Even if you are just sticking to the basics – Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook – keeping those up to date for business could become a full-time job.

There are plenty of social networking people out there – mainly from an IT background – who can show you how these can be integrated and automated.

Why update all three when you can just do one and let that auto-update all your social media at the same time, they ask?

While it is technically possible to automate – it is a big mistake to actually do it.

Read those twitter feeds that have been published to someone’s Facebook profile. Even when both networks are targeted at business – such as Linkedin and Twitter – it looks odd.

And what does it say about your view of your target audience?

It says you cannot be bothered to communicate with your followers in a style that fits with their chosen network, that you are just interested in broadcasting your messages rather than engaging in a conversation.

And if you say exactly the same thing on every network it will appear the needle is stuck on that particular record.

Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are very different networks where people expect to be communicated with in an individual way. The mechanics make it possible to combine all three, but your content should change according to the network.

That means you need more of a routine to stop social networking taking over your life – but at least you won’t lose the respect of the people who have taken the trouble to follow you.

Content is king when it comes to social networking – the mechanics may make it easier to automate it but you must make sure you are speaking to people in a way that is relevant to the network you are using.

Despite having not worked in a newsroom for 15 years I still think of myself as a journalist. It is what I trained to be, what I did for a living for almost 10 years, and why I still like to pass on my advice to others through part-time lecturing at Portsmouth University.

Of course I have moved on – I have been on the ‘dark side’ working in PR for the past 15 years, talking to journalists from the other side of the fence, and looking after the needs, aims and goals of clients. But throughout all that I have considered myself a journalist. I still use my shorthand every day – much to the amusement of clients who cannot make head nor tail of the hieroglyphics.

And despite all that has happened this week journalism is still an honourable profession and one I am proud to be a part of.

A few bad apples should not condemn the whole crop – although MPs and bankers know what it is like to have their way of life under the microscope even if they as individuals may have done nothing wrong.

A fearless and questioning media is vitally important for our society – only those who fear having their wrong-doing, incompetence and illegal behaviour exposed can want for anything other than a free and unshackled media.

If a few journalists need to be told what is morally acceptable or unacceptable behaviour then so be it – but the vast majority of people working in the profession know how legally and ethically to go about their business, to dig out stories from people who would rather the stories weren’t told, and to recognise whose privacy should be respected.

It is a great disappointment to me that print journalism appears to be a profession on the wane – but there are other opportunities on-line for journalists to continue their campaigning for good, celebrating achievement in their communities and holding people accountable for their actions.

And long may that continue.

Well, less that I had a car crash and rather that a car crash was done to me. There we were sat in our little hatchback in the inevitable queue of stationary traffic on the M25 on a Sunday evening when an Aston Martin DB7 Convertible tried to get into the back seat. Through the boot.

How, in stationary traffic, does one car manage to hit another one so hard and cause so much damage and upset?

My fury was unbounded, and the fact Mr Company Director from Ascot appeared totally unconcerned about the damage to either car or whether anyone was injured, just made me madder still. Fortunately the police arrived.

It got me thinking a bit later – when the red mist had cleared enough for me to be a little more rational – about how important it is to ensure that you give a good impression of yourself when dealing with anyone at any time.

Mr Company Director – yes, I did Google him so I know that he is one (a company director, that is) – only needed to say sorry and ask if everyone was alright and he would have deflated my anger in one short statement. Instead he only increased it by appearing not to care less.

And  me? Yes I let myself down too. I should have been more calm and collected and clear-thinking. We were in lane four of the M25 after all.

Because I, too, am a Mr Company Director to him. Only I don’t get to drive an Aston Martin convertible, even with a crumpled bonnet. I just have a hatchback with a bashed in bottom and now the inconvenience of getting it all fixed.

If businesses are not tweeting or updating their business page on Facebook they usually acknowledge they should be; if they are then they are not sure they are doing it appropriately.

Equally there are plenty of people out there ready to advise on the mechanics of creating a Linkedin profile, or how to use an auto-tweet system to save time. But is that what businesses really need?

Social media is a powerful tool that can make a massive difference to your business – a positive difference or a negative difference. As always, content is king.

It’s one thing having Twitter set up to auto-follow, or to have all your social media linked so your messages go out on all your platforms at once – but that only matters if you know what to say and how to say it.

Your reputation in business is what you rely on to survive and thrive – and to do that you need to actively manage your profile and what you are saying to your customers and your potential customers. You do that face to face, and you must do it in social networking and on your website.

There is no substitute for having crisply written, accurate copy in everything you do that is public-facing.

