Of course not, but it’s what most people have done with social media – jump on board without knowing where it will take them.

For individuals it’s not necessarily a bad approach to understand social media – just try it out and if it doesn’t work for you then jump off again, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

But it’s not always such a good idea for a business. Your failed foray into social media may have damaged your reputation, wasted valuable time (and even money) going nowhere and led to missed opportunities that you were either unaware of or unable to exploit.

The bottom line is that every business needs a social media strategy – no matter how big or how small a part it plays (people are talking about your business on social media platforms whether you’re joining in the conversation or not so, at the very least, you ought to know what they are saying). And to form that strategy you need to know what your goals are and how to achieve them.

Several clients and non-clients of Effective Communication have asked about this so I’m putting together a series of simple guides to get them on the right track, starting with this introduction and suggesting these five simple rules on which to build your business’s social media strategy:

• Your social media strategy needs to be integrated with other marketing and PR activity.
• Identify your goals. Keep them simple, attainable and don’t plan too far ahead at first.
• Plan your route to achieving those goals and stick to the plan – don’t get distracted by “new opportunities” and deviate from it – those who do usually end up chasing their tails and not reaching their goals.
• You must balance budget and resources with benefits, so review and modify your plan and goals if needs be.
• Monitor and evaluate what social media platforms deliver and feed this information back continuously into the development of your strategy.

I’ll put some meat onto the bones of each of these in the days and weeks ahead – I hope this helps some of businesses focus on what they need to do in the meantime.

As FIFA inspectors left our shores, praising the bid in spades, large sections of the media were quick to pounce on comments made by UEFA president Michel Platini that while the Football Association procrastinates about the appointment of a successor to former FA chairman Lord Triesman, the England bid is suffering.

Those of you who know your football politics will know that Platini is always good for a soundbite, but as a former newspaper editor who still feels he has a nose for a good story, the undoubted line from last week’s FIFA delegation visit was the praise about wide elements of the bid.

I would fully justify criticism of the bid if it was warranted – that’s what the media must do, but surely editorial judgement needs first to accurately pick the line or hook that appropriately encapsulates the story, and secondly, look at the bigger picture instead of a cheap headline.

I’m not saying the media should ever be the advertising arm of any organisation, but I believe the bigger picture here is absolutely crucial to the success of the UK over the next decade.

I believe that amid the uncertainty over the impact of the Government cuts and the slow recovery in the economy, what the UK really needs is a feelgood.

And nothing brings that feelgood factor like sport, and preferably winning sport, such as Wales Grand Slams 2005 and 2008.

That feelgood factor will start with the London Olympics in 2012. Then the Rugby World Cup will come to our shores in 2015, with the 2018 World Cup hopefully bringing the curtain down on the greatest sporting period in UK’s history.

These events will bring economic benefits. They will be a chance to show the Playstation Generation what real sport and real competition is all about. They will be a chance to show the rest of the world that we (and I mean all of us, not just England) is still very much open for business.

‘There’s no tangible value at all,’ they say. ‘It doesn’t do anything for my business.’

This totally misses the point. PR may feel intangible, but pluck a name out of the air and you will have a view on that person or organisation … and that perception is often almost entirely down to PR.

Virgin? Richard Branson, strong values, ethical.

John Lewis? Quality.

Lakeland? Customer focused.

I challenge anyone who says such values haven’t been a factor in choosing products from Virgin, John Lewis or Lakeland over others.

Perceptions do influence our buying decisions … just ask Gerald Ratner, and I am predicting, Tony Hayward.

Surely, someone somewhere in the realms of BP Towers should have suggested to its CEO Mr Hayward that a trip to the yachting at the Isle of Wight at the weekend was a rather bad idea.

Sunning himself on a yacht in crystal clear waters while the locals on the Gulf of Mexico are ankle deep in his oil was probably the worst PR decision since Gerald Ratner told an IOD conference that his jewellery was ‘total crap’.

