In the UK, a human resources executive was forced out of his job after angering his employer by putting his CV online and advertising that he was interested in other “career opportunities.

With the negative connotations aside, LinkedIn has some great features that are outlined below.

If you want to build important and professional relationships online, you have to find places where you can consistently add value, spend quality time and have engaging and insightful conversations with members of your target demographic.

Many individuals and businesses spend time creating communities and online spaces like blogs, forums, intranets and all other manner of online spaces where people can interact and share content, knowledge and ideas. Many of these “manufactured communities” do work to an extent, and many of these are highly successful.

However, sometimes these communities already exist and are thriving hubs of content, knowledge and passion. Therefore, it is easier to tap into an existing and well-established community for insights, thoughts and networking rather than starting a brand new space.

When discussing online communities, many people have failed to see one of the great features of LinkedIn, LinkedIn Groups.

When using LinkedIn, users have the ability to create or join various groups. LinkedIn groups are a collection of like-minded individuals who share their ideas, thoughts and opinions on a range of topics. A group may be regionally specific such as the group “Social Media Asia Pacific”, or it may be centred on a particular theme or idea, such as “Search Engine Land” which focuses on all things search.

Why would an individual spend time participating in LinkedIn Groups? Participating in LinkedIn groups has benefits that include acquiring new customers through recommendations and word of mouth, keeping in touch with people who care about your business or products, building your industry network, you have the ability to get answers to tough business questions, win new business by answering questions in your area of expertise and many more benefits.

When participating on LinkedIn Groups it is important to remember these simple tips:

• Comment on other people’s posts with your thoughts and ideas
• Share links with the group that you think are valuable
• Ask a question or ask for opinions (don’t forget to reciprocate and respond to these requests)
• Be professional, kind, polite and respectful of other members
• Actively participate on a regular basis

So remember to be careful how you position yourself on LinkedIn and embrace the power of LinkedIn groups, Happy networking!

Ms Gillard was in full damage control mode this morning.  Last night’s ABC Four Corners program had revealed some disturbing inaccuracies in the timeline put to the public by the leadership coup plotters, mainly regarding whether Ms Gillard had prior knowledge of the preparation of the leadership acceptance speech in her office, or if she knew about secret Party polling that showed she could win the challenge.

Her carefully scripted words about her knowledge of these events were meant to satisfy us that she had only decided to attempt to take the leadership when she walked into Kevin Rudd’s office.  Ms Gillard didn’t order the drafting of the speech, can’t remember when she first saw a draft and can’t remember the specific polling referred to by the ABC as Party polling was done regularly.

In a time when she is trailing the opposition’s Tony Abbott in the popularity stakes (no mean feat), and Australian job losses are being announced daily by the thousand, surely it is time to ditch the weasel words and unleash her inner Col. Jessup?  The first rule of crisis communications is tell the truth.  In the closing scenes of A Few Good Men Col. Jessup is of course arrested for finally telling the truth on the stand and we assume will be court-martialed.  However, no matter how horrific his brand of extrajudicial punishment was, at least we know what he stood for.  Perhaps, Ms Gillard doesn’t think we, the public, can handle the truth about what she stands for?

For the most part, numbers are at the low end of the scale, with even the most referenced brands (WholeFoods, epicurious) only generating numbers in the low thousands, but ofcourse this is increasing rapidly.

What will be the biggest challenge for Australian brands is dedicating the time and resources into curating their Pinterest sites. Many Australian offices of even large multinational brands would struggle to fulfil the requirements of adequately monitoring and managing Facebook, Twitter and other established social media networks. Adding another, which is seemingly even more time-consuming (trawling through the site and others to source relevant, interesting and attractive imagery), is likely to be beyond the resources of most in-house communications or social media managers roles.

Which of course opens up opportunities for agencies to own and manage pinterest sites on behalf of their clients – but again many external resources are stretched to its limits. Further, this is a site that like Facebook and Twitter is not an in-and-out solution, it requires constant engagement to maintain relevancy and build fan bases.

What is exciting is that pinterest is quickly establishing itself as a top referral site, already overtaking YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn combined – although these sites are not known for their sales referral powers either. It’s also one of the fastest growing social networking sites ever.

It’s actually very exciting to see how brands, such as Chobani, Lindt and Gap are evolving through this social network, and showing a depth that is only really possible through the democratising nature of pinterest – it doesn’t require the best graphic design team or the most expensive digital back end.

