Do you blog – do your teenage kids? Most people are too damn busy keeping it all together quite frankly. But this article comes up with 7 whole reasons why anyone looking to move jobs this year or who is starting out on their chosen career, should start to write.

One of my concerns is about the prospective employer – is he or she really going to be impressed with your blogging efforts – do they have the time to read the musings of every wanna be in their industry? What if they think blogging is a waste of time and what you should really be doing is getting a lot more hands on experience? After all, pontificating on something you barely know about could make you look stupid.

So what to do?

The business world is moving forward at a very uneven pace where the social media arts are concerned and there are still many dinosaurs out there who think it’s a load of nonsense. But don’t despair – I actually think blogging is a really good idea!

Here’s why.

First and foremost, it forces you to organize your thoughts. You have to sift through your ideas, put them into some sort of order, examine them and look around for back up – this is what will help you with your job search. Through the process of writing and researching you will become better informed and you will have a whole range of ideas at your fingertips. The brain can cheat us into thinking we have something all worked out, but it’s not until you speak it or write it down that you discover it’s a load of nonsense – inside the interview room is too late.

Writing a blog is an opportunity to slaughter a few industry sacred cows – taking on outmoded thinking and proposing new ways of doing things is a useful way of making yourself stand out but I would steer clear of stunts. I don’t think the girl who wrote a letter of ‘rejection’ to the Oxford College which had intimidated her did herself any favours. Petulance is not the same as coming up with fresh ideas.

So go ahead and show them what you’re make of – build your brand – extend your reach and all the other things mentioned in the article but don’t get too downcast if your prospective employer decides not to actually read the thing. For you , it may have already done its job.

The friend requests started to show up soon after my return to work.

And jolly well done too. A bit blinking late but not too late to join the party and get clued up (just in time to have a right royal row about Google plus - if you are interested read this .)

I really hope they stick at it because it is useful, fun and rewarding as well as being a potential time-suck!

I could offer reams of advice on how to do it, but my blogging back catalogue does that quite well, from how tos on Twitter and Facebook to blogging. But I will say one thing about LinkedIn, because so many people are doing this – please, please, please add a personal message when you ask to connect.

My husband, who takes an average amount of interest in social media says he never links up with someone if he doesn’t know who they are, and that includes lots of people he actually does know if he stops to think about it. If you are really busy you are not going to stop to realize that the person who has just asked to link with you is the woman from swimming who you know by her married name but don’t recognize from the photo because she is in her work clothes.

It doesn’t take much extra time to add a short personalized note with your request, reminding the person how they know you and why hooking up with you on social media is a good idea. I might not want to share my work life with a sporting acquaintance, but then I might be enticed by the idea that lots of their friends work in my field or that it will make sharing the results of sporting fixtures easier.

Cold approaches are always a bit awkward – why not apply some of the diplomacy to online connections that you would to real life?

I was dealing with a very nice gentleman, who although he didn’t remember me the first couple of times we spoke, did ‘get’ the whole idea that I was on a budget. He did not make me feel silly for going into a high-end kitchen supplier with a modest budget. He gave me the idea that we could do business.

Step forward his mate – who I am afraid looked like an old school sales man – with a stripy shirt and a gut. After running through a few options with me he gave me a little speech about how they usually deal with  high-end expensive projects but because of the recession they are trying to be a bit more aggressive on price but that means that smaller projects like mine don’t really make them very much money.

So presumably I should be grateful he is giving me the time of day?

Should I tell him to stick it?

I don’t know what he thinks he told me – I am sure he would not recognise the message that I took away with me – but to me it was quite clear. You don’t really shape up because you’re not spending enough money.

Now I know a lot of you are astute business people and know the psychology of a good sale. Was this a rude salesman or realistic businessman? What do you think and how should I deal with it?

The film was “You’ve Got Mail” and would be described today as old – but I remember going to see it in the cinema with high hopes that it was going to be as hilarious and seminal as “When Harry met Sally” – it wasn’t.

What this film is though – now – is a period piece about the early days of e-mail, where people met in chat rooms and carried on their anonymous friendships via dial-up connection e-mail. That whir and fizz as the internet connected will resonate with only some of us now – it was a tiny dot in the history of computer-based communication – a moment in time.

When the film came out we were hungry for media that reflected the new realities of the internet age and for Hollywood that meant stories about meeting partners online. ( I did in fact cement my own friendship with my future husband via a BBC internal messaging system very like msn messenger today.)

Now we have movies like “The Social Network” to give us a history lesson but I wonder how well Twitter fares on-screen? I kept my eyes open over the holidays and came up with a couple of mentions on TV which reflected a rather one-sided view of the social media revolution.

