A candid image of Debra and her late husky friend, Cheyenne.
By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)
If memory serves correctly, my first encounter with Debra Bethard-Caplik, MS, MBA, APR came in the fall of 2004. (Or, perhaps it was 2005?) Debra asked me to participate in a day-long session with area public relations professionals who were planning to pursue the Accredited in Public Relations (APR) credential. As a newly-minted APR, I was thrilled and honored to share thoughts and offer support on navigating the then-new Computer Based Examination program. Since then, Debra and I have connected at various industry events around metropolitan Chicago; earlier this summer, we visited at the DePaul University PRAD graduate student portfolio showcase, where we were able to catch up on our lives and careers. In this latest PRDude Q&A post, Debra reflects on her diverse career, the public relations profession, and fondness for large breeds of dogs bred for the outdoors.
1. Your career certainly has been diverse — spanning agency, non-profit and academic. What launched your interest in public relations?
I usually tell the story of being an English literature major in the ’80s, when my career choices were to be an editor, a reporter, an English professor, a lawyer, or a starving writer. I’d transferred from a small private college as a failed biology major, and I discovered I hated working with specimens preserved in formaldehyde. I was mulling over the options that didn’t involve asking “would you like fries with that?” at the start of my junior year at Illinois State University, when I walked past a table for a student group called PRSSA.
They probably had cookies or some other giveaway to get people to stop. Finding out that there was a profession where I could write and work with nonprofits without having to be a journalist was an eye opener. It let me do a variety of different things with writing, photography and special events that a classic journalism career wouldn’t. Marketing was never an option, because of the sales component. As a classic introvert, I react negatively to pushy, insincere people, and unfortunately, you ran into a lot of those types of people in marketing in those days. They’re still there to a degree, but they’re in all professions. Marketing hadn’t evolved to consider customers’ needs back then.
2. For more than a dozen years, you’ve served as an adjunct instructor at institutes of higher education in metropolitan Chicago. How has teaching evolved over the years?
The most obvious is the use of technology in teaching. I don’t regret the demise of bluebooks for final exams. The English lit major in me will always remember those two-hour exams where we wrote essays by hand. But mostly, I’m so envious of the education that PR majors get these days. A sophomore today is more experienced than I was as a senior. Experiential learning, connecting in-class lectures and theory by applying it to real world activities as part of the class — that’s invaluable experience. I didn’t really make the mental connection between theory and real world applications until I studied for my Accreditation exam in 2001.
3. Along with both of us being Illinois State University alums, we both hold the Accredited in Public Relations (APR) credential. How did earning the APR contribute to your success?
Preparing for the APR exam gave me an understanding of the profession and practice of public relations in a way my education never could. It made me take the time to think through situations and evaluate options from a strategic standpoint. To be honest, I get more strategic business value from my APR than I do from my MBA.
4. The practice of public relations has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Please share thoughts on this statement.
I never, ever, ever thought that PR would evolve as it has. The advent of social media has made PR more of a perpetual scramble, as the ways we can communicate have exploded. It’s made PR more reactionary than ever before, and that’s not a good thing, because you don’t have time to think. It’s also made it much more difficult to engage in two-way communication, because for many, just getting the information out there is all consuming.
The other thing that isn’t so surprising is that marketing continues to co-opt public relations practices in its attempts to reach more customers. There’s the potential for major problems because the focus on making the sale can damage the long term relationship. To see how, just take a look at all the marketing emails purporting to be newsletters coming from companies you have to do business with. I get roughly 50 a day, and I delete all of them without reading them. Take one retail company I have a “loyalty” card with. I get emails from them Every. Single. Day. And I delete them all. I have a separate Gmail account set up and all of those emails go there; a few times a year I delete them all. All that is doing is damaging whatever relationship I have with that company. Perhaps if we reconsidered the marketing relationship, and treated marketing as a subordinate discipline within the overall public relations practice, along with social media, publicity, etc., it would be easier to build customer loyalty.