This man has single-handedly changed the way we think of BP.

It is no exaggeration that recent events in the Gulf, and at Cowes, will influence how Governments and Big Business will deal with the company for many years to come. It will influence consumers’ decisions to buy BP products, and it will influence whether bright young things want to work for such an organisation.

You might not be a BP, but the reputation of your business is crucial … we will all have had such conversations … they’re great to work with … they get great results … they offer real value for their service … all good positive PR which drives a business forward.

But what about … they’re always late paying their bills … their staff are made to work 12 hours a day with no overtime … their products don’t last very long…

Now tell me that PR doesn’t do anything for your business.

I disagree – and advise our clients accordingly. How can media reporting of a messy employment tribunal, a factory closure, or an unprofessional act by a member of your staff be anything but bad publicity?

There are, of course, some challenges to this rule – John Prescott’s stock rose immeasurably when he punched a protestor who threw an egg at him during the 2001 General Election campaign. Some might even say his affair with aide Tracey Temple increased it even further – but let’s dismiss that vision from our minds!

I’ve been watching with great interest the number of complaints flooding into Ofcom over the recent performances of Sky presenters Kay Burley and Adam Boulton – by this afternoon Ofcom had received 1,500 complaints.

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I have two views on this. Sky will always lose out to the BBC in terms of viewers’ preferred channel during dramatic moments in British history, such as last night, so you can probably argue that the subsequent media furore about the conduct of these two highly prominent presenters will do nothing but helpfully raise the profile of Sky News.

Secondly, I would question whether their actions have been any different from the behaviour of a number of leading presenters across the channels over the past month.

There may be talk of a new era in politics…but we are also witnessing an evolving era of a certain breed of news reporting – full of comment and aggression. Thankfully, though, it can backfire….just ask Jeremy Paxman and Dr Eurfyl ap Gwilym

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Well, as anyone who reads my blogs will know, this is not much of a surprise.

The battle lines are being drawn among the major UK players and it will be interesting to watch how it all unfolds.

Trinity Mirror – owner of the Mirror, Sunday Mirror, People and many regionals including the South Wales Echo and Western Mail here in Wales – responded to the Times announcement by stating that it believes an online service is about adding value for loyal purchasers of their tradition, printed products.

This view is totally misguided, and another reason why Trinity Mirror is failing to plug the hole of their disappearing traditional advertising revenues.

The world is moving on – incredibly quickly. It is a world where significant sums of money are being made from the likes of iphone applications and SMS advertising, for example.

History is littered with companies that backed the wrong ‘horse’ – Betamax was destroyed by VHS, Blu-Ray could be heading the same way against HD…

And Trinity Mirror’s online stance leaves it potentially in the camp that got left behind.

Their strategy is all well and good – but online news needs to be resourced. The news needs to be sourced, it needs to be written or filmed, and it needs to be edited, and placed on the site.

That costs money – even if you just nick the content from your traditional newspapers, someone still needs to edit and publish it online.

The move by Times’ owner News International is certainly a high risk move with so much news content available for free on the internet.

But as The Times editor James Harding himself says, “It’s less of a risk than just throwing away our journalism and giving it away from free.”

And he’s right….with little online revenue coming in in the way of advertising and sponsorship, media companies are haemorrhaging money in paying to maintain their online presence, and it will get worse.

Newspapers are in decline – and again I have debated this issue many times.

Many believe they are in terminal decline – it’s just the time of death which is proving difficult to predict.

And by duplicating the content on their papers on their websites, as virtually all media outlets do now, is simply adding to their demise. Why pay for a newspaper when you can read it for free online?

How will Trinity Mirror fund its sites when there is no alternative revenue to prop them up…and if they finally decide to do a U-turn and charge, how far ahead will the competition be?

The Times offering will be unique and exclusive and therefore a market leader.