What makes brands stand out on pinterest is how clever they can be in communicating all the facets of their personalities. It certainly isn’t interesting to see a whole page of products – we’re saturated with internet shopping sites that do just that. But enabling a brand to tell not only its core brand story, but multiple stories based on a whole range of values.

Ultimately, Pinterest is bringing brands even closer to consumers – and that’s one idea worth pinning to the board.

Businesses are asking users to follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, connect with them on LinkedIn, view their videos on YouTube, browse their Flickr photos and visit the corporate website and multiple microsites.

But is this always a good idea?

While some brands such as DELL have arguably conquered every facet of social media having established blogs an open space where users can share their ideas and thoughts about Dell Products, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and a LinkedIn profile, other brands have failed in their bid to effectively operate multiple social networks simultaneously.

With a multitude of social networking channels to administer and monitor, corporate marketing teams are falling into a trap where by they are too time poor to craft meaningful content that appeals to the specific social networking audiences.

Some businesses are linking their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and posting the one message to their entire audience. Many businesses and individuals believe that this approach is a great way to save time and resources.

However, social media networks have different subscribers, different people and very different communities and dynamics. Providing all communities with the same content simply does not work.

Twitter followers want short, informative posts and updates, while Facebook users may want to engage with the brand on a deeper level through discussion, comments and multimedia content.

Culturally, a presence on all social media channels requires sufficient resources in place to monitor, respond, engage and craft meaningful content for each subscriber base. If a business is not able to do this, then having a presence on the social network may be doing more harm than good.

An example of this is when an individual writes back to a corporate Twitter account and the marketing team only monitors the Facebook page regularly, resulting in the post going unnoticed. The business is not interacting with their followers in a timely manner and is essentially ignoring one of the golden rules of social media.

According to research conducted by Evolve24, seventy per cent of companies ignore customer complaints on Twitter; while studies conducted by Econsultancy highlight that brands only respond to five per cent of all their Facebook Wall questions on average.

It is important to pick the right channel where the vast majority of stakeholders are residing, then create content that is suited to the audience and the channel. It is also critical to monitor the channel, promote engagement and respond to the audience in a timely manner.

Businesses do not need to be across all social networks if it doesn’t make sense from a business point of view.

What are the fundamental questions a business must ask when deciding which channel to engage audiences through?

1. Where is my audience? Establishing which social media channels your audience participates inthrough digital audits and monitoring (listening) platforms. SONAR, our proprietary monitoring service, provides in-depth analyses of these conversations. Custom reports can be created in a matter of hours.

2. What am I communicating to my audience and what do I have to offer? A clear understanding of what messages you want to convey to your audiences, what information they want to share and what they want to offer their audience in return for engaging in dialogue with the business.

3. What are the risks of engaging in social media, and am I prepared? By being fully aware of the risks associated with social media dialogue and having robust and effective crisis plans in place you can save a lot of time and money down the track when something goes wrong.

4. Where are my competitors? It is a good idea to understand which channels your major competitors are involved in. It can help you to decide the appropriate level of commitment required for each channel and establish a benchmark for investment.

Only once you have answered these four questions should you start to embark on developing a program of engagement and dialogue.

It might sound quite rudimentary, but if the social media sphere is any indication, it is clear that many brands are failing to ask these most simple of questions and are trying to be all channels to all people.

Fleishman – Hillard Sydney prides itself on creating a positive and fun work environment where employees devote time and effort into going above and beyond for clients. Every year there is always, a unique individual who truly exemplifies the characteristics of what it means to be a team player. This year, Andrew Baber, Senior Account Executive at Fleishman-Hillard Sydney, won the prestigious title of the Team Player of the Year Award.

“Andrew went above and beyond to deliver first class work to his clients, while still finding time to help his co-workers and attend to office management type activities. Andrew’s proactive attitude and positive work ethic are qualities that we really appreciate here at Fleishman-Hillard Sydney.” Said Chris Newman, Senior Vice President and General Manager.

Congratulations Andrew on a fantastic 2011!

Unfortunately, with so many online services giving the sense of security to users, promising that content, credit card numbers and other sensitive information will be safe, this message has been lost.

So I wonder what people will make of Facebook co-creator, chief executive and president, Mark Zuckerberg, recently having a bunch of his personal images made public due to a security flaw on Facebook that users of a body building forum, no less, were sharing details on how to exploit?

