As we all met around the kettle yesterday morning, on our first day back in the office after the holidays, discussion inevitably turned to New Year’s resolutions. This is a conversation that never fails to depress me. I can only look back in abject horror at the mockery 2011 made of my perfectly reasonable resolutions. While I’m tempted by the idea that my resolution this year should be to not make any more, that would be taking the coward’s way out. No. This year I’m going to face the issue head on, (wo)man-up, and properly repent of last year’s dismal effort.

Here are a few of the promises I, and other Peppermints, have resolved upon for 2012:

Andrew: Engage in the real world, instead of emailing the guy next to me asking if he wants a brew.
Rachel: Stop eating the sweeties in reception – not that I do!
Owen: Find a way to double my Twitter followers without having to resort to buying them on eBay.
Emma: Spring clean the Peppermint archive computer drive.
Aimee: Start cooking more. Ready-meals are not a substitute for a fresh home-cooked dinner.
Haydn: Learn something new every day; even if it’s just a little thing or something silly.
Jess: Maintain my 5 a day – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Four Square and Path.
Jane: Integrate my phone with my dock, dongle, tablet, and desktop. Oh, and don’t forget the deck…
Lucy: File everything in plastic wallets. They’re my BFF for 2012!
Eliza: Stop eating at Gastronomy everyday – lunchtime economising will boost next year’s Christmas fund.
Alice: Use a pen and paper – just to remember the old days.
Alex: Speak normally; it’s amazing how many times I catch myself using jargon in meetings.
Liz: Take advantage of working in an office with a gym. Late nights at the office can take on a whole new meaning in 2012…
Ben: Skate board to work; it’s green, it’s good for you and gets you some fresh air. Might be tricky with my commute of 13 miles in the winter but if I set off early enough…Michael J Fox had it nailed.
Me: ‘Managed information flow’ will be my new mantra. Being able to tune out all that online white noise will mean I can use my social network more effectively.

Another disconcerting sign of the times. University leavers are now being charged up to £100 a day for the privilege of gleaning the work experience that they hope will be their golden ticket to employment.

The logic is that small or otherwise inaccessible companies can now be compensated for throwing open their doors to graduates desperate to secure a job.

One of the positions on offer at Etsio, the website behind the initiative, is £100 a day to carry out “administrative work at a vitamin-selling website”. This seems like a profoundly bum deal to me.  Leaving to one side the fact that “administrative work” is not necessarily a phrase that would light a potential employee’s fire, a single day’s work is neither here nor there. So the graduates will presumably have to look at forking out hundreds of pounds to amass any meaningful work experience. Clearly, something that only those with well-off parents will be able to afford.

As an employer (and a mum who will one day be gunning for her own kids to be given a break), I’m eager to help out this generation of graduates who have it so much harder than I ever did. Hence the number of graduates and even sixth formers who we welcome for a week’s taste of PR. Many of them have been outstanding and an absolute delight to have around. Some, to be frank, not so much.

Why a week?  Because anything less is largely a waste of time for both parties. Why not the months on end that many beleaguered graduates work at some companies, without being paid a penny? Because it’s immoral and exploitative.

There’s no getting away from the fact that accommodating work experience is a time-consuming and often inconvenient business.  Finding something constructive and educational for your visitors to do, briefing them, handholding them, feeding back to them, and then – frequently – redoing what they’ve completed… that’s a big ask for an already stretched account handler.

But the lovely letters of thanks we regularly receive from young people convince me that it’s worth it. So, thanks all the same, but we won’t be charging for work experience.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be welcomed by Peppermint PR to undertake a week of work experience.

As a 15-year-old about to take my GCSEs, it was an experience that far exceeded my expectations. After a week spent updating reports, helping to brainstorm campaigns and filing that all important coverage, there were two things that struck me.

Firstly, at a time when one in five 18 to 24-year-olds is unemployed, it’s never too early to gain experience.

Secondly, the world of PR is absolutely fascinating. PR consultants are responsible for everything that goes on ‘backstage’, providing an invaluable link between businesses, the public and the media. Sifting through the papers every morning made me realise that PR has the power to effect real change. Without PR how would many of the stories make the media? Without the media, how would those stories generate national awareness?

After my week at Peppermint PR, there is one statement I can make with absolute certainty: PR is extremely fast-paced! I have so much respect for the whole team. They work intensely, quickly and – having listened to them on the phone – with style.

Above all, they radiate fun and laughter at all times. I’ve felt exceptionally lucky to have worked with such impressive people and feel that I can safely say – work experience is the best possible way to learn!

Do you ever wonder where you’d be if you’d made a slightly different decision somewhere along the line? Or perhaps if Lady Luck hadn’t been standing by you when you faced a particular situation? Things could’ve turned out quite differently, right?

