Whether you’re interested in joining a global or national association, an industry-specific organization, or a local community group, professional development organizations come with many benefits.

For one, membership typically provides access to learning opportunities and industry-specific information. Some professional organizations offer courses, conferences, labs, virtual discussions, and more, which help you stay in touch with members and cultivate a community conducive to asking questions, discussing trends, and learning from one another. There is so much information at your fingertips and you should use all of the resources that are available to you.

When you join an organization, there are countless opportunities to build your network through meetings, committees, events, happy hours, etcetera. Carving out time for these should be a priority, as it’s a great way to meet new people and establish new connections. Take advantage of these events, step out of your comfort zone and spark conversations with people inside or outside your industry. Not only will this build your own professional network, but you may also cultivate new friendships.

Among the myriad of professional development organizations, there are also organizations that merge industry and community service. You may discover new hobbies and newfound passions for social issues.

Professional development is about putting yourself out there, developing meaningful relationships and leveraging the multitude of resources available to you. Get out there, join a professional organization, you’ll discover new perspectives and a newfound appreciation for your community, profession, and yourself.

I’ve long been an avid reader of presidential history. One of my favorite historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin, wrote a book about Abraham Lincoln titled, “Team of Rivals”.  Throughout the book, Goodwin dives into how President Lincoln filled his Cabinet with former foes in order to ensure he had every perspective at the table.

This idea made an impression on me to always consider who you surround yourself with in order to get perspective and insights. Now most of us don’t get to organize an official cabinet, but we do get to create what is often referred to as a “kitchen cabinet”—a group of trusted friends and associates. Those in my kitchen cabinet don’t even know I consider them as such, but they’re a group of people I have met along the way in both my personal and professional life and I value their opinion.

Your kitchen cabinet should be made up of a handful of people you can call on at any time to get advice. They can be personal friends or professional colleagues and if you’re lucky, your kitchen cabinet includes people whose strengths play to your weaknesses and challenge you to think bigger and bolder while being true to yourself.

Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to have a kitchen cabinet whom I can rely on to bounce ideas off of and get varying viewpoints. They have guided and encouraged me to challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone. At times, they offered a new perspective and changed my outlook on certain issues and ideas. 

With each advancement in my career, the individuals in my kitchen cabinet have shifted a bit as I’ve lived in different cities and held different jobs. But the lessons I learned from them have always stayed with me. A former boss used to always say she surrounded herself with people smarter than her. Turns out, she was the smart one to recognize her own shortfalls and make sure she built a strong team who would complement her strengths and weaknesses and ultimately work well together.

I challenge you to consider who is in your kitchen cabinet. If you identify a missing piece, make this the year you surround yourself with people who make you the best you can be.  

In just four years, TikTok has stormed to the front of the social media landscape – amassing a billion monthly users worldwide with a staggering 138 million in the U.S. alone.

TikTok’s short-form platform and personalized feed has become so popular that Meta revamped Facebook and Instagram to keep pace. Those videos keep users on the app for 95 minutes a day. But is TikTok right for your organization?

With so many users spending so much time on the app, it seems like an easy question to answer. But any organization will need to ask itself – who is my audience? TikTok’s users are overwhelmingly young, with more than 60 percent of users in the U.S. being under the age of 30. And half of those are under the age of 20. If your target audience isn’t Gen Z, TikTok might not where you want to spend your time and money.

Any organization will also need to weigh the pros and cons of creating content for TikTok and what comes with it. Your traditional ads might not work in the fast-paced world of a TikTok feed. Short-form videos require their own mindset to produce and aren’t just a shorter version of a traditional ad. The key to TikTok success, much like many ad campaigns, is partnering with the right people. In TikTok’s case – an influencer.

A traditional celebrity partnership isn’t needed on TikTok with some teen influencers holding followings in the millions. Organizations need to consider who is in an influencer’s following and their engagement when looking for a partner.

However, the Chinese-owned app is also not without controversy.

There have been bi-partisan efforts to ban the app in the U.S. over concerns the Chinese can use TikTok to spy on its users and push certain narratives. In December 2022, TikTok was banned from federal government phones with state governments, including North and South Carolina, in order to keep the app off state-owned devices. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said the ban was to help protect critical cyber infrastructure from foreign and domestic threats. The app has also been banned at Auburn University and the University of Texas.