To be clear, the pictures themselves were of nothing special. Mark Zuckerberg in his kitchen. Mark Zuckerberg with a puppy. Mark Zuckerberg in a car… with a puppy. And so on. But to gloss over the incident because the images weren’t salacious or obscene in some way, is to perhaps miss the point.

There is no privacy online. If the squillionnaire genius boss of Facebook can’t stop his private pictures from being accessed, what hope do the rest of us have? If the customer credit card details held by global technology leader Sony PlayStation Network can be hacked, then what can’t?

As customer relationships and transactions shift increasingly online, how should brands be preparing to protect their reputation in the face of such devastating systemic failures?

The only way to ensure that you are properly prepared for the future is to assume that it’s not a case of if there will be a breach in your organisation, but when.

An up to date and robust crisis mitigation and recovery manual is vital. But making the plan is only the first part of the solution. Training your team and exercising the plan regularly is the only way to ensure your organisation is best prepared to deal with such crises.

Focuses on helping companies manage cross-border investor communications and close information gaps to avoid reputation damage and valuation discounts

HONG KONG, Nov. 17, 2011 — International communications consultancy Fleishman-Hillard has expanded its Global Capital Markets Services capability to meet the growing need for more active investor relations and financial communications programs for companies based in Asia and their investors around the world.

To strengthen the firm’s role as a resource for multinational companies based in the heart of the world’s fastest-growing markets, Fleishman-Hillard recently added a dedicated team of Asia-based investor relations veterans and research specialists to its existing financial communications and financial services public affairs capabilities.

These additional resources will help clients meet the challenge of the volatile capital markets and economic uncertainty that have led to increased scrutiny of Asian companies, especially those based in China. Listed companies, and those seeking initial public offerings, must prepare more intensively to respond to investors who are looking more closely than ever at capital structure, financial transparency and integrity, corporate governance, and sustainable business performance.

Ruby Yim leads Fleishman-Hillard’s Global Capital Markets team in Asia, as well as serves as co-chair of the firm’s worldwide Global Capital Markets team. With more than 25 years of capital markets experience, she brings in-depth strategic counsel to Asian companies as they pursue their cross-border capital market initiatives across all sectors. Yim works closely with companies based in Greater China, Korea, Malaysia, Japan, India, Indonesia and Australia, as well as in Europe and the Americas. She was most recently a managing partner at Taylor Rafferty, and prior to that was the general manager and head of Thomson Financial Investor Relations in Asia Pacific.

She is joined by three senior team leaders who are all investor relations and financial communications professionals with 10 to 20 years’ experience with some of Asia Pacific’s leading investor relations and financial communications consultancies and financial information providers.

This strong team offers specialized experience in institutional fund analysis, capital market intelligence research, investor relations and capital market positioning, strategic consulting and transactions. They have worked with publicly traded corporations from Asia and around the world, including U.S.-listed and Hong Kong-listed mainland China-based clients. Their experience also includes work with companies funded by venture capital, private equity and sovereign wealth funds. The team’s core industry capabilities are in technology, media, telecommunications, healthcare and biotechnology. They also work with clients in the alternative energy, retail, entertainment software and games, and real estate sectors.

The Global Capital Markets group in Hong Kong plans to develop four specialized client service teams based on client situation and industry. The group will be supported by the firm’s regional research and analysis team and will coordinate closely with regional Fleishman-Hillard colleagues who provide corporate media relations, crisis communications, marketing communications and internal communications support.

The Global Capital Markets team in Asia Pacific works with its counterparts in Fleishman-Hillard offices around the world to advise clients on how to strengthen their case for full valuation and investor confidence in each major financial center. These Global Capital Markets teams coordinate to deliver a range of services to users of the capital markets, including international investor relations, financial media relations, financial services marketing communications, financial services regulatory relations, corporate reputation management, and crisis and transaction communications.

“We are committed to providing our clients with the essential communications and reputation management services they need to achieve their business objectives,” said Lynne Anne Davis, president for Fleishman-Hillard’s Asia Pacific region. “We’ve expanded our Global Capital Markets team in response to a growing challenge that faces our clients – the need to manage their reputations for financial success and integrity among investors, potential transaction partners, lenders and financial regulators. The arrival of Ruby and her team gives us strong momentum in investor relations and capital markets communications services for clients who seek to address the global financial markets.

