I don’t know whether it still is, but when I left university in 2001 public relations was one of the most popular career choices for eager graduates keen to make their mark – and their millions – in PR. This meant that competition for places was fierce, and none more so than in the Midlands.

So with a degree under my belt and a spring of optimism in my step I set out on my search for my first job. Unfortunately, little did I know that without any relevant experience, despite being fresh out of university, I stood little chance of getting a toe, let alone a foot, through the door.

Undeterred, I decided to do work experience with a few local agencies in order to get that all-important experience that employers were looking for. The exercise was invaluable.

Despite having had no real exposure to the world of PR, other than what I had gained from the six weeks of work experience, doors began to open. In the competitive PR job market it turned out to be the edge I needed over my competition. 

So if you’re a budding Max Clifford or Matthew Freud, take my advice and get out there. Afterall, I’m proof that there really is no substitute for experience.

The DOs and DON’Ts

If you are looking for work experience in PR, here are my five dos and don’ts:

1.     DON’T get your mom/dad to ring on your behalf to enquire about a possible placement, as we recently experienced. Communication is a pretty key element in PR, so if you can’t string a sentence together on the phone, give up now.

2.     DO be prepared. Research the companies you want to work for and find out as much as you can about them. Be clear on what you’re looking for, why you want to do it and what you hope to get out of the experience.

3.     DON’T expect an easy ride. You’re there to work and contribute to the business. Remember who’s doing whom a favour. You’re there to benefit from the experience so make the most of it.

4.     DO be enthusiastic. If you finish your work and have nothing to do don’t just sit there twiddling your thumbs, texting your friends or looking at Facebook. Ask for more work.

5.     DON’T waste our time. PR agencies get constant calls from people looking for work experience. Do it because you want to, not because you feel you have to.

But in fact the BBC has been rather slow off the mark and most broadcasters and traditional press have already appointed designated social media boffins.

Sky News established a post for a Twitter correspondent last spring and ITV appointed a social media and online engagement manager in March.

For some time there has been excitement among both the PR and press communities about the evolution of social media and the possibilities it brings but many businesses have been hesitant to dip their toe in the digital waters.

This seems to be largely due to a feeling that an online presence isn’t as good as being on telly or seeing your name in print.

Will the BBC’s jump onto the bandwagon finally convince the dinosaurs out there that Twitter’s not just tittle tattle and Facebook isn’t just a fad and they really ought to StumbleUpon LinkedIn some time?

Perhaps. Social media certainly isn’t going away although it’s rapid growth does make it difficult to keep up with – just as you get to grips with one platform it goes and changes, wanes in popularity and/or is replaced by the next big social media thing.

So it’s easy to see why some are adopting a cautious approach and why others are making no approach at all.

But as social media continues to develop, a knowledge of what has gone before, what worked, what was lacking and how the latest network has improved on its predecessor will be invaluable.

Sitting back to see what happens may seem like the most prudent thing to do but it could make catching up with pack much harder in the long run.

ENDS 

The Headliners’ performance in the notoriously tricky quiz was a vast improvement on last year’s dreadful show and the ten-strong team, boosted by the brain power of Alun Thorne, Will Ventham, Gary Church, Andy Coyne, Lisa Pilkington, Martin Guest and Julian King, finished in a respectable fifth place out of 40.

First place went to the general knowledge gurus on the George Green Dream Team, who came up trumps at the end of the eight-round heavyweight quiz.

The ladies in attendance were all delighted to discover the newly introduced fashion round, which the Headliners’ team captain, Dawn Roberts, managed to score an impressive ten-out-of-ten on, without the need to confer with her team mates. Looks like reading Grazia serves a purpose after all.

Other highlights included the food round, when many a team was caught out by the ‘smiling nut question’. Despite appearances a ‘smiling nut’ is apparently a pistachio and not a cashew.

After the quiz came the auction, when two generous souls entered into a feverish bidding war for a meal for six at the chef’s table at Opus, which went for a whopping £2,600 in the end. A good result for Marie Curie.

Then came some light entertainment in the form of the King of Pop, better known as Michael Jackson impersonator Anthony Edwards, who wowed the crowd with his vigorous hip thrusting (hee-heeee) and sequined blazer during performances of Billy Jean and Thriller.

The night was rounded off nicely with the drawing of the raffle, when Al-whom-the-gods-love-Thorne won his usual hotel mini break prize and tickets to see Evita at the Hippodrome.

A good night was had by all and most importantly, Marie Curie raised some much-needed funds.