While the pros might seem to outweigh the cons on the surface, any group should always measure the weight of each factor before committing time and resources to TikTok.

There are many reasons why you should hire a specific public relations firm. They may specialize in a particular area, like crisis communication or media relations. The firm could be on the cutting edge of producing engaging digital and graphic content or they might have a successful blueprint, and they stick to it. Wash, rinse, and repeat. From a budget perspective, knowing these skill sets may help with efficiency and the maximization of the ROI for your budget.

However, in public relations, the blueprint often needs to be customized. As a client, you may have new requests that change the timeline of important projects or impede the efficiency and efficacy of a project roll-out.

There is a small moment in time between when we are asked to complete a project or task by our clients and when we’ve all agreed to move forward. Within that gap lies the most significant asset a public relations firm can provide you: the opportunity to be a strategic advisor.

In addition to executing our outlined scope of work, it is incumbent upon us to be your advisor, see around corners and monitor both the forest and the trees. We want to be a partner that advises and executes to achieve your goals. Sometimes that may mean telling a client something they don’t want to hear or providing guidance that is different from an initial conversation.

We live in a fast-paced world. Information moves quickly, and decisions are made rapidly. Yes, we have quotas and KPIs to meet and promises to keep, but when the overall goal is to serve our client’s best interest, sometimes the smart first step is to slow down before giving a definite “Yes!”

Your PR team should take the time to think through what they are being asked to do. It may be the right thing to do, and they may even need to get it done quickly!

PR professionals should be asking these questions to benefit their clients:

• Does this project work towards the client’s overall goal?
• Is this project strategically worthwhile for the client?
• Is the timeline realistic?
• Does the firm have the capacity, or the skillsets, to take on this project?

The PR firm may decide there is a better idea or approach. In this case, they should be thoughtful and advise you by offering an alternative approach and explain the whys and why nots. It is vital to deploy our strategic radar on your behalf and pick up on things that you might not otherwise see. In the end, saying “no” or “maybe let’s look at it in a different way” might be the best thing that happens and strengthen the client relationship.

While doing so, PR firms must act with an abundance of professionalism. Prepare to present a well-reasoned position and respect the client’s current situation and their final decision.

Ultimately, we are your partners. We are here to serve you, our clients, and perform our duties to the best of our ability – by showing our value through thoughtful advising and careful execution.

January 5, 2023 

Friends,

I wanted to be the first to tell you about an exciting new chapter for our parent company, Nexsen Pruet, and what it means for NP Strategy.

The partners at Nexsen Pruet have decided to merge with Maynard Cooper & Gale– a national law firm headquartered in Alabama. Together, they will be known as Maynard Nexsen effective April 1, 2023. This newly formed firm will have more than 550 lawyers, serving clients in 23 offices located from coast to coast across the United States.

NP Strategy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nexsen Pruet, will be owned by Maynard Nexsen. Our name will remain NP Strategy, but we hope to add several more talented professionals across our new markets in 2023!

You can read the full news release for the merger and watch a video here. The Associated Press also wrote an exclusive story about the merger and that can be found here.

NP Strategy has had the pleasure of working with clients across the country since our group’s inception, but now with a national network of offices, our quickly growing team will be able to offer services to an even broader footprint and meet new partners where they are.

If you, your company or any related connection could benefit from working with us, please reach out to me or another member of our NP Strategy leadership team. We stand ready to help with any strategic communications needs.

Thank you for your partnership over the past several years. NP Strategy’s success and growth are due in large part to our network of wonderful partners and colleagues like you.

My Best,

Heather Hoopes Matthews

CEO, NP Strategy

Learn more about the Maynard Cooper & Gale and Nexsen Pruet merger announcement.

When your flight encounters turbulence, have you ever looked to see if the flight attendant appears concerned?  In turbulent times, it’s normal to look for help from people in leadership positions. They will generally have the facts and be able to cast a vision forward. To do this, leaders need to be prepared.

If you are a leader, or support a leader, be sure to pause and respond, not just react.  How do you do that?  Here are some first steps.

Get the facts. It’s easy to listen to the first account of a situation and start to plan. Don’t do it. Request information from every member of your critical response team. I have been in multiple situations where the first account of a crisis was just a slither of what actually occurred. If we had not worked to get every side of the story, our client may have felt compelled to take an unneeded action.