Friday night saw me and fellow Peppermint, Rachel, head into town for our first shift doing the soup run at Manchester-based charity − The Mustard Tree. Never before has this ‘Sliding Doors’ effect seemed so relevant. Most people we met out on the streets had ended-up there following a sequence of events stemming from a single decision or bit of bad luck. Many were ex-forces, had been made redundant or were retired.

Now, I’m not going to get really deep and reflective on you, but hopefully just raise a tiny bit of awareness for a remarkable charity that’s helping to improve the lives of the homeless and marginalised in Manchester. It was all part of ‘Project Peppermint’ – a programme aimed at encouraging the Peppermints to dedicate time to deserving local causes throughout the year.

On Friday, the task at hand was to prepare the food for the soup run and then go out to a regular meeting point to serve a meal. Although the experience was quite intense, it was unbelievably inspiring to see the warmth that The Mustard Tree’s presence brought to what was otherwise a drizzly October evening.

There are tonnes of ways to get involved with the work that The Mustard Tree does, from donations of food and clothes to mentoring and general fundraising. The rest of the Peppermints are helping out in one way or another over the coming weeks − maybe you could too?

Every day brings another great example of a social media campaign that makes you sit back in your chair and think: ‘Damn, I wish I’d thought of that’. The latest offering that’s grabbed my attention comes from the team at The Muppets Studio.

Originally created by Jim Henson in 1955, The Muppets have become so famous they’re considered celebrities in their own right. Over the years, ‘Kermy’, Miss Piggy and the gang have endorsed major brands, featured in famous music videos, hosted the Academy Awards and are now embarking on their eighth cinematic adventure.

I was a huge fan of The Muppet Show throughout my childhood and a lunchtime rarely went by without a cheese butty and the latest episode. As I’ve grown up, the world of children’s entertainment has changed beyond all recognition. Most of the shows, cartoon characters and household names I used to hold dear have fallen by the wayside – but not The Muppets.

In the run-up to their new movie release, The Muppets have done it again. Their latest stunt is an on-the-ball, tongue-in-cheek social media campaign that sees Miss Piggy aiming for ‘a bazillion’ likes on Facebook, in return for secret screenings of the new film. They’ve complemented this with a clever viral and a brilliantly run Twitter account that has me chuckling to myself on a daily basis.

It’s a real testament to the comms team over at The Muppets Studio, showing that they’ve moved with the times to keep these (technically OAP) puppets in showbiz and their audiences watching.

These days, heritage and history only count for so much. Brands, companies and indeed puppets must stay one step ahead to keep their audiences and customers engaged. Let’s just hope Statler and Waldorf aren’t heckling from the balcony at the premiere!

‘Bad taste’, ‘goulish’ and ‘wrong, wrong, wrong’ – just a few of the phrases used to describe The Guardian’s reporting of 9/11 in its @911tenyearsago Twitter account.

The idea was to live-tweet the 9/11 attacks as if they were happening in real time.

On face value, @911tenyearsago provided an interesting exploration of how social media would have played its part on 9/11, had it been around at the time.

However, after just one hour and 16 tweets, the account had been suspended – public outrage was so deafening that The Guardian had no choice but to pull it.

So why was this particular Twitter reportage so badly received? For many, @911tenyearsago smacked of sensationalism and a way for The Guardian to show its affinity and connection with the medium of Twitter rather than provide any new insight into the event itself.

It’s clear that misjudgment of this kind shows we’re still learning the boundaries of Twitter. The tweets by @911tenyearsago were perceived as shocking because they were written as if the events of 10 years ago were really happening. On a day of quiet reflection for so many people, it was the account’s precise lack of warmth, context or emotion that made it so out of place.

While Twitter reporting was also carried out by other media organisations, including Associated Press and The Daily, The Guardian was the clear casualty of the day. Its quickness to react and remove the account was its only saving grace.

On a typical Sunday, you’ll usually find me enjoying the Sunday papers with a cup of tea in hand. This weekend, I’ll be abandoning my normal lie-in to launch myself across the Manchester Ship Canal on a 250m zip line – all in aid of the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal.

We’ve worked with Genesis for over five years and it’s a charity that’s incredibly close to all our hearts. We’ve seen first-hand its amazing work and commitment to creating a future without breast cancer.

However, at Peppermint, we’re not content to sit back and simply shout about the fundraising initiatives Genesis has undertaken – we like to get involved as well! This year alone, seven members of the team have taken part in the Great Manchester Run; we’ve packed bags at the local supermarket for loose change and we’ve also given the Genesis Tranquillity Garden a green-fingered make-over.