“As the world’s financial infrastructure has grown more complex, and its impact on our clients more profound, we have an important advantage in the growing depth of talent we have attracted in this category, building upon the existing experience of our senior staff in the region,” Davis added. “No matter what borders our clients must cross to achieve their business objectives, Fleishman-Hillard professionals are there to support them.”

Information Gaps, Reputation Risk and Valuation

“I am excited by the opportunity to bring strategic capital market services to Fleishman-Hillard’s clients in Asia and around the world,” said Yim. “The heightened scrutiny of all listed companies and other investment vehicles is driven by pressure from global investors, lenders and foreign regulators for better risk management. This generates a higher demand for transparency in financial information and more open evaluation of corporate executives as leaders and creators of business strategies.

“This risk evaluation takes place in the context of increasingly volatile financial markets and against the backdrop of economic uncertainty, constrained capital availability, and cross-border concerns about corporate governance and financial integrity,” Yim added. “Listed companies, investment management organizations, and other market participants must actively address this potential information gap or run the risk of reputation damage and a discount on investment value. Our focus is to prevent that.”

In the case of company share prices, this reputation discount can result in higher borrowing costs and more difficulty in business partnerships and foreign government regulatory approvals for business expansion. At the same time, companies based in other regions face similar investor relations, financial communications and public affairs challenges. In addition, they must increasingly appeal to Asian capital sources and business partners for their operating funds and future expansion. This creates a need to communicate both eastward and westward in order to maintain business opportunities and generate the best shareholder value.

Global Capital Markets and the Greater China Practice

The launch of Fleishman-Hillard’s Global Capital Markets Services in Asia follows the September 2011 launch of the firm’s Global China Practice, a worldwide network of senior Fleishman-Hillard practitioners with deep experience supporting Asian multinationals’ successful forays into new markets. That practice was specifically created to help Chinese companies in a variety of ways, including building awareness and brands; supporting mergers, acquisitions and cross-border financial communications; managing stakeholder relationships; and driving corporate social responsibility initiatives.

About Fleishman-Hillard

Fleishman-Hillard Inc., one of the world’s leading strategic communications firms, has built its reputation on creating integrated solutions that deliver what its clients value most: meaningful, positive and measurable impact on the performance of their organizations. The firm is widely recognized for excellent client service and a strong company culture founded on teamwork, integrity and personal commitment. Based in St. Louis, the firm operates throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America through its 80 owned offices. For more information, visit the Fleishman-Hillard website at fleishmanhillard.com.

Fleishman-Hillard is a part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (omnicomgroup.com). Omnicom is a leading global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom’s branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, interactive, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to more than 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

HONG KONG, Nov. 15, 2011 — Fleishman-Hillard won top honors in the inaugural Asia Pacific SABRE Awards competition. The program, conducted by the influential public relations publication The Holmes Report, highlights best-in-class campaigns and the agencies that led them.

In addition to being named “Asia Pacific Consultancy of the Year” for 2011, Fleishman Hillard’s work for major Chinese multinational electronics manufacturer TCL won in the Crisis/Issues Management category, and a campaign in China for world-renowned jeweler Tiffany & Co. won in the Fashion, Beauty and Luxury category.

“We are extremely proud to be recognized for our growth and influence across the region,” said Lynne Anne Davis, Fleishman-Hillard Asia Pacific president. “Our market entry into Indonesia, our expansion into Bangalore to round out our India network, and the launch of the VOX Global public affairs brand as our third agency in Japan, all figured prominently in our Asia Pacific growth story.

“Thanks to our ambitious clients, our team of unbelievably talented and committed staff, and the sharp demand for strategic communications consulting, we more than doubled in size in the past five years. There is no better time or place to be in communications than right now in Asia Pacific,” said Davis.

Fleishman-Hillard and TCL, the PRC’s largest consumer electronics maker, won the Crisis/Issue Management category for their highly effective reputation management efforts during the 2010 Asian Games.

The firm’s Beijing office clinched the Fashion, Beauty & Luxury trophy for its China launch of Tiffany’s Blue Book Collection. This first-ever debut of the special collection outside of New York leveraged a fully integrated marketing campaign that incorporated traditional media, social media, and celebrity endorsements, helping to substantially increase sales in Asia Pacific.

Fleishman-Hillard was named Asia Pacific Consultancy of the Year for extraordinary growth, innovation, and influence, as announced in the 2011 Holmes Report Agency Report Card.