And at just £2 a week it’s a far more viable option for the busy person on the move whose days of sitting down and reading a paper are long gone – and many of us can count ourselves in that camp.

Nigel, from Cirencester, won £56,008,113 – not forgetting the 20 pence – on the previous week’s Euromillions draw. Effective has carried out around 20 Lottery Jackpot winning press conferences over the years. And they remain one of the few events in this world-weary life where everyone seems to get genuinely excited.

From early on the morning of the press conference I was getting texts and emails from friends and clients who had heard about the win on the early morning news. “Were we there?”, “Had we met the winner?”, “What were they like?”, “What were they going to spend the money on”…..just some of the many questions myself, Peter and our colleagues were asked. It is a fascinating experience for us.

Much of a Lottery press conference totally passes us by as we manage the media, making sure everyone’s in the right place, ensuring there are no uncomfortable moments for the winner, and trying as best we can to get the maximum coverage of the event. But we are also so close to people who have just become overnight multi-millionaires whose lives have just changed forever.

In a few hours time, we will be returning to our other jobs and tasks….they are likely to be heading to a five-star hotel or a luxury holiday in the sun. We are so close to the money, but never touch it! It’s quite surreal. It reminds me of a tale my old colleague Michael Boon once told me about Pablo Picasso. He was working on the Daily Express and he and other colleagues from Fleet Street were following the great artist on some skiing holiday in the Alps, writing about his every move. They even followed him into a restaurant, and dined next to the Picasso entourage.

You would like to think that any similarities ended there….except they didn’t. As the artist’s table wined and dined on the most expensive items in the restaurant, the media pack followed suit. But at the end of the night Picasso duly paid his bill….the hacks scratched their heads, emptied their pockets and wondered how they were going to pay for their enormous bill. Picasso lent over and autographed a napkin. He gave it to the waiter and said, “That should cover the bill.” I am guessing it did, and more than once sold off.

The moral? You may mix with Kings (or Lottery winners) but it doesn’t mean you are one!

It is the latest newspaper to move in this direction, and it will be introducing a metered system, allowing readers free access to a limited number of articles, before charging for additional content.

A similar online payment model has been introduced by the Financial Times, while Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has also said it plans to start charging for access to its online newspapers, including the Sun and Times.

As a former newspaper editor-turned communications agency owner, the question I am asked most is: When are newspapers going to cease to exist?

It is a question which the industry itself has been trying to answer for decades. A popular misconception is that the issue has only arisen since the advent of the likes of Twitter and online news websites such as the excellent BBC News (which actually lies at the heart of the problem for newspapers).

I remember being involved in forums back in 1989 involving newspaper executives horrified at plunging circulations – back then, the reason was time famine, the arrival of Sky News etc etc – not too much has changed in 20 years.

For me the issue of whether newspapers will still exist in our lifetimes is, well, not the issue.

To paraphrase the Twilight Zone, imagine a world where there are no newspapers….do you honestly think we wouldn’t know, or want to know, about the disaster in Haiti over the past couple of weeks?

Of course not. People often mistake news and the media outlets who produce them as one and the same thing, especially newspapers.

That is simply not the case – consumers will always want news, they will want to know about events such as Haiti, the results in the Six Nations, or what Susan Boyle did next (believe me on the latter, people do!).

The issue is how people get their news, and how they will get it in the future. And crucially, how the journalists who source and produce that news are funded.

For decades, newspaper journalists were principally paid via advertising and the circulation revenue generated by selling the papers.

Obviously, both have fallen dramatically in recent years, and online platforms do not offer the same money-generating levels which newspapers have previously enjoyed.

In time though, we will see the mainstream newspapers migrate all of their efforts online, and like the New York Times this week, charge me and you for the right to access that information via our smart phones, laptops and PCs.

Is that really very different from spending 50 pence on your favourite daily read?! I don’t think so.

Thierry Henry, one of the clean-cut (pardon the pun!) iconic faces of the shaving giant’s global advertising campaign caressed the ball with his left hand not once but twice before crossing the ball for a team mate to score.

