 mark.)

Other interesting bits:

IBM has had a corporate policy on environmental affairs since 1971.
IBM was listed as #5 in Newsweek's 2009 Green Rankings List
Tom Burke, APR mentioned the Pecan Street Project (of which IBM and EDF are among the partnering organizations)
The project has a goal of ensuring "Austin’s leadership in the creation of the next generation electrical system, including utility and community infrastructure, consumer systems, State and local policy and regulation, economic development opportunities, new venture creation, and community engagement." Think of it as Energy 2.0.

While I'm impressed with Austin, I am especially proud of Ft. Worth because according to Brian Boerner...

Ft. Worth was named #15 on Popular Science's 2008 'America's 50 Greenest Cities' list
The water reuse program saved 3,667,137,480 gallons of water for the year.
They converted three city soccer/rugby fields to artificial turf and is saving 11.5 million gallons of water annually.
Over 22% (62,000 tons) of the residential waste stream was recycled and diverted from area landfills.
We have six USDA approved Farmers Markets in Ft. Worth.

Communication Carry-out: Start small, start where you can. Sustainability is a process not a product. Look at the bigger picture beyond your organization. Change is required. How can we balance customer expectations as they relate to environmental issues with customer service? Yes, we need to be paying attention.

Who is keeping you from being a better communicator?

2009-10-09T12:19:00.000-05:00

Image by Looking Glass via Flickr

Answer: You

"Whether you think you can or can't, you're right."
- Dr. Adolph Brown, III

With all of the tools, trainings, conferences and research at your fingertips to access, learn, and use, what is keeping you from taking steps to advance or achieve your professional goals?

I am an advocate for communication professionals having working knowledge of the tools of the social web. I also believe being a life-long learner through a variety of professional development is a central component to having any kind of success in your field.

Whether it's crisis communications or being a strategic business consultant, media relations or measurement, whatever it is you need to do to sharpen your skills and change, learn, and grow, do it.

Personal responsibility is 100x more important than personal branding.

What are you going to do to be a more effective communicator? What steps have you taken to improve your craft? The comments are yours.

Turning an adversary into an advocate: How 24 Hour Fitness customer #twervice got it right

2009-10-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

About a week ago, I was informed by my wife that 24 Hour Fitness had erroneously been charging us for memberships we had assumed had been canceled a couple of months back.

After a few expletives about the situation I did what any rational and mature person with a variety of social media tools and networks at their disposal would do:

I complained about it on Twitter.

(Ok, so that may not have been fair, but it made me feel better.) Actually, I said aloud right before I posted my little note, "I wonder if anybody at 24 Hour is listening."

Sure enough, they were.

30 minutes later I received an e-mail from Randy Drake (Senior Vice President - Fitness & Business Development at 24 Hour Fitness) with the subject line: Issue with cancellation.

So they were listening, on a Friday evening, and more importantly they were willing to get the matter straightened out. I commended Randy for paying attention and "listening" on Twitter. It just shows how important the network is for engagement. Mr. Drake's e-mail correspondence was thoughtful, expressed concern about the situation for our family, and has offered to make things right. (Disclosure: We are still in the discussion portion of this situation on how to resolve the issue.)

Winning over an adversary
What I think is most interesting about this episode is the fact that 24 Hour Fitness did a great job of turning an otherwise tough situation for a disgruntled member (or former member) into something that more resembles fostering a brand advocate. Regardless of whether or not we continue using their organization for our family's fitness needs, the attention to details and response was excellent and had a positive impact.

Granted, not all customer service interactions are adversarial in nature. Sometimes they are informational or transactional. Whatever the case, being open to listening to interactions, questions, and even silly rants is an important customer service step for companies and organizations to grasp.

Customer Twervice
For additional thoughts on the matter with research, make sure you dig into Jason Falls' report Customer Twervice: Exploring Case Studies & Best Practices In Customer Service efforts Using Twitter where he presents "10 companies, how they started their Twitter efforts, their strategic approach, how much time and resources they devote."

The report includes a list of Twitter Customer Service Best Practices:

1. Be Present
2.Walk Before You Run
3. Be Prepared For Scale, But Expect A Slow Growth
4. Have A Quarterback
5. Making Rules Is Prohibitive
6. Immediacy Is Imperative
7. Look For Buy-In Opportunity

Get the report for thoughts on each of the above points. The Customer Twervice report by Jason Falls is a great read for anyone considering or actively engaging in customer service via Twitter.

Do you have any examples of good customer service engagement in Twitter? What about other social networks? Is your company using the social web for customer service? Why or why not?

9 PR rules my daughter learned in kindergarten

2009-09-27T21:10:00.003-05:00

This year marks a new chapter in my life as a parent of a school-age child. In the first couple of weeks of school, my daughter's kindergarten class collaborated to establish a set of rules for how to treat each other. When I saw these rules hanging up in her classroom, I was struck by how simple and honest these rules are as well as how they translated as rules for public relations professionals.

9 PR Rules

Say please
Say I'm sorry
Be friendly
Share
Play fair
Don't litter
Never hurt others
Say excuse me
Listen to others

1. Say please - This rule speaks to a sense of decency and politeness. Some days we get so caught up in our work and we forget to be thoughtful with our co-workers, clients, and unfortunately, other members in our community. Forgetting this rule can cause tragic disconnections that are sometimes difficult to mend.