PR is the business of managing your reputation – and that means across all media and communication channels – and making sure that what you say is consistent and appropriate for your business needs.

But this time it wasn’t that it was an assistant referee, it was that she was a woman – Sian Massey – and the reason she didn’t understand the offside rule was because she was a woman.

Well done Richard Keys and Andy Gray. These Sky Sports football pundits proved that being on TV doesn’t equate to intelligence. If anything it could be a distinct disadvantage.

Not that Sian is probably bothered – I doubt she became a football match official because she wanted to be popular, and has probably had much worse abuse during games.

But that doesn’t let Keys and Gray off the hook – they are supposed to set an example to others.

What a PR disaster for Sky.

In media training we coach spokespeople and anyone likely to appear on or in front of the media to always be on their guard – whether at a press conference or a radio interview down the phone.

Nothing is ever off the record and the recording equipment is never switched off. So don’t ever say anything that you wouldn’t be prepared to say in public.

No matter how well-oiled your PR machine and how well you prepare and coach, at the end of the day you have to rely on the common sense and intelligence of your spokespeople – the ones that go in front of the cameras.

So even with the best coaching money can buy, eventually in PR you have to sit back and let the spokespeople have their say.

And keep your fingers crossed.

Apparently the harder something is to read the more likely people will remember it. Neuroscience blogger Jonah Lehrer had this gut feeling while reading books on his Kindle, and presumably forgetting almost everything he had read.

If a font – like this awful Monotype Corsiva – is more challenging to read then the information sticks that much better.

But doesn’t that go against the grain of everything in communication? Don’t we always try to make what our clients are saying clear and easy to read?

Or is that more the philosophy of aesthetics – where we want everything to look structured, branded and uniform? And are we just doing the equivalent of sending it in one ear and out the other?

Jonah’s research suggests that we tend to remember handwritten notes – where we may struggle to make out what we actually meant – much better than emails which come in the everso dull Arial.

There is little doubt that brand usually requires consistency and uniformity but if the messages aren’t sticking is it time for a re-think of the approach.

Somehow I doubt it.

But at least you won’t forget this in a hurry.

Hear the R4 piece HERE

But in business there can be only one – to do a bit better than the year before. So in 2011 we will all be trying to do better than we did in 2010, whether that is a little bit better or a lot better.

For some that might mean doing a bit better than survival and for others it will be pushing profits up to ever greater heights.

But everyone in business should be starting 2011 thinking about how they can do things differently this year; things that will make a difference to what they can achieve professionally and personally.

That might mean making more of what they have got, what they achieve and what they have to offer; communicating with new and old customers, employees, and other stakeholders is never more important than in a recession.

I have got a feeling 2011 is going to be a good year. We are looking after some high potential companies and some more established organisations too and we are planning big things for them all.

Happy New Year to you all and have a great 2011 in business.

Nowadays cashpoints, when they are not suspiciously damaged or tampered with, are plastered with security warnings – make sure no-one sees you keying your pin code.

We are warned daily of a new skimming device that reads card details and allows some criminal to take all your cash – good luck to them in my case!

Now we could be asked to make a contribution to charity when we make a withdrawal too as part of the coalition’s bid to define the “Big Society” in Britain – to increase donations to charitable causes.

This seems fraught with problems to me.

So the banks are to ask us to make an extra payment to charity are they? The fat cat literally rattling a tin under our noses when they condescend to give us some of our own money. That hardly seems conducive to generosity.

Half of all donations to charity are made by just eight per cent of the population and that must change. But doing this through the banks? Are they joking?

Government wants all of us to give more while reducing the amount they provide to charities – provision, by the way, that they have collected from us in taxes in the first place.

The coalition doesn’t want to appear to be compelling people towards social action – by proposing donations through cashpoint withdrawals they will be turning people away from charitable giving altogether.

The Wessex Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) held the annual awards night at the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel and it was a glittering black tie occasion.

Briscoe PR got a gold award for best newspaper for the Western Wards Gazette, and the silver award for Most Outstanding Small Consultancy — that means our industry recognises us as one of the best small PR firms around anywhere in the south. That’s something of which we are very proud.

It’s a tribute to the whole of our team, our clients and all our families for the support we have given each other. It is also a tribute to colleagues throughout the CIPR, but especially in Wessex, who are always so generous in their support and advice.

Some people have said this should be an excuse for us to put our prices up. Well, we are not bothered about doing that – we just want to keep providing the very best service we can for all our existing clients and all the new clients we hope our new-found status will help us to attract in the near future.