5. And, I know you have a fondness for friends of the canine species. What sparked your love of dogs?
I can’t remember not having dogs as a child. Growing up in the country, they were always around, along with cats and farm animals. The only time I didn’t have a dog was the period when I left for college and then lived on my own in apartments before getting married. I could have had a small dog, but I have this love for my big “floofs,” and my preferred breed is Siberian Huskies, although I’ve had other breeds, including mixes, as well. I’m always amused that someone who is so cold natured that I start shivering when the thermometer drops to 50 degrees has arctic breed dogs.
Even though I’m the youngest of six, there’s a large age gap between me and my siblings, so I essentially grew up an only child, out in the country with no other children around. Dogs and books were my only companions, and they didn’t mind my social reticence. Dogs will love you no matter what, and they have gotten me through rough times when people let me down. We even had a dog as a guest at our wedding. I can’t imagine not having dogs, but I also realize the responsibility that comes with having them isn’t for everyone. I currently have two huskies and a border collie-lab mix, all rescues. I also support several rescues, like Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, Free Spirit Siberian Rescue in Harvard, Illinois, and Peace and Paws Dog Rescue in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. I highly recommend having a dog in your life; they keep you grounded.
This so-called “word cloud” (I think) image really “illustrates” (couldn’t resist) modern storytelling.
By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA
Once upon a time — actually according to some reports at around the beginning of the 20th Century — a communications practice known as “public relations” debuted. The men and women who engaged in this kind of work were “public relations professionals.” But to the public at large — and over the course of decades — these communicators were better known as “publicists,” since many focused their work primarily on securing media placements for clients.
Well, things change; that’s the nature of life, and public relations, I guess.
Because now, many public relations professionals (and I ascertain some publicists, too) refer to themselves “storytellers.”
This development, I maintain, is fine, but being an inquisitive sort, I wondered what initiated and inspired the practice of storytelling as part of public relations. Therefore, the focus of this post centers on answers to these three questions:
Why has “storytelling” become so equated with public relations?
Why do public relations professionals need to be “storytellers?”
Is it too late for me to become a “storyteller?”
Before I continue, I felt the need to return to commentaries on public relations following five previous posts that tackled topics far from the profession, including the horrific July 4 massacre in Highland Park, Illinois and thoughts on the availability and marketing of military-grade firearms that are so prevalent in many parts of the nation.
So, enough with the “other stuff” I sometimes address. Today it’s back to PR!
To answer the first two questions above, I did some very, very basic analysis. Okay, I visited Google and typed in variants of these questions: “Why is public relations now storytelling?” and “Why do public relations professionals have to be storytellers?”
My primary research led to some informative blogs, like this one from 2015 published by Green Bay, Wisconsin communications firm Baer Performance Marketing; the premise here: Storytelling is valuable to strategic public relations “because it allows companies to better connect with their audience and ultimately stimulate the audience’s feelings, ideas, and attitudes to align with their marketing goals.” Makes sense. Looking at one of the post sources, I learned there is a National Storytelling Network, which operates on the principle to advance “all forms of storytelling within the community through promotion, advocacy and education.”
Moving on, this 2021 post from media monitoring firm Burrelles presented a very poignant and rational perspective on the value behind storytelling in the months following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when businesses of all kinds had to effectively communicate with customers that delivery of some products and services was uncertain. As noted in the post, “storytelling became a crucial means to those ends.” I wholeheartedly concur.
From another perspective, I disagree with the definition of “PR storytelling,” as shared in this 2020 post from the UK PR Superstar site. The definition provided — “PR storytelling is about attracting the attention of the media by telling that story in an engaging and thought-provoking way.” — clearly centers on publicity only and is void of strategy.
Of course, I could identify and post lots of other findings and observations through continued google searches, but I maintain that telling stories — which also can be perceived as sharing accurate or valuable news or information, as through a news release — has been the foundation of public relations for a century. The concept of storytelling, an ancient practice spanning many cultures, may or may not be based on accepted facts.
Therefore, I conclude:
Storytelling is now firmly established within public relations, and given the continued plethora of digital communications, it will remain a defined communications practice.
Established educational and professional entities have structured course work in storytelling, securing its validity.
In short, storytelling is here to stay in the public relations profession.
Finally, even after this analysis, I’ll still consider myself “a modern strategic communicator,” but also one who has told a few (accurate) stories over the decades.
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