2. Say I'm sorry - If you screw up, own up to it. The sooner, the better. This is true for individuals as well as organizations when things go wrong. Your community will be more likely to forgive mistakes and missteps if you can express honest remorse when needed.

3. Be friendly - Public relations professionals had better like people. I don't mean the "I'm a people-person" platitudes that so easily get thrown around. I mean PR people need to have others' interests in mind when planning, preparing, and implementing in order to be the stewards of information and counsel our community expects us to be.

4. Share - I appreciate this rule for the facets it represents in the professional life of a PR person. Sharing is another word for communicating. Being effective communicators is in my opinion the basis for the work we do. The share rule can be the difference in being a part of a community and being apart from the community.

5. Play fair - The PRSA Code of Ethics includes fairness as part of the core values: "We deal fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, vendors, the media, and the general public. We respect all opinions and support the right of free expression."

6. Don't Litter - I'll be honest, I wasn't exactly sure at first how I was going to fit in this rule as a relevant rule for public relations. However, then I thought about what litter was: trash. So for PR people, this rule is simply to not leave your garbage lying around. Clean up after yourselves. If you make a mess of things, clean it up. Not every idea is a winner. That's ok. If your idea gets turned down, learn from it. That's how we grow.

7. Never hurt others - You might think that this is just an extension of being friendly and saying your sorry. In reality, this rule is different. Hurting others takes a certain level of intention. What this rule is saying is never proceed with plans that you know will do widespread harm.

8. Say excuse me - In addition to fairness, PR people should be held to a standard of advocacy: "We serve the public interest by acting as responsible advocates for those we represent. We provide a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts, and viewpoints to aid informed public debate." Sometimes I think we need to add the word polite to this notion of public debate. Being civil is never out of style.

9. Listen to others - There is an interesting duality to this rule. A.) You don't know all there is to know about public relations. You need to continue to learn and hone your skills through discussion, research, and professional development. PR is an ever-evolving field and being able to adapt and change is what will make you stand out. B.) You don't know all there is to know about your organization or clients. Active listening within your work environment, on behalf of your organization and through monitoring will mean the difference between taking shots in the dark and making educated and informed communication decisions.

What do you think? What else would you add to this list?

The Political Engine vs The School House

2009-09-06T23:27:00.000-05:00

As many of my readers know, I work in the communications department of a public school district in north Texas. Last week's plans were derailed by the announcement of President Obama's Tuesday, September 8 live address to students. Like many, our district became a center for lively debate and spirited feedback by our community.

In no way am I here to disparage any of the parents or community members who called to, ahem, "discuss" the merits of showing or not showing the President's address to students. I'd rather focus on an interesting phenomenon in communication and why the headaches are worth it.

School PR and a Presidential Address
As the topic heated up for school districts, we reached out to other school PR teams in our area, across the state, and even a few friends across the country. It was important to find out what they were hearing, how they were handling the calls/e-mails, and if any decisions had been made on showing the broadcast. (Photo credit: darkmatter)

The common themes we heard from our brothers and sisters in school PR were ones of political leanings being argued against the educational decision-making process. Of course this is nothing new, we often have to balance the political winds that blow in a community with educational needs, mandates, and expectations. But this time, the contrast was so stark as to see that we had all been thrust into a no-win situation.

The difference was in the language that was used. While most school districts were trying to internally decide and discuss the instructional merits and curricular needs, we all were hearing arguments both for and against live (as well as taped) broadcasts of President Obama's address that hinged squarely on the shoulders of political dogma. (In our area, many of the calls began, I believed, during and after a local conservative talk-radio show.)

Bottom-line: We weren't going to win over the hearts and minds of our communities because, in this instance, we were speaking different languages and looking at the same thing through different lenses. And this brings me to the bigger positive of the ordeal.

Spotlight on Education
For the many extra hours, meetings, arguments, e-mails, phone calls with media friends and decisions ultimately made, I will still be thankful for one big thing. The nation was talking about education for a change.

In two days time, our neighbor asked, sports-talk radio shows discussed it, I read (and commented) on Facebook friends' wall postings as well as talked with random family members who don't usually engage in these types of talks. They were all talking about education and the issue of Obama's address along with the mainstream media:

Future-gazing
There is little doubt in my mind that on Tuesday, September 8 at 12:00 pm EDT, many people will stop what they are doing at work, school, and home to tune-in to the live broadcast of Obama's address just for the curiosity of it. Many will want to confirm their fears or solidify there beliefs, but they all will hear the message or at least hear of it. The address will continue to get local and national media coverage. Parents and students will get asked to share their thoughts via interviews. Pundits will claim righteousness or indifference. The machine will roll and just maybe, a greater discussion will open up on addressing the common issues that plague education.

It is for this reason that I can be thankful for the havoc and short-term PR problems we'll face because they are outweighed by a larger (much-needed) discussion about education in this country. Further, I think we can all be a little calmer if in fact the Presidential address stays within the realm of wanting students to take personal responsibility for their own education, to set goals, and to not only stay in school but make the most of it.

Those are good lessons and a debate worth having.

The foundation of a communications condo

2009-08-31T00:25:00.000-05:00

I really enjoy a healthy debate or discussion. (My wife would probably correct me and say that I enjoy arguing often just for the sake of arguing.)

As such I have quite enjoyed the recent discourse attempting to answer the question: Who owns social media?