A Critical Response Team (CRT) is responsible for, trained and committed to working together during a crisis. Teams should have the authority and/or expertise to guide your organization through a crisis. If you don’t have a critical response team in place, establish one immediately.

Circle up with your CRT. Once you have the facts – or at least a solid understanding of the situation – swiftly assemble your crisis response team, brief them on the situation and gather their feedback.  This should take place within the first hour of the crisis. Your team will provide various points of view that will be critical in determining a path forward.  For example, human resources professionals will offer insight from an employee perspective, risk managers will seek ways to mitigate financial risk, operations will pursue ways to minimize operational impact, legal will think about liability and communication professionals will consider the brand’s reputation. Each of these perspectives is important and your job as the leader is to find the balance between the sum to determine your next actionable steps.

Determine immediate next steps. Every crisis is unique, so the immediate next steps must be determined when your CRT gathers.  For example, if you have a major accident on site, do you close down manufacturing for the rest of the day?  If a scandal is about to break in the media, do you decide to notify the board and employees to try and mitigate fears before they read the story (and hear the rumors)?

Communicating is one of the keys to weathering a corporate storm. So after you have determined immediate next steps…

Identify three key message points and a spokesperson. These key points will be the basis for your initial messaging, including items such as an email to the board, a notice to employees or a media holding statement. If you have a crisis response plan in place, your spokesperson should already be identified and trained.  Otherwise, determine who is best suited to calmly, stay on message.  His or her demeanor can say more than the actual words out of one’s mouth.

NOTE: If your crisis is a “bet-the-company” situation, the person at the top must be the spokesperson. Do not lay blame, do not lie and never say “no comment.”

In closing, like death and taxes, a crisis is coming.  The challenge is preparing in advance, long before a storm is on the horizon and your plane encounters turbulence.  As a leader in an organization, we encourage you to make crisis response preparation a priority.  Will preparing ensure a Hollywood “happy ending”? No.  But, doing nothing is a great foundation for failure.

This week, cameras surrounded the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) for more than just its World Cup match against Iran. While all major sports teams and players hold press conferences ahead of a big game, USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter and team captain Tyler Adams faced questions ranging far beyond team strategies and tactics used on the soccer field.

Unprecedented political tension surrounded this year’s match against Iran, which prompted  media questions that no coach or player is typically equipped to answer. What started as a pre-match news conference quickly turned into a reminder of the importance of media training, with reporters repeatedly ignoring Berhalter and Adams’ efforts to focus solely on soccer.

At one point during the news conference, an Iranian journalist questioned Adams, a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, about his representation of the U.S. despite its “discrimination against black people.”

Tyler Adams mispronounced Iran and was called out by an Iranian journalist – who followed up with a question on discrimination in the United States.

His response: An all time classy answer- Captain & Leader. #USMNT 👏 pic.twitter.com/pELQmBttPl

— Stu Holden (@stuholden) November 28, 2022

Adams responded in a calm and thoughtful manner. Coach Berhalter faced similar politically motivated questioning not relevant to his role or title. Both men navigated the difficult questions in a professional way. It is clear they prepared for the worst. Their preparation paid off.

Recently, I attended a North Carolina Public Relations Society of America conference. The event kicked off with a panel of Raleigh-area journalists who answered the question, “How can PR professionals do better?” One-by-one journalists echoed each other with the same answer: “When I ask a question, just give me the answer.” They were referring to a delicate dance often required when addressing a question you either can’t answer or don’t have the facts to answer. Ironically, in a following keynote session about media training, the speaker reminded everyone of the way Henry Kissinger once famously opened a news conference by asking, “Does anyone have any questions for my answers?”

Realistically, there will always be some questions that cannot be answered. That does not mean media will not ask them. Rather than worry if they ask, prepare for when they ask by investing in media training. Focused training will prepare you to not only survive an interview, but to thrive during the toughest of engagements.

At NP Strategy, former journalists lead our training sessions. They know how the media operates, how they might ask the difficult questions and how the pressure to make a profit is impacting news coverage today. Whether you’re getting ready for your next media interview, community presentation, or networking event, take the time to thoughtfully prepare and practice.  We know the U.S. soccer team’s practice on – and off – the field prepared them for this challenging World Cup event.