First up was Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe Review of the year which included a rant about trying to tweet along to Question Time. I don’t go in for tweet alongs personally but my husband quite often reads out funny quips during X Factor or The Apprentice and I think it adds to the enjoyment. Here we were invited to deride the tweeter as a mindless idiot who trumped his brain farts into the twittersphere only to lose the thread of the onscreen argument completely, leading to a very unsatisfactory viewing experience for all.

If you subscribe to the idea that social media makes an inane and impatient society even more so, then there is your proof. But it is not my experience.

Then there was Ab Fab which did make me laugh (just the once) with the implication that the art of PR is dead now that all you have to do is type – “shall we send out a press release, have a press conference, launch a poster campaign, book some ads – or shall we just tweet it darling?” – I paraphrase.

The fact of the matter is that using social media may look like instant gratification, but if you are going to get anywhere in the world of PR or even in enjoyment, you have to keep at it. You build up followers slowly – it takes a long time to nurture new relationships and if all you want is funny comments then you do actually have to follow people who make them.

You get out what you put in.

So, if anyone sees any interesting portrayals of social media on screen do let me know because I am collecting.

This was a year in which working relationships were strengthened and new ones forged – which is brilliant. Some clients who started off sceptical but were prepared to give social media a chance are now expanding what they do online and socially which is fantastic.

I also met some complete chancers who promised the earth and delivered very little…will I ever learn that if it sounds like bullshit it probably is? On other occasions I met lively interesting people to discuss exciting new ideas which sadly didn’t work out – maybe next year? But overall I’d say I had experienced a bit of everything.

The best thing about this year was tapping into a whole new layer of people who are only just discovering the way social media can enhance their industry. Much nicer to chat to them than to feel depressed in yet another forum about how social media is just for kids and will never give return on investment.

Talking to new people takes you back to first principles and the things that were so exciting a few years ago – the feeling that we were forging a new and better way to do business. Now I am one of those people who is both cynical and an idealist – in fact I think I am cynical because I am an idealist. But do you know what I mean about the transparency of blogging and social media and the way it offers the chance to be upfront, honest and friendly while still doing good business?

Well I hope you do – because that will be what sustains me into 2012 – Merry Christmas!

Some of us went through a period of social media fatigue as the shiny new toys lost their lustre, for others it was the constant changes that put them off, together with being told that everything you knew was now rubbish.

But hey ho! We’ve rolled with it and happily enough I find myself once again in a state of excitement and optimism. Why? 

As my work takes me from one sector to another I’m constantly impressed by how adaptable social media can be to the needs of very different industries.

I am currently looking at the way social media communities can be used in the world of recruitment.

Some time ago I spoke to 6th form students about how to use social media to get ahead in their chosen career. I suggested that not only should they get onto LinkedIn and participate in groups there but that they should follow people on Twitter too – listening to the people you admire and tapping into their thought leadership can be very powerful.

Now I see that this has all been taken one step further with communities like Brave New Talent which have been set up to bring together large companies with potential recruits. Instead of advertising a job and getting a flood of applications which are then wasted when the appointment is made – this encourages HR departments to stay in touch with the people who have shown an interest in them, so that they can share job news and crucially, information about what they’re looking for in a future successful candidate.

Hopefully what you get, is long-term relationships between candidates, companies and their recruiters which builds on talent instead of wasting it.  After all, how many times have you heard people moaning that young people simply don’t know what companies expect of them anymore? This is an ideal chance to stop the moaning and do something.

Brave New Talent have got an impressive rosta of companies involved including L’Oreal, Starbucks, Tesco and IBM. I really like their blog   too.

So take heart from the brilliant new innovations that continue to flow from the social media spring.

What has impressed you lately?

Good cheer that is, together with twee little adverts featuring ‘people’ just like you and me having a tremendous amount of seasonal fun. But how much of this stuff are you actually buying – both in reality and metaphorically?

Is that your kid up there on the stage buying you an i-pad – retail price £399 – or is yours the one that can’t wait for Christmas just so he can hand over a beautifully wrapped box that he happens to have sourced on the high street all by himself?

I have to say I don’t really go for any of it and that includes the Redknapp family (or whoever it is this year) all playing Wii together – cuddled up on the sofa – which they seem to be able to do without ripping each others’ heads off.

I know – it makes me come over all Charlie Brooker.

What I do like however, is a dose of reality, which came last week in the shape of Benton/Fenton and his owner in a simultaneously hilarious and horrific YouTube clip. You must know it by now , the one where a dog out for a jolly walk with his owner herds a bunch of London’s finest deer over a busy road in Richmond Park – it’s had 2 million hits so far….

The thing is, we are now all so media savvy, with our BS monitors turned up to 11, that good old reality in all its raw horror and comedy trumps expensive advertising every time.

And so it is when we come to post something on social media. Lord knows I love the challenge of a dull day with not much to say, creative and inventive are my watch words – but look at the stats when you post up a genuinely engaging set of pictures featuring real people or when you share proper news with your followers.