Don't get me wrong, it is a good question considering many people have staked their professional claim in the social web while organizations continue to struggle with how best to implement social strategies and who best to do this for them.

Welcome to the communications condo

I know it doesn't look like much at first, but let's look at an often forgotten aspect of the big three: advertising, marketing, and public relations.

All three are comfortable rooms inside a dwelling built on a solid foundation of effective communication.

(Photo credit: yeaiknit)

Advertising - Advertising is the kick-ass Media Room we all wish we could afford to have and showcase multimedia storytelling to our friends. We are often awed by those in our various industries that are quite comfortable in the advertising media room. They inspire us to push the boundaries of controlled messaging, compel us to compete, and put on a great show. (Photo credit: sarahleeab)

Marketing - Marketing is our Kitchen where we plan, prepare, and process the exquisite recipes for measured success. In the marketing kitchen, we hear things things like "ROI," "creative strategy," and "brand relationship." All of the ingredients (people's needs and wants) come together through the work of skilled professionals in satisfying feasts. (photo credit: emptyhighway)

Public Relations - Take a seat in the Public Relations Living Room. This is the conversation room. The PR living room is where dialogue, community, and trust take shape. Public relations needs to facilitate the delicate balance between strategy and tactics for organizations. Yes, planning and presentation are well received in this room as invited neighbors or guests are welcomed to the discussions. (photo credit: Roy Sinai)

All three rooms share the common foundation of communication. Without communication, these rooms are useless. Professionals in the three rooms would be better served (and would better serve their organizations) if they'd stop arguing with each other and start integrating together as much as possible. These are separate rooms where invited guests should be able to roam in and out freely in order to have the best possible experience in your home. You want them to want to be there. Let's not give them reasons to leave early.

School Districts Sell Trust

2009-08-24T21:51:00.005-05:00

Today my daughter started kindergarten. It was hard for me to see her all dressed up and excited about starting at her new school. It wasn't hard because I want her to stay a little girl, but because of my irrational fear of the big world.

All that aside, today gave me a uniquely poignant opportunity to explore the transaction of trust ideals and what school districts "sell" to their communities.

School districts and the business of selling
School district administrations have many choices to make on a daily basis with far-reaching implications. As a communications and PR professional for a suburban school district, I have seen first-hand the oftentimes arduous process these decisions go through and ultimately given to the community of parents, students, staff, and public.

So how are we selling trust?
In order for a school district to have an effective relationship with its community, the district's stakeholders must trust that...

the school district will provide safe learning environments;
their teachers will adhere to set instructional standards and expectations;
all students will be given every opportunity to succeed and achieve;
parents are a wanted and integral part of the learning process;
technology and instruction will not be mutually exclusive;
when things go wrong, the district will be open and honest when communicating and work to mitigate future issues;
tax dollars will be spent and sought with sound financial judgment;
facilities will be constructed and maintained with extreme care; and
ultimately, what's in the best interest of students' education will be the guide.

Are you paying attention to the details?
I asked another new kindergarten parent, Kami Huyse (a respected communications professional) of her thoughts on trust from a school. Here's what she said via Twitter:

The orderly way in which things ran today was neat, controlled chaos. Also, the "call" from the principal yesterday and today, cool | Not sure if that is selling but made me more comfortable my kid was in able and responsible hands | The key was in the details, that they pay attention to details, makes me trust them more.

The numbered list above includes what I believe to be trustworthy ideals. They are what make your community believe you have "able and responsible hands." The ideals are quite difficult to achieve all the time due to circumstances beyond the control of district. However, as school communicators, it is our job to provide counsel, explore challenges, plan sound strategy in the face of adversity, and implement tactics to help facilitate the transaction of trust.

It is also not a complete list. What other ways do school districts sell trust?

The (Social Media) Natives are getting restless

2009-08-20T06:06:00.000-05:00

This is cross-posted over on Geoff Livingston's blog, The Buzz Bin. I had the distinct pleasure of providing Geoff with a guest post while he's on vacation. I hope my readers who have not already done so, will take some time and explore his blog. It's one of my favorites. Enjoy...

"____________ is dead."

Go ahead and fill in that blank with the usual suspects; blogging, Twitter, PR, marketing, FriendFeed, the press release, the media, etc.

Admit it, you've probably seen, read, or possibly wrote something that fits the above standard claim. It gets repeated, rebroadcast, refuted, and recycled. And that's ok. That's how this stuff is supposed to work. It is what happens as people keep entering the house of social web and longtime residents become bored with the decor and want to move on to more interesting things.

The barriers to entry into social media are often easy to overcome with a little planning and commitment. Basically, you have to want to know because by this point, if you are not learning, experimenting, or using social media tools, you are choosing to ignore the significance and potential of the social web.

Natives + Immigrants
In his book Don't Bother Me Mom - I'm Learning, Marc Prensky writes:

"After dealing with Digital Natives for quite a while, I've become a kind of digital anthropologist, spending a great deal of time observing the rich digital world and life that the Natives are in the process of creating for themselves. It turns out that for almost every activity in their lives, the Digital Natives are inventing new, online ways of making each activity happen, based on new technologies available to them. Some of these new approaches Digital Immigrants can -and do - use as well. But some are so foreign to the Immigrants that they are almost, or totally, unintelligible."