ENDS

Marketing Birmingham, which is charged with promoting the city as a visitor destination, hired Hatch to carry out a 12-month campaign to maximise its sponsorship of local Premiership football clubs Aston Villa and Birmingham City.

So, that’s a Leeds-based firm, which has no connection to Birmingham, working with local football teams to help promote the city? Cue the backlash from Birmingham’s PR and marketing sector.

The decision to appoint an ‘outside’ agency was branded as “ludicrous”, “totally ridiculous” and a “slap in the face for Birmingham’s creative industries sector” by some of the more vociferous members of the sector.

And the reason for hiring Hatch, you might ask? Well, apparently they had experience of working with football clubs, which none of the local agencies could demonstrate. Surely that can’t be right, can it? I thought not, but when asked to name a Birmingham/West Midlands agency with specialist sports experience I drew a blank.

If this is really the case then clearly there is a gap in the market for such an agency that can offer the required specialist sports PR services. Should this gap be filled, maybe organisations like Marketing Birmingham wouldn’t have to look elsewhere.

Whilst I firmly believe that you should always try to support local businesses, to be fair to Marketing Birmingham, you can’t expect them to appoint an agency just because they are based in the city/ region. They had to choose the best people for the job, which on this occasion happened to be Hatch Communications.

Of course, it’s not just Marketing Birmingham that is guilty – rightly or wrongly – of buying in PR services from outside the region. I know there are countless other examples of local companies using agencies that are based elsewhere in the country – but I won’t name and shame them here. 

The question is why go elsewhere when Birmingham is home to a plethora of PR and marketing agencies, from small niche independent consultants to large national full service firms, offering a variety of services and expertise, from media relations to online communications strategies?

If you can’t find what you’re looking for in Birmingham, you’re unlikely to find it anywhere else – unless it relates to football, in which case you’d better go to Leeds.

ENDS

According to legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell, in the last 12 months the number of reported defamation cases has risen by 32 per cent and one fifth of those actions have been brought by companies.

This is no surprise as the treacherous economic climate means businesses will fight tooth and nail to protect their reputations, particularly where untruthful and dangerous suggestions of insolvency are concerned.

The immediacy of new media also means that these sorts of rumours are more prevalent and able to spread more quickly than in the past.

But is legal action the best response to defamation and libel, and is it the most effective way to repair the damage done to a company’s reputation?

Even where the case is apparently clear-cut, litigation can be a slow and expensive process and will not deliver immediate results, but a well-executed PR strategy can restore a company’s reputation with the same immediacy with which it was damaged.

In the aftermath of a libel incident it is essential not only to correct inaccuracies but to make people aware of the truth and beyond that, to start circulating positive stories about the company, communicating more buoyant messages and supporting its overall aims.

If a company’s reputation has been damaged unfairly there is still legitimate recourse to take legal action but a two-pronged approach combining this with a proactive PR campaign will be more successful in repairing the damage quickly.

ENDS

I know that BlackBerries, iPhones et al have been making this remote communication possible for some time, which is brilliant for companies when employees are out of the office, but should people really be replying to work emails when they are supposed to be on holiday, having a break from it all?

Holidays, whether they are spent at home or abroad, give everyone the chance to rest, relax and devote some time to family, friends and significant others. After all, the vast majority of our lives will be spent in the company of work colleagues, so is cutting them off for a couple of weeks, switching off our work buttons and switching on our home buttons, really such a bad thing?

There seems to be a perception (I would like to think of it as a misconception) that not taking your holiday entitlement, or choosing to spend it essentially working from home, the beach or your holiday cottage in the Cotswolds, is somehow impressive and worthy of a big pat on the back.

Yes, it shows dedication but does it also demonstrate a certain degree of stupidity? We’re all human at the end of the day and however committed we may be to our careers, everybody needs a break every now and then – a rested worker is a productive worker.

Having said that, the holiday season can be a good time get things done that you might otherwise neglect, such as, you guessed it, a bit of PR. This notoriously slow news period can be a great time to get some press coverage, so if you’re reading this on your iPhone whilst reclining on a poolside sun lounger in Marbella, you’ll finally have a few spare minutes to send us any company news you want issuing to the media. No rest for the wicked!

It comes as no surprise that BB 10 is the least watched series since the show began, with viewing figures down 33 per cent year on year, for the show’s first 53 days on air.

Admittedly, I have watched Big Brother in the past and although I would not say I have ever been a fan, I remember when it was more of a pioneering social experiment than a platform for shamelessly attention seeking oddballs, wannabes and bullies.

