Non-Partisan Analysis of Obama’s speech

I keep politics out of this blog, but we are also concerned with language. I thought you might be interested in a word cloud of Obama’s Inaugural speech.

Word Cloud of Obama's Inaugural Speech

Spreading the Benefits – PRSA Group Membership

In today’s challenging fiscal climate, many organizations are looking to reduce expenses where ever they can. I wanted to make sure my loyal readers were aware of a service PRSA started rolling out nationally a few years ago, that is still below the radar with many companies and organizations

PRSA now offers a “group” membership. These are still individual memberships, but they can be reassigned if a person leaves the company for any reason or changes position. This takes a lot of the risk out of corporate sponsorship of membership (the company and its employees can benefit the entire year). Additionally, the first year, people can save up to $60 off their membership fee and every member in the group receives a $50 voucher for national programs.

If you haven’t checked into this yet – you should. More information can be found here.

Now is the time to invest in yourself, and your employees. We are talking a lot about the future today, and our own future professional development, and the development of our employees is something we can not ignore.

Fighting the triumph of mediocrity

Edmund Burke stated that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” It’s one of the quotes I have always liked and whenever I hear it, it reminds me that sitting on the sidelines is not an option for me.

But today, I want to modify it slightly: All this is necessary for the triumph of mediocrity is for people to stop learning.

This applies to every PR individual personally and the profession as a whole.

The PR profession has evolved over the past 100 years and the pace of evolution is constantly increasing. When I think of what was common practice in the 80s and early 90s to what we did at the turn of the century to today – some things are barely recognizable. Some things I did, I shake my head at now. But many other good things I still do, and some things I used to do, I need to start doing again.

I am sure the same can be said of each of you. I am a firm believer that PRs biggest threat is not external. It is internal. Yes, we face increasing competition from other departments and communications disciplines, yes public mistrust is high – but in the end, the way we beat the competition, the way we regain public trust and maintain our “seat at the table” is by being the best that we can be.

If we do not constantly challenge ourselves and learn more every day, we will be consigned to mediocrity and the dustheap of communications history. We can survive for a while on mediocrity, but we can not thrive, we can not grow and we will not make a positive impact on our organizations and society.

There are many ways to fight mediocrity. Fighting inertia and lazy work is one approach. Constant learning is the important first step. But more importantly – learning and applying what you learn is the best offense.

Then take what you have learned and share it with others. Do not put up with mediocrity in those around you. Whether it is in your department, your team, your organization or your community.

PRSA is one resource to which you can turn to help. We are far from the only one. But check out the chapters I have listed in the blogroll to the right. See what programs they have upcoming. Try one out.

But beyond PRSA. Challenge yourself and your colleagues. If we accept mediocrity in others and in ourselves, the future will be bleak. I for one do not intend to let that happen. Join me in the fight against mediocrity.

What have you learned recently? Share your comments and thoughts.

My 2009 challenges to PR professionals

Happy New Year,

In my first official post as Chair of the Northeast District of PRSA, I wanted to throw down the gauntlet to the thousands of PR professionals in the district and my legion of loyal blog readers, by reworking an email I sent my teams today.

As 2009 starts it is natural for people to reflect back on the past year and to look forward to the coming year. I won’t spend much time looking back.  Rather, I would like to challenge you for the coming year.

The public relations industry changed dramatically over the past year, and the pace of change is continuing to accelerate at all levels. Doing what we always have done is a recipe for us to be marginalized and lose effectiveness.

To that effect, I am stealing shamelessly from the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and have seven challenges I would like to offer all of you:

1)    Commit to improving yourself as a public relations professional—We can all become better PR pros. Decide on at least three things you want to develop this year – they don’t need to be big things, but by setting these goals we have something to move us forward. It doesn’t need to be something you are not good at – it could be a commitment to taking something at which you are great and working to become outstanding.

How can PRSA help you improve those skills? If you think we can’t – let us know and we will either show you how we can, or I will bring it up with the national and local leadership to try to address the gap.

2)    Make Google Reader a part of your life—It has changed the way I consume information and made me more effective at ferreting out the key bits. Some of us use it, but few really use it. My challenge to you is set it up and use it daily for just one client or industry for two weeks. Make it a habit. I am confident it will become an essential tool.

3)    Read four books on communications and public relations over the next year (in addition to all the great blogs)—I know we are all busy. But make the time. Learning is not confined to the walls of our organizations or PRSA and there is great insight to be gleaned.

4)    Re-examine the way you work—we are all being called upon to do more in the same amount of time. Are there things you can be doing more efficiently? What is taking up most of your time on a daily basis? How can that be reduced? Are key stakeholders not as responsive? How can we make them more so? Time invested in asking and answering these questions is time well spent.

5)    Improve your financial literacy—This is often the Achillies’ heel of PR professionals. Numbers are good. The greater our financial literacy, the better we can understand what is important to our clients, the better we can counsel senior executives and the better we can map programs to help them achieve the business results they needs.

6)    Find the things to be passionate about—I am passionate about public relations in general – but in particular I am getting more excited the more I learn about social media and PR measurement (something KD Paine said to me years ago that has stuck with me – Hits stand for “how idiots tell success”). Over the past month, I have a reignited passion about symbolic logic and am thinking about how to apply that methodology to poke holes in lazy PR discussions and planning. Find the industries, the clients, the PR topics that excite you and explore them more. Learn about them more. Heck – why not blog about them?

7)    Hold PRSA’s feet to the fire—PRSA is a great organization and one that you get more out of the more you put in. If is isn’t meeting your needs, tell us why. The PRSA National president, Mike Cherenson, is quite active and responsive online – here and here. This organization has the history and resources to help all members of the profession. It is finally becoming a more active advocate for our profession. Check out a few meetings, look at the online resources and get involved.

If you do all those things (as well as continue to embrace and learn about social media) you will be a better and happier PR professional.

What are your New Year’s PR resolutions?