Sound familiar? While Prensky is explaining to parents how children are actually getting valuable skills from playing video games, I am interested in how social media natives and immigrants are not adversaries. Instead, we should operate in mentoring relationships.

To the Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, and Late Majority on the adoption bell curve, you are the Social Media Natives. You get it, you've shared it, many of you are tired of talking about it.

To the Laggards of the adoption bell curve, you are the Social Media Immigrants. You're getting it, you're sharing it and yes, in time, some of you will probably grow tired of the tools.

But we can (and should) still learn from each other.

We have a responsibility to share
In the seminal work for the PR field, Effective Public Relations, the authors write:

"Because professions draw upon a specialized body of knowledge developed through research, practitioners are obligated to support the advancement of professional knowledge."
(Cutlip, Center, and Broom)

As professional communicators, we should devote time to topics, writings, discussions, and brainstorms that keep us sharp and informed. If that means rehashing some old(er) debates, so be it. We'll all be better for it.

(Photo credit: matildaben)

Take-aways from #accredchat - August 18, 2009

2009-08-18T18:47:00.000-05:00

Earlier today another installment of the periodic #accredchat, a Twitter chat on accreditation in public relations. I am a part of a small APR study group within the Greater Ft. Worth Chapter of PRSA who are at the beginning stages of attaining accreditation in PR.
(Image credit: Universal Accreditation Board)

Today's conversation mainly hit on some differences and similarities between the exams in the U.S. and Canada as well as as some interesting discussion on authority and the perceptions of accreditation.

APR Readiness Review Panels
The best take-aways available today came after a question on the Readiness Review Panel process.
For those that have sat on Readiness Review Panels: What are you looking for out of an APR candidate? Expectations, etc.?

Here are some of the responses:

rayatkinson A strong understanding and demonstration of strategy and planning. Important that they can ID potential weaknesses.

kamichat For readiness review we are looking to see if you are really ready to take the exam, we are also looking at your portfolio

kristen_okla RR [Readiness Review] panelists want to see how well you think on your feet, what experiences you have to prepare you for the exam

kristen_okla RR shouldn't be confrontational but should allow you to receive honest feedback on areas where U need to focus more attn.

kamichat Also we are looking to mentor you. Do you really understand the 4-part planning process

bprickett As panelist, I want to see that you planned, set measurable goals and that your evaluation/results were measured.

If you have ever sat on an APR Readiness Review Panel, what would you add to this list?

The hats we wear

2009-08-11T08:34:00.000-05:00

The following is a guest post by my wife, Kristen Escovedo, who after 12 years as a dedicated school PR professional is moving on to the next chapter. This post first appeared on The Miss Information blog. (I just love that title, but I'm biased.)

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Every Thanksgiving my husband's family descends upon his grandparent's house to enjoy turkey, dressing, and quality time with family. The tiny house is filled with aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins, some of whom I'm not sure I've ever met before.

Inevitably between the wishbone and pumpkin pie someone will ask, "Now, Kristen, what is it you do again?"

"I'm in public relations. I wear many hats."

This cliche, while tired, seems to work well in this situation, because generally speaking, it does not lead to many follow up questions, except perhaps, "Can you pass the yams?"

I would hazard to guess that most PR pros have been guilty of using this cliché more than once. I would also guess that not once has a cousin replied with the logical follow up question "What kind of hats? Ten gallon? Fedora? Top? Berets?"

Of course, when we say we wear many hats, we mean it metaphorically. When arsonists are coming out of left field, we sound the alarm, put on our firefighter hat, and start putting out fires. When our organization is under attack, we rally the troops, put on our combat helmet and prepare for battle. When we land that good news story on the front page, be honest ladies (and sometimes men), we put on the tiara and celebrate. And some days you just put on your ratty old ball cap and do the grunt work that nobody else wants to do because it has to get done.

We all have metaphorical hats that we swap off and on depending on the day, the hour, sometimes the minute.

However, in addition to all my metaphorical hats, I also keep one literal hat in my office that serves as my inspiration. The hat, or more accurately the mining helmet, belonged to my grandfather who worked in underground copper mines in Montana from the time he was 17 until he retired almost 50 years later. When my grandmother passed away two years ago I found the helmet in her attic.

It has been in my office ever since.

There are a few things you should know about both my grandfather and the helmet for you to understand why such an obscure object could serve as inspiration. My grandfather had an incredible work ethic. As you can imagine, winters in Montana are harsh and working in underground mines in those conditions is not easy. The shifts were long and the work was tedious. But my grandfather worked in difficult conditions for almost five decades to support his family. He was not one to complain, he was one to do his job.

It is hard to see from the picture, but there is a large crack down one side, which means that the helmet was used for its designed purpose. That means that at least once (and I suspect more than that) something substantial in size fell on my grandfather's head causing the helmet to crack.

Something about this crack intrigues me. He didn't get a new helmet. For whatever reason - sentimental or financial, he went back to work wearing the same helmet that had protected him from that accident. Perhaps it was his stubbornness that drove him back down into the mines wearing that same helmet with the crack down the side.

Perhaps it is that same stubbornness that drives us back into the field when we have taken a hit hard enough to rock us to our core. People often accuse me of being stubborn like it is a bad thing, and sometimes I suppose that it is. But sometimes I think a degree of stubbornness is required in a field that requires us to be firefighters, soldiers, advisers, janitors, counselors, and teachers.

People often ask about the helmet when they come into my office for the first time.

