Daily gripe: Why Twitter is NOT a numbers game

For any forward-thinking business Twitter is unquestionably a must, irrespective of whether your customers are from the B2B or B2C sectors. It is the fastest growing and leading microblogging site being used today and over the course of a year, registered Twitter accounts have grown more than 1,500%. But my gripe is the number of tweets I see every day from people offering tactics to increase the number of followers I’m getting or boast that they now have 1,000 people following them – you’re all missing the whole darn point of social media!!

Career self-sabotage: it’s in your hands

In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell said that “decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately”. Indeed, the job for life culture has long gone and today people are losing their jobs in banking, sales and the public sector service following re-structuring or budgetary cuts in public spending. In fact, more than half a million British workers will be ‘let go’ from their jobs every year. But, despite this air of uncertainty in the job market, many people are continuing to put their jobs in jeopardy without realising it. So, what are the things that you need to avoid in order to disaster-proof your career?

Should organisations outsource blogs?

Following the tragic death of a British soldier in Afghanistan on Sunday, it emerged that he had written a blog expressing his – and his colleagues’ – frustrations over the lack of protective body armour which had been promised and the overall poor state of equipment.

Rifleman Andrew Fentiman was not the first soldier to publicly express his concerns, and he probably won’t be the last. And this raises the question of whether organisations – whether they are public or private sector – should monitor employee blogs and even consider outsourcing blogs?

What Peter Mandelson can teach us on how to handle radio interviews (and our top 10 tips)

From a sudden onset of dry mouth syndrome or an attack of the nerves to all the ‘ums’, ‘erms’ you can possibly muster combined with that nightmarish moment when your mind goes totally blank as you struggle even to remember the name of your kids, radio interviews can turn even the most seasoned professional into a jabbering wreck. But why? Is it the knowledge that x’thousands of people are listening to your every word? Maybe you’re afraid that one wrong word could blow the whole interview – and your chances of that big promotion at work?Whatever the reason, a little tweaking here and there can turn you from a jabbering wreck into a strong, confident interviewee.

So the next time that innocent-looking fluffy mic is thrust in your face and you imagine yourself in some sort of modern Spanish Inquisition scenario, here’s a few tips that I have picked up on how to master the radio interview.