Editor’s note: This is the part of an ongoing series of articles from communicators who have earned their Accreditation in Public Relations, describing what led them to become accredited and what the accreditation experience was like for them.
If you work in PR, you’re a busy person. It just comes with the territory. So it goes without saying that every moment you spend on one thing is a choice not to invest that moment in something else. The Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) absolutely requires a great deal of work, and in total will likely take about six to 12 months to complete. However, if you consider the program in terms of investment versus return, you’ll quickly see the ROI.
Having just obtained an APR in May, my feeling is that it’s worth the inevitable trade-off you’ll have to make. The APR is an opportunity to expand your professional network through the preparation process, learn from other PR pros and their organizations about what has yielded strong returns for them, and take some time to refocus yourself on some of the key tenants of our profession, as well as new and emerging issues and trends.
The best part is, it’s a two-for-one deal, if you make it one. As you put together your case study for the Readiness Review portion of the process, you’ll follow the four-step RPIE (Research, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation) process. It’s an opportunity to showcase how you have used this process from beginning to end to develop, execute and evaluate a successful public relations effort.
Here’s the secret: This process is also the basis for PRSA Silver Anvil Awards application. For me, my APR Readiness Review served as the basis for a Silver Anvil application for a program for which I had co-led the development and launch: Food Lion’s new community relations platform, Food Lion Feeds. I was able to pull much of what was needed for the Silver Anvil application from my APR Readiness Review, which I had already invested a significant amount of time developing.
At Food Lion, we were incredibly fortunate to take home two Silver Anvil Awards for Food Lion Feeds this year. It was an absolute honor to be recognized among so many talented companies, organizations and individuals across the industry, particularly because our company was the only grocer to make the list.
Did we win an Anvil because of the APR? No. Did it hurt? Definitely not. The APR gets you thinking in the RPIE mindset. If the work you’re doing is significant enough for the APR, it’s significant enough to at least be considered for an award. The Readiness Review case study that you create is the best of the best work you’ve done, and should be something you can reference throughout your career as you brainstorm new campaigns and projects.
The bottom line, at least for me, is that the APR is a significant undertaking and time investment that’s worth it. But, it’s all in what you make it. Why not make it award winning?
Erin DeWaters, APR is the manager of media and community relations for grocer Food Lion. Based in Salisbury, N.C., since 1957, the company operates more than 1,100 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, serves nine million customers per week and employs more than 63,000 associates. Through Food Lion Feeds, the company has committed to provide 500 million meals to individuals and families in need by the end of 2020.
Don’t be so aggressive that you drive them away with a
sales pitch. Gathering of information, gaining website traffic and building business relationships are just a few
ways you can use Twitter to your benefit. If you use Twitter to stay
in touch with friends or business contacts then you have probably already discovered how convenient it can be to send tweets through your
i – Phone. In other words, Tweet about solutions
to problems your target audience is facing. Don’t just hop on the social media bandwagon because it seems like the thing to do
at the moment. You may also want to claim your towns name and obits.
) It’s vital that you practice Twitter and, for that matter, good overall social media
etiquette. The great paradox of Peep is that the all-consuming desire
to connect often disconnects us from genuine and meaningful interaction, from cultivating
true friendships and from nurturing our own humanity.
You can also link your Twitter account with your blog and other social networking accounts,
enabling you to easily and quickly broadcast your tweets.
There are also some other ways to make money on Twitter.
Despite being good, however, the organic approach
to attracting clicks to that follow button isn’t working
like you’d hoped. However, this latest effort is new being
that they came up with what I think is a brilliant idea which is to tie their version of Facebook into
their Gmail. As you can see, here are just 3 of the
ways that Twitter has evolved to provide more value in the social media
marketing landscape. Twitter is not like article writing at all as it’s
just like creating miniarticles on what you say in chat rooms.
Or Gmail, and you can make the process much easier by
preparing a step-by-step protocol, so you won’t be winging it every time you start up a new e-mail account.
That is the first thing you have to keep in mind so that you can also make a success in marketing you product or promoting or introducing your business to a lot of people.
-Use a service like Tweet – Beep to get email alerts when people mention you
on Twitter. The more in tune you are with your prospect’s needs, the more sales you will make.
So lets state for the record, a Facebook page and
Twitter account do not constitute a social media strategy, in fact it is far from it.
To this end it is no good starting a conversation and not following it up.