Earning APR Helps Everybody in Our Profession
Posted by Justin Erick LaBerge, APR, president elect GKC PRSA on Feb. 5, 2012 / Subscribe 0
Our chapter is on the prowl for our next crop of candidates for accreditation in public relations. When I was an intern, I learned about the APR program and knew I would earn mine as soon as I was eligible. Five years later, I submitted my application. Six months after that, I was walking out of the Prometric Testing Center at UMKC with a smile on my face and an embossed piece of paper in my hand saying I passed.
I’ve read lots of articles and blog posts extolling the virtues of earning accreditation. They talk about bumps in pay, increased confidence, and the great information you’ll learn through the process. Those are all excellent and true points. I agree with them all. But since those arguments have all been eloquently addressed by others, I’d like to add a different argument to the mix.
Get your APR because it’s the best way you can help advance the credibility of our profession.
PR people (myself included) often lament that the c-suite doesn’t take the counsel of its public relations department as seriously as it takes the advice of the legal or finance departments. But what are we doing to earn that respect?
Those lawyers passed the bar exam and are required to take hours of continuing education classes each year. If they violate their professional standards, they are subject to serious sanctions. (Fun fact: the magazine published by the state bar association includes a special section devoted to public shaming of attorneys who are found guilty of breaking the rules. When my fiancée’s copy comes in the mail, it’s my favorite section to read.)
For PR to be recognized as a true profession, we must have (and enforce) standards for our practitioners (though I’m not lobbying for a shaming section in PRSA Tactics).
Doctors, architects, engineers, brokers, accountants, and real estate agents are all required to earn credentials before they’re allowed practice without supervision. We expect the people serving our food, mixing our drinks, and cutting our hair to be properly credentialed. Why should we be the exception to the rule?
I’m sure all of us know people who were promoted into a PR job from some other department not because they know anything about communication strategy, but because they “were good with people.” Anybody can hang a shingle and say they are a public relations practitioner. Pop culture and shows like “Sex and the City” lead people to believe that we are all publicists who jaunt from one red carpet to the next. And I have yet to meet a PR practitioner whose parents actually know what he or she does for a living.
As strategic communicators, we know that perception matters. We know that there is often a significant gap between the actions an organization takes, and the public’s awareness and understanding of those actions. It’s our job to bridge that gap.
Isn’t it time we do the same thing for our profession? By earning your APR, you will embody PRSA’s mantra by advancing the profession and the professional.
Justin Erick LaBerge, APR, serves as president elect of GKC PRSA and is an account manager at Sturges Word Communications in Kansas City. He can be reached at [email protected] or @justinlaberge on Twitter.
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