As the contestants have become more and more outrageous with each new series, it seems that Big Brother has finally lost its shock factor. The big personalities that have paraded across our screens for the past ten years (the gobby thick one, the glamour model, the super-confrontational-possible-psychopath, the one that throws tantrums, etc) have become predictable stereotypes and the contrived conflicts they find themselves in, a tired cliché.

And the tasks. Yawn. These have been especially mind numbing for years now but BB10 has somehow managed to lower the bar even further with ‘mini puppet pop groups’, ‘school sports day’ and the ‘this or that quiz’. I unwittingly caught the beginning of the name-changing task, when two contestants had to legally change their names to ‘Halfwit’ and ‘Dogface’ to avoid eviction. Hilarious (if you’re a 13-year-old with a below average IQ).

The other glaringly obvious reason why BB has become so very dull is the obscene amount of airtime it is allocated. An hour long prime time slot seven days a week on Channel 4, then again an hour later on Channel 4 + 1, repeated again in its entirety on T4 at the weekend, not to mention the infuriating live coverage on E4, complete with bird song to cover up the inane housemates’ inappropriate pre-watershed conversations. Even the constant Friends repeats are preferable to that.

Not only have viewers had to put up with the constant broadcast of Big Brother itself, there are also the numerous spin-off shows it has spawned over the years – Big Brother’s Little Brother, Big Brother’s Big Mouth, Big Brother on the Couch and, in honour of its 10^th anniversary (if only if it was in honour of its final series), Big Brother’s Big Quiz.

So Channel 4, Endemol, please, please, please do us all a favour and make BB10 the last one. Or if you insist on squeezing this cash cow until it’s mooed its last, why not air eviction night on Channel 4 as usual, and save the rest of the in-fighting, flirting, gossiping and posing for 4 on Demand?

ENDS

Sadly, it turned out to be little more than a lengthy attack on Trinity Mirror’s stewardship of the two main newspaper titles in the city, the Mail and the Post.

This was despite Press Club chairman John Lamb pleading at the outset for an honest and open debate about all aspects of the state the region’s media finds itself in, and what needs to be done to improve matters.

Let me say at this point that it is clear that the Midlands media is going through a tough time – there have been cutbacks and job losses at the region’s newspapers, business magazines, television and radio stations.

In my view, this is a result of three things: the recession, global or otherwise, which has helped kill advertising; the empire building of the BBC; and the advance of the online sector, including of course the Internet, but also newer developments such as Twitter and the blog community.

To be fair to Trinity Mirror, they have acknowledged the advertising downturn and reacted to the online threat by embracing it as much as they can. They have also warned about the BBC and the fact that other media cannot compete against it, particularly in the current climate, because of its privileged position and secure funding.

Unfortunately, there was little sympathy for Trinity Mirror, either from the panel or the floor – among the more interesting suggestions I heard were that the Post and Mail should be put into administration; that the two titles should be handed over for free by Trinity Mirror – not clear to whom.

Then there was the suggestion that the titles should be run by philanthropists, rather than the ‘greedy b***ers’ that run them now. Or the rather strange suggestion that the Post and Mail should be printed in all manner of different languages, from Urdu to Swahili and back again.

Among those who this struck a chord with was free newspaper entrepreneur and panellist Chris Bullivant, who believes that the future is free (not surprisingly really – he was one of the people behind the relatively short lived Daily News, a free newspaper in Birmingham which launched back in 1984).

Unfortunately, the cost and practicalities of a multi-language free newspaper would appear insurmountable, in my view.

You’d probably have to get rid of all the journalists to pay for the translation services, for one thing.

And also, how will you make sure Mrs Wong at no 23 gets the Cantonese version, and Mrs Patel at no 21 gets the Urdu version? As I recall, those sort of issues didn’t trouble the Daily News delivery boys – their speciality was dumping piles of newspapers in the nearest canal (allegedly!)

Must mention a few more curious suggestions from the floor – one was that Advantage West Midlands should prop up the Post and Mail, and another was that the city council should get involved.

An incredulous Nigel Hastilow, panel member and former Post editor, could hardly contain himself at those suggestions, and shot them down in flames pretty quickly, on the basis that proper newspapers must retain their editorial independence and can’t be in the pocket of local politicians.

And so, to finish with one final comment from the floor: a complaint actually, that teenagers aren’t reading the newspapers these days. Tut tut, it’s really not good enough.

“Actually, teenagers never did read newspapers,” said Hastilow, correcting another false impression.