The goal has sent France to the World Cup finals in South Africa next year and the Republic of Ireland tumbling out – but Thierry Henry was not celebrating because he knew he had just carried out a life-changing action.

In short, after years spent developing an ambasadorial reputation of to be envied, he lost it all in one moment of pure and simple cheating.

Am I over-reacting? I don’t think so.

Just ask a little mercurial genius (well, he’s slightly larger these days) called Diego Maradona – the greatest footballer in history whose Hand of God is still used as the supreme example of cheating in sport 23 years after it happened.

The Hand of God moment was instantly used by commentators watching last night’s game as a comparison – that really was how bad it was, and how bad a message it sent a global audience of millions – many of whom (young and old) adore Thierry Henry.

Last night, Henry lost his iconic image and Gillette know that cheating does not sit with with their brand reputation and message. The advertiser’s dream had just become the advertiser’s nightmare.

I keep a watching interest in what’s going on. However, I am not one of the 12 million or so people glued to their sets every Saturday and Sunday night.

So, why do so many people tune into the show? For me its success is quite simple – it’s about people.

We are obsessed with people – celebrities, Royalty, politicians and especially the never-before-heard-of Joe and Josephine Bloggs who take on the world (or Simon Cowell) and try and make a success of themselves – no matter how untalented they are! You know who you are, John and Edward!

People are at the heart of all our lives – we live with them, we work with them, we play with them and they are the reason why the world turns.

No matter what service you provide, or what widget you make, it is done for people, but all too often businesses focus too much of their PR and marketing on the service or the widget, and not enough time on what it does for the customer – for people.

The process is not the story, it’s the impact that that process has on the end-user people.

The team at Effective were talking to an organisation last week about promoting a service for the unemployed….would you actually like to read about such a service? No, I don’t think you would.

But you would like to read about all the people the service has helped through this recession and beyond….how John Thomas from Treherbert has found work after ten years being on the dole because he went through the programme, and Ffiona Jones who has been retrained and found work after being made redundant from a job she had been in for 22 years.

We’re intrigued by people, we care about people, and for me, that’s the X Factor that should underpin all PR campaigns.

Three of the Wales’s six daily titles suffered double-digit year-on-year declines, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The South Wales Echo in Cardiff was down 11.8% year on year to an average sale of 39,361 in the first six months of 2009, while the South Wales Evening Post, fell 10.1% to 46,069.

The Western Mail was down 11.4% year on year, the morning paper slipping to an average sale of 32,926. The slowest rate of decline in Wales was seen at another Trinity Mirror title, the Daily Post, which was down 5.3% year on year to 33,938.

I could go into a diatribe of: ‘I remember when we used to sell 20 million papers a day etc etc etc’ but I won’t – the fact is, newspapers have been in decline, dare I say it, terminal decline for decades.

Consultants have collectively been paid millions of pounds to work out why this decline has happened and what can be done to stop it.

Not so long ago, the predominant reason given was time-famine, that we are all too busy these days to read a paper. But that doesn’t square with the fact that more and more of us are spending more and more time playing video games or surfing social network sites on the PC or laptop.

The fact is we do have the time, but we are not choosing to use it reading a newspaper.

And that has created huge problems for the companies which own our newspapers because declining readerships mean advertisers are more and more adverse to spending their cash on vehicles which are not reaching so many of their key target customers – the consumers.

And so now we are back to the world of consultants and analysts. If we accept that the newspaper is indeed in terminal decline, the issue now is how to get more advertisers onto the net, and how to get them paying the premium which they happily paid for newspaper advertisments in the past, but are less keen to do online.

Most of us have happily migrated to reading our news online instead of print, and the readership of online news sites has rocketed in the past 12 months. If the consultants and analysts can finally solve the online advertising conundrum then all of our favourite newspapers will surely have suffered their coupe de grace.