You have just read the long answer.

The short, but honest, answer I give is this; It reminds me that no matter how bad of a day I'm having, my job could always be worse. No one has to send a canary into my office first to see if I'm going to make it out alive today.

[Please note: Her grandfather's mining helmet now rests in a prominent location in my office today. Thank you Kristen, I love you.]

The jobless grad and a stroke of PR genius

2009-08-04T22:31:00.000-05:00

I read with the following headline with a fair amount incredulity:

Alumna sues college because she hasn't found a job (CNN)

Let's just let that sink in a moment.

Really?!
Basically, the 27 year-old woman is alleging a business-oriented NYC school's career advancement office did not live up to expectations by not doing enough to find her a job nor providing any leads or career advice, yada yada yada, she wants over $70K.

There are already a number interesting news items, multiple blog posts and advice being offered based on this woman's actions.

Real (PR) Genius

Cover of Real Genius

All that aside, I want to point to what I thought was a stroke of public relations genius announced earlier today by the The Ski Channel Founder and CEO, Steve Bellamy:

The Ski Channel Offers Job to Jobless Graduate Suing Monroe College

I don't know who came up with this idea for The Ski Channel, but I read the online press release at first with amusement then with amazement. They were able to zero in on a hot topic that was making the rounds on the internet that had absolutely nothing to do with their company or industry and morph it into what I think is and will be a positive bit of publicity and harmless, tongue-in-cheek fun.

"Either Ms Thompson is a cunning out of the box thinker and we want her," said Bellamy "or she isn't, and her position would not last long. Either way, the law suit would no longer be clogging up the courts because there are now no damages. She now has a bonifide job offer...If she is this feisty, we'll try her out. But if she is playing the victim card and pushing her problems onto everyone else - then her job wouldn't likely last long." [emphasis added]

What do you think? Was this a good jump for The Ski Channel to make?

Four PR tactics I hope you never have to use

2009-07-29T00:45:00.000-05:00

Working in a public school district presents a variety of communication challenges, both good and bad. Most of them occur during the school year and mostly involve explaining administrative, student, financial, or facility situations and decisions.

Unfortunately, for our district, a recent challenge involved the death of the newly retired superintendent and it happened over the summer.

Losing a high-profile community leader

The Mansfield ISD community was shocked to learn last week of the tragic accident that took the life of the district's former superintendent, Mr. Vernon Newsom. Newsom, who retired June 30 from the District, died from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident while on his first post-retirement vacation in South Dakota with his wife.

As a way for me to process my grief, I wanted to take an opportunity to share the reinforced or learned tactics from this somber communications experience:

Use an online press release as a resource page on the deceased to be updated as often as needed - In the first hours after learning of the accident and making basic information available to staff, we went into information-gathering mode and worked to prepare a press release. As new information became available such as funeral services and memorial opportunities, they were added to the page so our media friends could update their stories and the community could keep up with the situation. We had our current superintendent available for media interviews, provided copies of Mr. Newsom's biography as well as digital photos on cd and on the page. (If you provide photos, make sure they are high-resolution.) [related tweet]
Turn a blog post into a memorial tribute forum - Our current superintendent (who incidently had been on the job officially for 22 days when the accident occurred) sat in my office and dictated a blog post that included an invitation for readers to comment with their thoughts and memories of our former leader. This turned out to be a very useful tool. The memorial post became the place where people could actually do something while we waited on final decisions for services. I think the post provided a much needed outlet to share what they were thinking and feeling. It was heart-warming to see so many people contribute comments. As of this writing, we've had 76 comments on the post. [related tweet]
Be prepared to run a live video stream of funeral services - On the morning of the funeral, our communications department was charged with the request from the family to see what it would take to provide a live video feed from the funeral service. Thanks to the skills and quick work by our multimedia specialist and a co-worker from the technology department, we were able to provide live video using a hastily setup ustream channel. I don't recommend trying to set something like this up on the fly without properly testing it. I am very thankful it worked for us so an additional 350 people were able see the service. [related tweet]
Set up a single pool shooter to cover the funeral for media -We have some great media friends in the Dallas/Ft. Worth market. One of them is Giles Hudson (assignment editor for the local CBS affiliate) who worked with me and agreed to provide a pool shooter for the funeral. What that meant for us is that we only had to have one news station's camera in the church instead of the four or five that it would have taken for all of major news stations to cover this high-profile funeral. [my related tweet]

Final thoughts

Our communications department is blessed with a great amount of latitude and administrative support, so the tactics didn't have to be sold to anyone.

We were very open about the situation from the beginning with our community using as many different communication channels as possible. I think this openness contributed to the positive response and out-pouring of suppport for the district. Over 1,200 people attended the funeral services and I think having a limited disturbance by the media was well-appreciated. Every journalist I spoke with about the situation gave their condolences and a few even had difficulty holding back their own tears. It's ok to be human.

Going through the different stages of this horrible chapter in our district's history has been a good reminder that through it all, no matter what your profession, life is precious.

Did I forget anything? What would you add to the short list of tactics? The comments are yours.

Why faking your network is worse than #twitterspam

2009-07-26T23:32:00.000-05:00

I've been kicking around a thought for a while now regarding whether I despise spam on Twitter more or those users who think it's acceptable to game the system by using software to develop a huge fake following.