When the opportunity to take part in the sponsored ‘zip wire’ arose, I couldn’t help but get involved. And so this weekend, I’ll be making the descent from the 30m high tower of the Imperial War Museum to the Lowry Gallery to help raise money.

Now we don’t normally use the blog to plug our work, but if you do have any spare shrapnel in your pockets, I’d be thrilled if you could visit my Just Giving page. All money raised will help support clinical research and training into prevention, screening and early diagnosis at Genesis’ purpose built breast cancer prevention centre.

Photos of the event will follow and if you want to spot me, I’ll be the one in the pink tutu, screaming all the way down!

News that an LA-based PR agency was unceremoniously dumped this week after it sent a thoughtless tweet comes as no surprise. The company in question – Redner Group – got sacked by its biggest client, a video game publisher, after its MD tweeted it would punish bad reviews of its latest release by withholding future copies from reviewers.

The story comes just days after the MOD launched its ‘Careless Tweets Cost Lives’ campaign, which begs the question: why are so many PR professionals, the ‘reputation experts’, continuing to tweet before they think?

In recent months, Twitter has brought the English justice system to its knees thanks to Giggs-gate; we’ve had hash-tag spam from Habitat, while Kenneth Cole felt the wrath of the web following his now-infamous Egypt Twitter gaffe.

When users, and particularly PR practitioners, cock up via social media, it never fails to cause a storm. That social media is embedded in traditional PR is a given, but it’s still a relatively new tool with no steadfast rules of engagement.

That said, threatening to blacklist reviewers, à la Redner Group, is not big or clever. It showed not just a lack of foresight, but a complete lack of respect and understanding of the medium at hand. Although an apology was offered, it was too late. The tweet was out there, the agency sacked. End of!

Twitter breaks boundaries like never before. It gives PR consultants the opportunity to engage with journalists, react to breaking news and spot trends before they go viral. However, while it extends the conversation, careless tweets really do cost.

The message is simple: every tweet puts the reputation of you and your business on the line. If you wouldn’t want it on the front page of the Daily Mail, keep it under-wraps. Simple advice? Yes. Adhered to? Worryingly not!

Recent statistics have revealed that over 50 per cent of 2011’s graduates will struggle to find any sort of gainful employment. This got me thinking about where I was 12 months ago, when I too was one of those desperate to get a foot in the door.

As a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed graduate, I was hungry to gain experience as I was all too aware that a degree alone just doesn’t cut the mustard with discerning employers.

After completing several work experience placements, I began to apply for account executive positions. I’d heard great things about Peppermint PR and was fortunate enough to secure a place on its ‘Fresh Mints’ graduate scheme – I haven’t looked back since. 

Helped by a hefty dose of perseverance and a positive attitude, which saw me through a couple of setbacks, I’m now well on my way to building a successful career.

When I reflect over the past year, it’s difficult to take in just how much I’ve learnt and how far I’ve come. Whether it’s developing features for the national press, coming up with campaign ideas or nurturing client relationships, I’ve been privileged to get a taste of it all.

With this year’s graduation ceremonies just around the corner, I know there’ll be a lot of young people who are disheartened by newspaper reports on graduate unemployment figures. They’ll probably be thinking there’s not a hope in hell that they’ll even get called for an interview.

My advice would be to get as much experience as you can and never, never give up. Just when you think you can’t bring yourself to send out one more CV and covering letter, it could be the one that gets you the job.

For more information on our Fresh Mints scheme, visit:  http://www.peppermintpr.com/index.php/get-in-touch/jobs

You may be forgiven for thinking that social media is a relatively new invention, spawned by college geeks and digital entrepreneurs. However, a certain maker of plastic containers is now arguing that the true origin of social networking can be found in the quaint image of 1950s domesticity.

Let’s hear it for the Tupperware party – considered to be an early form of a very modern phenomenon. According to Tupperware inc: “The word-of-mouth model of direct sales and marketing relied upon trusted relationships between women.” Now, with a global campaign to ‘coolify’ the company’s image, the 65-year-old brand has embraced the modern day equivalent of ‘home selling’ with an ambitious social media strategy.

The campaign, which goes live this week, will see the brand go back to its roots (in a digital sense) and talk directly to would-be shoppers. With a new face for the campaign in Kelly Clarkson and a message of empowerment, the company is looking to recreate the Tupperware party for 2011.

Now we’re not sure that Ms Clarkson ever dreamed of being the face of a ‘re-sealable plastic container’ (poor love), but we adore Tupperware’s vision to bring the ‘party’ to social media. Let’s hope their 50s mantra of ‘know your audience’ rings true in the digital age.