And that was it. Not a very inspiring level of debate, and nor did it answer the fundamental question: what are we going to do about the crisis in the local media? Answers on a postcard please, in Urdu, Swahili, or whatever.

…and here’s a few quotes from the panel at the event:

Chris Morley (National Union of Journalists): “I’m probably the chief whinger on the panel.”

“There has been a debauchery of profit taking by media companies without an eye to the future.”

“Journalists need to be properly resourced. It shouldn’t be just about filling space; it’s about quality journalism. People will gravitate to quality”

Nigel Hastilow (former Post editor): (referring to the Birmingham Post) “No more blood left for the stone to give.”

Jonathan Guthrie (Financial Times): “Ownership of local newspapers resides with private owners.”

“People feel less local than they did. They’re not as interested in local news.”

Chris Bullivant (free newspaper entrepreneur): “Future of regional newspapers is free.”

Unfettered by the conventions of the established media, rumours of the star’s death began emanating across the social media spectrum within minutes of his actual passing.

Were these quick off-the-mark tweets, status updates, forum comments et al posted by omniscient informers or just unfounded (yet spookily accurate) speculation?

Celeb website TMZ has been basking in the glory of being the first official news provider to break the story, while the broadcasters and newspapers who waited almost an hour for the coroner’s confirmation (including CNN which shares the same parent company as TMZ – Time Warner) were forced to credit their online rival, who announced the news just 18 minute’s after the King of Pop died.

Once TMZ had published, social media again stepped in to play its part, with an immediate spike in tweets and drastically increased traffic on Facebook helping to spread the word across the globe with startling rapidity.

But as shown by those early tweets on Thursday 25 June, users can post whatever they like, without hesitating to check the facts, and it won’t be long before other users pass on information and misinformation alike, allowing the message to spread with viral efficiency.

Within hours of Jackson’s death a malicious web hoax reporting the demise of Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford in a tragic filming accident began doing the rounds. An unfortunate Australian reporter even announced the ‘story’ on a prime time news show.

So it all comes back to this old chestnut – new media versus old media, citizen journalists versus professional journalists versus man on the street tweeting whatever he likes.

Does it really matter if there is inaccurate information floating around the web? Well, yes and no. Yes, because it isn’t so much floating as hurtling thanks to the speed with which sites like Twitter enable this information to be passed on. And no, because surely the general public is able to discern for itself the difference between a respected, reliable news provider and an unknown, unregulated rumour mill?

Gossip, which was once sluggishly passed on in pubs and cafes and on the phone, can now whiz around the world in a matter of seconds but the principles are still the same. Just because it’s on a screen doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be subject to the same disbelief, doubt and suspicion as comments made by the water-cooler, overheard in the supermarket queue or announced in the playground.

The trendy furniture chain has been using online search words (known as hashtags) linked to the protests in Iran to lure large numbers of people into its Twitter feed.Habitat used misleading hashtags to promote its spring collection, which meant that people who wanted to find out about the violent mass protests in Tehran were presented with posts about discount sofas and the Habitat gift card.

 Other inappropriate hashtags the company used included ‘iPhone’ and ‘Apple’.

Along with the protest in Iran, these have been some of the most widely discussed topics on Twitter and it looks as if Habitat had hoped to piggyback on the strength of interest in these subjects.

After all, it’s unlikely that anybody is going to search or hashtag ‘Habitatspringcollection’ on Twitter but even so, this misguided use of social media is unhelpful at best and dangerous at worst, particularly as the site has become an essential communications tool for the Iranian opposition movement.

Whatever happened to marketers targeting their audience? Surely it would have been far better for Habitat to hashtag phrases like ‘newhome’ ‘movinghouse’ and ‘interiordesign’.

Sending out tweets about furniture to people embroiled in a passionate political debate seems as absurd as sending a press release about the launch of a new alcopop to the editors of Horse and Hound, and frankly is no better than the thousands of Viagra emails we’re all spammed with on a daily basis.

Many companies, even those with in house or agency PR and marketing experts on hand, seem to be so desperate to exploit social media that they haven’t bothered to work out the best ways to use it, or to consider the preferences, or etiquette if you like, of existing users.

No self-respecting PR would expect a journalist to open his emails if he continually bombarded him with stories that weren’t relevant to the publication, and yet in the Twittersphere, they seem to think that persistent blanket messaging is the way to go.   

Yes, there is the potential to reach huge global audiences but exercising a little caution and restraint will ultimately help get your message further than mindless spamming.

Protesters turn their attention to other matters thanks to Habitat's Twitter campaign