Kami Huyse, who writes the blog Communications Overtones, recently asked: Should everyone who practices PR seek accreditation? For those of you not in the know, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) offers the accreditation in public relations (APR) certificate. To become accredited one must study for and pass a test focusing on various areas of PR including ethics, strategy and tactics. Huyse said that “studying for the APR was the single-most important element in my success as a public relations practitioner. It gave me a way of thinking about PR problems that I didn’t have.”
Huyse’s post caused quite an uproar in the PR blogging community. Todd Defren, who created the social media press release, disagreed with Huyse about the value of the APR. In his post, which featured an image of a woman with a ball and chain around her leg, he said: “Accreditation only legitimizes one organization's (the PRSA) view of what is entailed by ‘Public Relations.’ In this dawning era of new media, the PR person's role is (thankfully!) more fluid and unknown than ever.”
My Take: I think that the APR is a good idea. If it helps people learn more about how to practice public relations and provides them with good tools that's great. However, (and I think Huyse would agree with me), if you can’t deliver the goods the letters after your name don’t mean much. In addition, studying for the APR can expose you to information on what constitutes good behavior, but it won't make much difference to those people willing to engage in bad deeds.
Ethics
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the lack of ethics in the PR profession. In fact, the PRSA just announced that it is sponsoring a series of teleseminars where “senior members of the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards will discuss, debate and work through recent high-profile ethical problems ripped from headlines, bylines and Web blogs.”
BL Ochman and others have slammed PRSA because it is banning journalists from the teleseminars. PRSA says that doing so will help encourage “candid” discussion about the issues. Ochman retorted: “Yeah right. [Banning reporters will] keep the participants from making even bigger fools of themselves than the media - including bloggers - already thinks they are.”
My Take: I’ve discussed ethics in this post where I focused on whether people in healthcare PR should consider developing a voluntary code governing activities in this practice area. This is important because I think people will be looking at healthcare PR very closely as the pharmaceutical industry shifts from producing mass media campaigns to engaging in targeted educational efforts. There needs to be candid discussion about what is acceptable and what is not. Hopefully, the PRSA will be focusing on healthcare PR during its teleconference series.
Why Journalists Hate PR Pros
Journalists have always loved to hate PR professionals. Reporters are bombarded by e-mails and phone calls from people attempting to get ink for their clients. In some cases, PR people have even stalked reporters.
(I admit that have done this a few times at medical meetings. I’ve stood in front of the press room at conferences waiting for reporters to come out so that I could pitch them on clinical trials I wanted them to cover. Surprisingly, I’ve gotten some coverage this way. However, journalists don’t like being stalked and I never liked using this tactic.)
David Maister wrote a post recently on this issue. In his article, he published excerpts from a speech Tony Fernandez, who covered legal issues at Crains, gave on PR pros. In his talk Fernandez said:
- PR Pros don’t give me proof. I need facts to write a story.
- When I want to speak with someone they aren’t available. That’s a big no no.
- There are too many PR people. I get 100 calls a day.
- Every pitch sounds the same.
- PR pros don’t deliver. They don’t send e-mails when they say they will, return phone calls or send what I request.
Fernandez says a lot more. His speech is well worth reading.
My Take: These are legitimate gripes. There is not much to say here. However, I will offer this. An old friend of mine who worked in PR and journalism for many, many years had this advice about interacting with reporters (and I’m paraphrasing): “We are here to serve. If a reporter asks for something, deliver it. Jump through hoops, light fires, stay late, but get it done.”
PR’s clearly got a big reputation problem. However, it will be difficult to repair the profession if PR pros aren’t competent and don’t deliver. That’s a fact.
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