I think people respond instinctively to the genuine – so today’s take away?  Keep it real whenever you can and pray the Redknapps don’t drop round this Christmas for a game of Wii.

It crops up as the very latest word in business efficiency and as a working party of that name looking into streamlining in the BBC.

It sounds like a great idea to me, although in truth we’re probably looking at yet another bunch of highly paid consultants helping managers to take a scythe to/increase profitability within their businesses.

I like the idea of “simplicity” because if reminds me what a good idea it is to keep your message clear and stripped back. It is no mistake that the management consultancy that calls itself The Simplicity Partnership is made up of the people who used to run Clear, the brand consultancy.

A clear simple message is the cornerstone of good PR – the “story” must shine through, as I told my daughter this week while she was writing a composition for a school competition. Her tale was so complex and dashed off at such speed that the result was a postmodern stream of consciousness in which the actual story was still trapped somewhere in her head.

It was with a heavy heart that I told her that she should treat her audience as if they were idiots, but it did help her get the message that you have to spell everything out clearly and simply if you want to take  people along with you. Once the architecture of the story, the actual message in PR terms, was there, she could decorate it with lots of creative and descriptive writing, which is her great strength.

It’s odd, but I think my daughter found simplicity something of a cop-out, she seemed to think that the more sophisticated and grown-up she wanted to be, the more complex her work needed to become. I think we all fall in to that trap sometimes, which is why the management consultants are now out in force trying to get businesses to believe that simple really is best.

But this has led to some interesting cultural differences. Take, for example, Twitter biographies. Without being too sweeping – American tend to have less problems than we do with self-promotion. An American accountant is “the best in the Tri-state area” – round here he may just be “good with figures”.

We feel the need to down play ourselves, to turn down the volume, when of course what we should be doing is turning it up to be heard through the melee.

But take care – cautionary tale approaching.

Do you know the racing pundit Brough Scott? He is a face and voice from my childhood when  inexplicably, I watched a lot of racing on TV. I remember him looking rather dashing in a hat and a Barbour jacket although I should imagine he had other clothes. Apparently when he first took to Twitter he decided that modesty was not required and sensibly decided to use his brief Twitter bio to say exactly what needed to be said and I quote;

Brough Scott is one of the best known figures in racing and sport.

This did not go down well.

His peers ribbed him mercilessly, introducing him as “Brough Scott one of the best known figures in racing and sport” whenever they got the chance. After an initial stab at standing his ground he was forced to back down and now writes under a much reduced bio (in bragging terms at least.)

One time ghost writer for Lester Piggott. Presenter of TV shows from the Derby to Books by my Bedside. Still active – on the page at least.

We Brits like modesty much better than braggadocio and the challenge is to self-promote in a way that is going to do us justice without leading to ridicule from our peers. Dry humour helps, but I think you have to be well-known and brilliant to pull off the really self-deprecating.

Part-time Radio 4 Presenter

British actor, writer.

These are the bios of broadcaster Jane Garvey and all round treasure Stephen Fry (you’re a treasure too Jane.) I think both can be confident that we know they are more than that – and their bios go on somewhat flippantly to reference poor motherhood and swimwear – you guess which is which.

So don’t oversell, don’t undersell, be funny but not flippant, have fun and make yourself heard. Simple!

One really sound piece of takeaway advice?

• If you want people to offer you work – add a URL to your LinkedIn profile.

This week I have been working with recruiters and as part of that process we looked at a lot of CVs  – and goodness me, isn’t that world a shocker!?

I will tell you now that this has very little to do with social media directly but everything to do with how we present ourselves. To many this is all part of personal branding and is therefore all of a piece with  what we say about ourselves on social media – so I am going to press on!

We all know that a CV or resume says a tremendous amount about us and that we should make a big effort with lay-out, grammar and spelling, but did you know how much you reveal of yourself to a trained eye reading between the lines?

For example; if I choose to use bullet points and highlight my achievements in precise figures, then I am organized and analytical while someone who prefers a flowing prose style is going to get pegged as someone who puts more value on the communication and social side of things.

Do you include information about your personal status? That may come across as desperate. Why do you feel the need to explain yourself, what insecurities are you hiding? Do your hobbies reveal just how unfulfilled and frustrated you are – would you need to throw yourself off quite so many mountains if your career had been that bit more demanding?

I’m not an expert and I have no right to lecture, but I was quite shocked by how revealing these things are. Plus, did you know that your information is likely to be transferred onto a data base for reference – so things like e-mail address and phone numbers must be crystal clear otherwise those fields will be left blank? One CV I saw had the person’s name, number and address as a watermark on every page which was not cut and pasteable and would therefore be missed by an automatic transfer of data.

In a world where some companies are searching the things we put online about ourselves in order to judge us – we can’t afford to neglect the judgements they make by reading the one thing we hand them on a plate.