Yes, #twitterspam sucks. That should go without too much debate. Thankfully, this a problem that users can have a part in controlling simply by blocking spam accounts and using Twitter's @spam to report spammers and abusers of Twitter. The company also is taking steps to eradicate spam accounts and correct follower and following counts.

You big faker!

I pulled the above screen capture off of a presumably popular downloadable software that claim that you'll "be able to time-warp past years of network building to become a Twitter Elite in a matter of days?"

I really hated seeing that line in their promo page.

To me the line should be corrected to read: It's ok to be a jerk-face with no real marketing or networking skills because I'll just game the system to make it look like I know what I'm doing.

I think this is the ugly side of Twitter that doesn't get the attention it deserves and I hope it soon comes to an end. In the meantime, any respectable communicator with an ounce of sense should run as far away from these types of bogus network builders.

What do you think? Am I being to harsh on these types of (ab)users?

Following @childfund is a worthy cause and case study

2009-07-21T23:58:00.000-05:00

Earlier this month, Geoff Livingston wrote on his blog about an awareness campaign for the rebranding of ChildFund International:

Follow @childfund and Help Change Children’s Lives

In his post, Geoff explains...

[t]o celebrate, ChildFund International is giving gifts of agricultural love and hope from the organization’s gift catalog for every 200 Twitter followers @childfund receives. These efforts will directly benefit children in Gambia, Zambia, Kenya and Ethiopia. There is no cap on on followers, and the offer will continue through July 27.
Each country has different needs so the gifts vary:
Chickens for a school in the Gambia

A goat for a family farm in Zambia

Mango trees in Kenya

Vegetable seeds in Ethiopia

This piqued my interest first for being what appeared to be a good cause and a simple way to help in a tangible way. It is worth noting that the veracity of the campaign was at one point called in to question, but a subsequent post cleared up any confusion.

Campaign as a case study

Another reason this community-building Twitter campaign is interesting is by observing it through the lens of a nonprofit. Nonprofits looking for good examples of other efforts to gain awareness should pay close attention to this one. It is especially important to note how the follow-up post explains the parameters for the campaign:

To be clear: The Twitter campaign isn’t about raising money, either. It’s about raising awareness of the work that ChildFund does for deprived, excluded and vulnerable children in the 31 countries where we work.

I hope you caught that. It's not always about the ask.

Communication efforts for a nonprofit should serve the organization through empowerment of the mission and supporters. As one Twitter friend noted in last Sunday's #blogchat on how nonprofits use social media, nonprofit organizations need to invest in marketing and communications as programmatic. It reinforces mission and builds the development framework.

I look forward to watching this campaign develop and observing best-practices that could scale down to other organizational needs.

In addition to following @Childfund (before July 27), you might also be interested in ChildFund International's Facebook , blogging and YouTube outposts as well.

(Photo credit: ChildFund International)

Lady Justice is blind, thankfully jurors are not

2009-07-17T16:10:00.000-05:00

Nonverbal communication cues and jury duty

I recently had the distinctly new opportunity for me to sit on a jury for a driving while intoxicated (DWI) case. Prior to this week, my only justice system participation included a few speeding tickets in my youth and jury duty that mainly consisted of sitting in the over-crowded room for potential jurors waiting to be ~~set free~~ released back to normal life.

All of that changed for me as I sat with 15 other citizens on a jury panel being questioned during voir dire and ultimately selected among the six jurors for the case.

How exactly does this fit into a communications / public relations-focused blog? The Answer: Nonverbal communication played a factor in various stages of the case.

I want to focus on the face-to-face interaction from a juror's perspective that can be classified into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, the physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction.
[Knapp & Hall (2007) Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction.]

Environmental conditions

Not in Kansas anymore - A courtroom is a very intimidating setting. If you have never participated in the space it can be difficult to understand the culture and norms (especially if your only perspective on a jury has been on television or in the movies.)
While being questioned inside the courtroom by both the prosecuting and defense teams, it was hard to make value judgments about about answers being given and whether or not the "right" or "wrong" answer would get you excluded from (or included on) the final jury roster.

Physical characteristics

A book and its cover - I observed two very different sets of legal teams. One included a very polished, professional front. The other seemed to have a more difficult time exuding the confidence and character the one would expect (or hope) from a lawyer.
Once picked to be on the jury, I was interested (and pleased) in the fact that it did seem that the final six was a cross-section of the citizens from the panel in age, sex, race, and personal experience.

Behaviors of communicators

Do you cross your arms? During voir dire, we were told at one point that, "it concerns us when we see jurors cross their arms," by one of the lawyers. This struck me as odd that arms crossed as a nonverbal communication cue is still being taught to have a stigma attached when crossing one's arms sometimes is a comfortable way to sit or is a sign of being cold.
After being told about crossing arms, I noticed no less than four potential jurors switch, either to or from an arms crossed position.
During the trial other behaviors came into play such as the those of the defendant, witnesses, legal teams, and even the judge. We watched how the lawyers conducted themselves in front of each other, the judge, and the jury. We noted things about the witnesses that played into their credibility.

We, the jury, find the defendant...
To be clear, I did in fact pay attention to the actual case, facts, witnesses, and evidence. These thoughts on nonverbal communication is a reflection on the experience. However, it is worth telling you that during deliberations, the conversation hinted at relevant nonverbal communication that took place: juror comfort, lawyer attire, witness speech patterns, and even the judge who read from a newspaper.