Fleishman-Hillard’s parent company, Omnicom Group, was also highlighted as Serge Dumont, Omnicom group vice chairman and chairman Asia Pacific received the SABRE Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. In announcing the highest recognition, Holmes Report publisher Paul Holmes stated, “Known as the ‘father of public relations in China,’ Dumont is probably the only foreigner to have been present when the industry started in China more than 25 years ago, and to have played an active role in shaping it over the past quarter century.”

About Fleishman-Hillard

Fleishman-Hillard Inc., one of the world’s leading strategic communications firms, has built its reputation on creating integrated solutions that deliver what its clients value most: meaningful, positive and measurable impact on the performance of their organizations. The firm is widely recognized for excellent client service and a strong company culture founded on teamwork, integrity and personal commitment. Based in St. Louis, the firm operates throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America through its 80 owned offices. For more information, visit the Fleishman-Hillard website at fleishmanhillard.com.

Fleishman-Hillard is a part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (omnicomgroup.com). Omnicom is a leading global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom’s branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, interactive, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to more than 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

In a nutshell, Kutcher Tweeted a complaint about the removal of a university football coach in the US, without first checking why the coach had been removed (he had allegedly covered up child sexual abuse), much to the chagrin of the Twittersphere.

A contrite Kutcher decided to remove the offending Tweet and took to making a statement that said, in part, “I’m going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst as a secondary editorial measure, to ensure the quality of its content.”

While this seems, on the face of it, to be a safe and sensible response to the situation and Kutcher’s remorse appears quite genuine, it does raise the question of what this means for the authenticity of Kutcher’s Tweets to his millions of fans, going forward.

After all, one of the appeals of Twitter for users that follow celebrities through the medium is that it’s, largely, an unfiltered communication medium. Celebrities, by and large, are genuinely Tweeting from their own PCs, smartphones and the like.

But how will they feel about reading a Kutcher feed that they know has been sanitised by a management agency? The appeal for some, at least, must decrease. I know it would for me, if a personality I was following suddenly adopted this approach.

“A collection of over 8 million followers is not to be taken for granted,” said Kutcher’s statement. “I feel responsible to deliver informed opinions and not spread gossip or rumors through my twitter feed. While I feel that running this feed myself gives me a closer relationship to my friends and fans I’ve come to realize that it has grown into more than a fun tool to communicate with people.”

While Kutcher’s hand was perhaps played for him in this situation, for others out there (whether A-list celebrities or simply companies using the Twitter medium), the answer is clear. Knowing how to Tweet, and an appreciation of what can go wrong with a single unfocused or uneducated comment, when talking to an audience of hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people, needs to be impressed upon all clients. You cannot risk one of your most valuable communication tools of the 21^st century with less.

Steve contacted the internal public relations and communications team at Google and asked for their advice. Steve stated the team was supportive and didn’t want him to think that they were even hinting at censoring him. They stated that Google is an opinionated company, and not one of the kinds of companies that censor their employees. Ultimately, the choice to delete or keep the post was Steve’s.

Steve made the decision to remove the post as he felt it was the right thing to do. However even though Steve removed the original post, there are many websites still linking to and hosting the content.

What was expected to be a public relations nightmare for Google has since been met with mixed emotions and reactions from the public. Many individuals are praising Google for allowing the post to remain live on the Internet, and others are highlighting the fact that Google’s flat corporate culture allows and encourages employees to speak up which is a fantastic attribute of any company. Sure there are some media outlets that are avidly focusing on the negatives of the story, but the overall reaction from the wider digital and social media population has been mixed and at times favourable towards Google.

The question remains, by allowing the post to stay live on the Internet, does the post do more harm than good? If Google wanted to, they could of censored the post and probably eliminated all traces of it. Has the choice to engage in total transparency and leave the decision to the employee been the right one?

There are examples of online rants about employers that delivered serious repercussions for the employee.

Companies that have channels and processes for their employees to provide feedback, and that listen to their employees, should be commended. By letting this comment circulate, all 5000 words of it, has Google set a precedent for itself? Time will tell what the impact of this will be on Steve’s career and Google’s tolerance for outbursts in the future.

In the meantime it is (another) timely reminder of the risks social media networks can pose to organisations’ reputation and the importance of having the right policies and procedures in place.

While there was limited backlash this time, you can’t help but think Google dodged a bullet, and perhaps won’t be so lucky next time.