Have you ever wanted to say, “no comment”? It’s an easy answer to an unwanted media inquiry, but “no comment” is not very effective — and in today’s digital world, can actually be viewed as an admission of guilt.

Instead of saying “no comment,” you could say something that doesn’t give much away. Though that approach is not ideal at conveying your side of the story, it can avoid the risk of looking like you’re saying, “I’m guilty.”

For example, let’s say a former employee sues your company and then calls the media. A responsible journalist is going to want to try and get both sides to any story, so the reporter calls the main company phone line and asks for someone to comment. At NP Strategy, we work with a lot of lawyers handling all kinds of litigation.  Our first step is to always contact the lawyer or lead executive, get the facts, and then swiftly write a short general statement. In this example, one answer could be, “We just received the lawsuit in question and our legal team is currently reviewing the allegations.  We won’t be able to answer any questions until at least this review is complete.” In this scenario, you haven’t promised to eventually respond, refuted the employee allegations or divulged legal strategic tactics, and you avoided saying “no comment.” This is important because the court of public opinion can convict you a lot quicker than the actual legal court.

Another down side to responding “no comment” is that you are allowing someone else to tell your story. It is better for you to respond in a different manner than opening up the floor for someone else to write the narrative. You are giving up control of the story because the media will undoubtedly publish interviews with people who do have something to say, potentially even your competitors, along with your no comment response.

You do not want to be seen as a gatekeeper or someone who is trying to cover up something. You want to be seen as someone who is friendly with media so you will have a good reputation.

So the next time the media rings regarding litigation or some unwanted situation consider sending a short emailed response that says something, while giving nothing away.

By Camryn Hipp

Communicating your brand is all about telling its story and it’s important to do it the right way. Strong storytelling is a way to establish brand awareness, build trust and establish your brand as an industry thought leader.

Telling your story is an opportunity to highlight what sets your organization apart from the others. In addition to including the ‘who’ and ‘what’ of what you do, sharing your mission is the ‘why’ and an essential piece that will elevate your brand and showcase why it’s unique.

When crafting the story of your brand, keep it real, genuine and meaningful. It’s important to convey your message appropriately and set the right tone. While an overly emotional message may be effective for one brand, it may not work for your organization. Keep it simple, stick to your core values and let your story flow from there.

Once you’ve developed your story, the next step is figuring out the best way to tell it. Videography and photography are both effective and can be deployed in various ways—posted on your website, social media channels, advertising, etcetera.  For this to work, make it a priority to identify your target audience so you can devise the best plan.

Your brand story is an essential part of your organization and will serve as the foundation to your communication strategy.

At NPS+ we are proud of our large and growing team. We collaborate, brainstorm and attend meetings together. We wear our NPS nametags without hesitation and are quick to tell people where we work.

In this day and age being a part of a team is only part of your career, especially if your daily life is spent in the world of marketing, public relations or strategic communications. It may feel unnatural, braggadocios or like you are “cheating” on your company if you also work towards creating your own professional brand. However, personal branding is a way to establish and reinforce the work you are doing in your organization and beyond.

Here are three ways to get your brand off the ground floor.

1) Be strategic when you say “yes.” Asked to sit on a board but you aren’t passionate about the mission of the group? Instead, engage with a cause that you can get behind. By being strategic with your “yes” you are building the most authentic version of your brand. This will allow you to speak freely and share with others about the work you are involved in away from your desk.

2) Network beyond your immediate team. It is so easy to simply put our heads down and look at our phones or shut our office doors. Instead, make it a point to introduce yourself to someone you don’t know while riding in the elevator, walking to your car or waiting in line for lunch. A simple, “Hi I am Beverly Bowers and I work at NP Strategy,” can open up a world of opportunity. Remember, people promote the people they know, trust and see out in the community.

3) Smile for the camera! Think about how often you scroll day after day through LinkedIn looking at what people’s successes and professional updates entail. Those same people are also scrolling! Post the board retreat picture, write about a behind the scenes event with a client and showcase your first huge client partnership. This reminds people what you are capable of and may jog their brain of what your area of expertise is. It only takes one person to look at your social media channels to think “I need to reach out about engaging in their team’s services!”

Cultivating a brand isn’t just for your business. In fact, when built strategically, a personal brand can lead to impactful change in your personal and professional life.