Ultimately the case was decided based on the facts and evidence of the case within the framework of the legal charge we were given, but I am convinced nonverbal communication played an important role in the process.

We've come a long way
Being on a jury was actually pretty interesting. It helps that I was able to turn the experience into a blog post, but I am thankful to have had the opportunity. Typically, society pokes fun at jury duty and we joke about different ways to get out of serving. But, when it comes down to it, our system of a jury of one's peers is actually a very empowering and enlighted system of jurisprudence.

Don't believe me? Tell it to the witch.

Next Communications Turns One

2009-07-11T10:00:00.028-05:00

Today marks the one-year blogiversary for the Next Communications blog. Twelve months ago I made the jump to this platform and started this effort to put my thoughts, opinions, and observations down. When I started writing, I really didn't think anyone would care to read my musings nor did I think I'd have any readers beyond my wife, my parents, and perhaps a colleague or two.

To my surprise and personal joy, readership has had a modest amount of growth and some good conversations have evolved both online and offline. This has been great to develop and I look forward to continuing the fun.

Before we start year number two, here's a few things I'd like you to know:

I wanted to try out blogging so that I could speak intelligently on the subject rather than guessing for an organization or client.
This small collection of posts is here to explore facets of communication, the intersection of education, public relations, social media and a bunch of stuff in between.
I recently saw on another blog's anniversary post something that I really liked and I want to call your attention to some of the remarkable writers and professional thought-leaders who provide inspiration and education for me such as (in no particular order) Geoff Livingston, Lauren Vargas, Kami Huyse, APR, Jason Falls, Valeria Maltoni, Beth Harte, David Mullen, Narciso Tovar, Todd Defren, Lauren Fernandez, Terry Morawski, Shane Haggerty, LauraVanHoosier, APR, Linda Jacobson, APR, Arik Hansen, APR, and many other writers that I've found along the way.
Most importantly, I want to publicly thank my wonderful wife, Kristen Escovedo and our awesome kids (Little Princess, and Little Man) for putting up with me during these writings.
A blog is nothing without it's community. Thank you for reading whether it's via your RSS reader, e-mail subscription, or if you just happened to stop by on accident looking for something more relevant. Whatever brings you here, I appreciate you and I thank you.

To celebrate this blog's anniversary I hope you do two things:

If you are on Twitter, go follow @childfund and Help Change Children’s Lives; and
If you have one near you, go to 7-11 and get a free Slurpee.
(I know, it's random but these two things will do you good.)

The Giant meets an unfair Headline

2009-07-02T16:15:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, a post on the Dallas Morning News Investigates Blog gave a curious headline that called into question the communication openness of a popular local theme park

"Six Flags Over Texas now says the Texas Giant roller coaster will remain closed all day today -- the third straight day of a mysterious safety problem at the Arlington amusement park."

The headline and first line of the post struck me as strange because from a PR perspective, any opportunity to effectively communicate a situation relating to an error with the Texas Giant (a popular wooden roller coaster) that could impact the safety of patrons would be well worth the time to research and explain.

And that is exactly what the spokeswoman did when asked by the Dallas Morning News (DMN) writer, "what kind of error?"

"I haven't been given that information yet...I'm just holding tight until the engineers provide me with that information...Our priority right now is getting to the root of it and making sure that we get it up and running safely. To me that's the No. 1 priority. I'm in constant communication with them. When the time is appropriate they will let me know, and I will convey that information to you guys. Until that time there is nothing else to share." [source]

Time to Share
So the PR person explained the situation based on the information she had at the time and expressed a willingness to discuss it further after receiving more information and yet the investigative reporter goes with a They won't talk headline. Um, what?

This is an unfortunate example of the type of unfair characterization on the part of a media outlet to suggest impropriety and obfuscation when in fact there clearly was a willingness to share. Perhaps it was done sensationalize the story a bit, which judging by some of the comments on the post was how at least some people thought. Other comments took the side of the concerned public and was pushing for more questions and inquiry. Other commenters attacked each other over previous comments. Still others called into question the reasoning behind the DMN covering something as silly as a roller coaster temporary closure. At one point in the comments, the writer interjected:

"I'm not speculating. Everything may well be fine. I'm just asking questions. That's my job. When people don't answer the questions, that makes me more curious. Think about it: If you ask your kid a question about what's wrong and they don't answer, don't you get more curious?"
[emphasis added]

Exactly when did the PR person not answer his question? In fact, later in the evening a local radio station's Web site had an update posted on the coaster situation as well as a new post today (with yet another They won't talk headline) was provided on the DMN blog since more details were ready to be released.

Big Picture Time
The temporary closure of this popular wooden roller coaster doesn't really reach level-critical since nothing much happened in this situation at the amusement park beyond a problem was detected, a decision was made to suspend operations, and details were explained when they were available.

Communication Carry-out: PR professionals need to guard against speculating on any situation in which we do not have all of the information. We need to wait until we have enough of the truth to share that would help shed some light on a situation. I applaud how the Six Flags spokeswoman handled the information release, it is just unfortunate that a decision was made to muddy-up the truth for the community. What do you think?

Good communication tactics stand up to fire test

2009-06-30T00:14:00.000-05:00

A towering flame just beyond one's backyard is quite possibly one of the most disturbing things a homeowner can see. We recently had one such flame:

To quote Alfred E. Neuman, "What, me worry?"
In any other circumstance, a fire of this magnitude so close to a neighborhood would be quite alarming. However, thanks to some effective corporate communication tactics, Chesapeake Energy alleviated fears, doubts, and general concerns.

