Not too long ago in my career, I was pretty convinced I would pursue the APR (Accreditation in Public Relations) someday. At the time, I remember thinking how well-respected APRs were. They always seemed to be the ones giving all the speeches at conferences I was going to. My professors and mentors in college were APRs. The best media relations pro I’ve ever worked with was an APR. And a lot of the great people I’ve met since I started writing this blog have the APR designation. So, I’m basically surrounded by a lot of smart people who decided the APR was an important process to go through. But like a lot of other PR professionals, it’s hard not to question the value of the certification, when so many people outside of the PR world have never heard of the APR. [Read more...]