If the commentators are to be fully believed, in celebrating New Year’s Eve tonight we are like a bunch of lemmings lining up at the cliff edge.  The coming year will be horrible, so what’s to celebrate?

Well, not so fast there.  For one thing, as we’ve blogged previously, many media outlets are gleefully serving up the very worst news and not flagging up some of the other stories that might help balance the picture a little (sorry, guys, but there it is).

The other point is that in 12 or 18 months’ time, the same media will be running a string of stories about the businesses that have had a ‘good’ recession. Fact: not every business is in the kind of hole in which overleveraged retailers and legacy-bound automotive firms find themselves.  With hard work and planning, some companies are going to do just fine in this recession – and when things perk up globally, they’re really going to soar.

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We make no apologies for being rather pedantic about spelling and grammar – the written word forms a large part of our output, so we care about getting it right.  I was therefore amused and – sad to relate – rather chuffed with one of the stocking fillers I received for Christmas, Bill Bryson’s book Troublesome Words. (more…)

A great disclosure from Adam Shaw, business correspondent for BBC Radio 4’s flagship current affairs show, Today.  He was speaking at a recent breakfast briefing hosted by Gorkana, the terrific media database company run by my former colleague Alex Northcott.  In the course of a fascinating hour Adam gave a great illustration that ‘history is written by the guys who show up’, a maxim with particular truth for media relations. (more…)

Facebook is a funny thing, not unlike Marmite.  Half the people you know love it and can’t get by without their daily fix.  The other half aren’t involved and are pretty sure that it’s not for them.  The objections you hear from the latter camp typically include “It’s just for teenagers and 20-somethings”, “I’m too busy for that sort of thing”, and “I don’t like getting my private life and business life blended together online”. 

There is an risk here that Facebook is becoming synonymous with social networking in the same way that Hoover is the shorthand for vacuum cleaner.  Yes, quite possibly Facebook isn’t the thing for you.  However, there are other options out there and one that might very well be right for you is LinkedIn. (more…)

I had a great chat yesterday with Jen Harris, who looks after social media marketing for the excellent Tsheets.  (Aside:  Tsheets is pure magic for any business that charges for its time – it is a very neat, simple-to-use timesheet application that finally lets you keep a truly accurate picture of how your people spend their time.  Try it – it’s fantastic.)

We were talking about Twitter and whether it is something that companies in general need to wake up to.  Jen drew my attention to a real slamdunk argument – Dell recently came out and said that Twittering has brought it an additional $1 million in revenues.  Yep, $1 million.  The Industry Standard has the news here. (more…)