The issues: Chesapeake Energy determined a need to conduct flaring operations at a location just west of my neighborhood to "more effectively assess a natural gas well’s production capabilities and determine areas where pipeline is most needed to begin transporting the gas to market." [source] From a PR perspective, their problem included the proximity to neighborhoods and area businesses and what needed to be done to help educate the community.

They kept it simple: From my perspective, the Chesapeake Energy communications tactics employed stem from a strategy which is heavy on community education and engagement.

We were first informed of the planned flaring operations via a letter from the company explaining the procedures, safety, and general information.
The letter included a link to their Web site dedicated to answering additional questions on these and other relevant drilling-related topics divided by neighborhood.
Lastly, a sign was placed at the entrance to gas well that gave relevant and useful information such as permitting, 24-hour supervision on-site, an emergency number, and of course their Web site again.
(If you look closely, you can see the flames through the trees.)

To be clear, I have no connection to Chesapeake beyond concerned neighbor to one of their natural gas wells. In fact, I didn't think much of the initial letter when I read it. We, like most families in our neighborhood I am sure, were startled by the fire. (I even joked about it on Twitter and Twitpic.) Nevertheless, there was a good lesson here for communicators who want to avoid not having coporate messages heard.

Communication Carry-out: With the right tactics and tools (even the simple ones) you can achieve effective communication enlightenment: message sent — message received. This is just my way of highlighting what a corporate communications win looks like from a member of the community.

What do you think? The comments are yours.
(Note: As a sat down to write this post, the flaring operations ceased.)

The Dialogue of Village Idiots

2009-06-25T23:22:00.000-05:00

I wasn't going to write this evening until a blogging challenge was given by Jason Falls:

I am not sure how serious (if at all) he was at issuing this writing version of Taboo. This intrigued me since forms of those words are in my blog's masthead. (It least it's not in the blog's name like Valeria Maltoni.) Naturally, "village" and dialogue" came up as worthy alternate words.

There is a point here, trust me.

Earlier today, Michael Jackson passed away. The uncontrollable speed at which the news, rumors, dialogue, conjectures, and lies spread today was pretty phenomenal via traditional media and the social web. There is no doubt others will cover this from a news/communications/social media/celebrity perspective (among others) ad nauseam.

[Enter the Village Idiot] In contrast, an example of textual spew came from celebrity blogger, Perez Hilton who suggested Jackson was "lying or making himself sick."

This of course caught the attention of the masses and rightfully so caused a backlash. Some have even suggested this was done as yet another way for him to be edgy and polarizing. I thought it was just stupid.

My lesson: I don't care who you think you are, being human is more important than being a blogger.

Obfuscation vs. PR's legitimate role

2009-06-19T01:03:00.001-05:00

Image by stonehouse_ via Flickr

Our local PRSA chapter recently held a luncheon with a panel made up of publishers/editors of local weeklies in an attempt to hear how they were doing financially and how PR people and journalists could work together on news stories.

What attendees received was a peek at the reality for these journalists:

From the GFW PRSA Blog -
During the Q&A, Lee Newquist, publisher of Fort Worth Weekly, was asked how PR practitioners could be of the most value to the weeklies. As part of a longer response, Newquist answered, “PR companies, at least on the journalism side of what we do, are problematic because they’re in between (us and) the person with the real answer. I don’t want to talk to a PR person whose sole role in their career is to spin it and make it sound good."

Blake Ovard, managing editor of The Star Group weeklies, echoed: “All of the cities have a PIO, and their job is to keep you from getting the story, so they don’t understand why I don’t want to talk to them. They say, ‘Well, I have all your information.’”

I wish I could have attended the luncheon.

I did, however, interact with a number of fellow PRSA members who did attend as well as follow along some of the quotes from Twitter.

I think what seemed to ruffle the feathers of some in attendance was what has come to be seen as the typical broad-stroked summation from journalists that PR people block the news gathering process. This is simply not the case, at least not always. Are there PR people who do a horrible job for their organizations or clients. Yep. But the same is true in any industry (up to and including journalism.)

Speaking from a communication professional's perspective, it is true that for public information officers, sometimes we have to get to the information tucked away inside our government agencies. We understand and appreciate the journalists would prefer to speak directly with the internal expert and source and to be quite honest, in most cases this is our preference too.

However, there are times when we cannot provide information for privacy, personnel protection, and other various legal reasons beyond our and the organization's control. It is highly frustrating when these actions are then turned around and interpreted as obfuscation when our hands are simply tied.

Perhaps the panelists didn’t fully appreciate the host organization is made up of PR professionals who hold to a PRSA Code of Ethics,which state in part:

HONESTY - We adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those we represent and in communicating with the public.

LOYALTY - We are faithful to those we represent, while honoring our obligation to serve the public interest.

FAIRNESS - We deal fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, vendors, the media, and the general public. We respect all opinions and support the right of free expression.

If you hope to reach your community and your community members find local weeklies useful, then the strategy dictates paying attention to and functioning in tandem with these media outlets. If your community does not find local weeklies relevant, move on.

Perhaps our organizations would be better served if public relations professionals work on being better as well as look to what could be in store for our profession and for journalists.