This week, seven Peppermints donated a day to help out at Manchester-based charity The Mustard Tree.

Upon the Peppermints’ arrival we were given a tour of the charity’s facilities, and introduced to some inspirational people along the way, before being divided up for our day’s duties. Emma and David whizzed off to help the van drivers with the daily donation collections; Alice was sent to exercise her culinary skills in the kitchen, preparing lunch for 50 people on a budget of just £15; Haydn and Joanna offered advice to those who were actively seeking work in the ‘job club’; while Aimee and I were tasked with a creative challenge involving The Mustard Tree’s upcoming launch of a new branch in Eccles.

It’s all part of ‘Project Peppermint’ – a programme centered on Peppermint’s pledge to dedicate time to the wider community and charitable organisations. The day we spent at The Mustard Tree was also a chance to gain a rare insight into this inspirational charity and witness the amazing work the staff perform day to day.

The time we spent at The Mustard Tree was a truly humbling experience. What struck me most is how easy it is to give up a day to carry out voluntary work, but how much difference your time can make to the charity. It just goes to show that a small amount of effort can provide an enormous help, while also being lots of fun. There are so many ways to help out at The Mustard Tree – I heartily recommend anyone to get involved. I promise you won’t regret it!

There are lots of sore heads at Peppermint Towers this morning – but they’re more than worth it.  For the second year running, we scooped the silver award for Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy at the CIPR PRide awards last night…so to say we’re over the moon is an understatement! We were up against some really brilliant agencies so we’re especially delighted to have our team recognised by the CIPR.

A big congratulations to every one of the finalists and winners – we have a lot to be proud of in the NW.

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?

Last night, the Peppermints were treated to an evening of incredible cooking by our very own MD, Suzy. In a bid to capture the last of the summer, we were invited to a barbecue at Jean-Philippe and Suzy’s house, where we were able to celebrate our most recent award nominations – as you can see, flat caps are obviously this season’s must-have outdoor cooking accessory!

Not only barbecued foods that were on the table: roast lamb, cous cous, tagine and roast potatoes had also been prepared – just in case the Manchester weather prevailed!

A fantastic night was had by all – we’re still full this afternoon!

Facebook has a bit of a track record when it comes to privacy. With prospective employers now able to dig around in our online histories, the ability to control privacy when using social media has become an increasingly hot topic.

Today, Facebook announced a raft of new features set to give us greater control over who sees the pictures and posts that we add to the site. Perhaps the most significant new one allows us to reject a tagged photo before it goes live for all your friends, family – and potential business contacts – to see. Hurrah! No more embarrassing photos!

Also new to Facebook is the ability to tweak status updates (useful if you’ve just slagged off a friend, only to decide you were being a bit harsh) and a ‘Geotagging’ service, which allows users to tag themselves, their photos and their status updates anywhere in the world – cue potential security worries.

I’m inclined to think that although Facebook is making strides to simplify its privacy settings, it’s still important for users to consider who might see their information. If your gut’s telling you not to post it, don’t post it – no matter how tight you think your privacy settings are.

Walking through Manchester city centre this weekend, it was hard to avoid the damage caused by last week’s riots. A burnt-out Miss Selfridge, a boarded up mobile phone shop, multiple smashed windows – it really was heartbreaking to see. But a cheering sight made me smile as I entered the Arndale Centre – hundreds upon hundreds of brightly coloured post-it notes adorned a wall by the main entrance, with each one having a message of support for the city written on it.

“Manchester is a great city! I <3 it!” read one. “Don’t attack our beautiful city!” said another.

It was heartening to see and made me proud to be a Manchester resident.

And it seems I’m not the only one feeling this way. An ‘I Love MCR’ Facebook page, set up by Manchester Marketing and Manchester Arndale in the aftermath of last week’s disturbances, has already gained 3,500 Fans. A ‘We Love MCR Day’ is also planned for 26 August.

Today it’s been announced that as part of the ‘I Love MCR’ campaign, people wanting to show their love for the city will be able to benefit from free parking and Metrolink travel in the days ahead. City centre car parks will be offering complimentary evening parking and Greater Manchester trams will also be free this Sunday.

Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, recently said he hoped to see thousands more people join the I Love MCR campaign and “show the world what real Mancunians look like”. Even as an honorary Manc, I for one will be showing my support.

As a twenty-something with a penchant for the latest beauty ‘must-have’, this story caught my eye today. L’Oreal has been forced to pull ad campaigns featuring Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington after the advertising watchdog ruled that the images had been overly airbrushed.

The Advertising Standards Authority said the adverts were ‘exaggerated’ and ‘misleading’ and banned them from future publication.

Now, the airbrushing argument has been around for years, but this isn’t a debate about whether airbrushing should have been used – it’s an argument about being transparent. L’Oréal was unwilling to disclose pre-production images of Julia and Christy, meaning the ASA wasn’t provided with enough information to evaluate what impact the digital changes had on the final images. As a result, the ads were banned.

After recent events concerning News International, it’s clear that companies operating within the media need to gain the trust of the public if they’re going to succeed. It’s hard to see a place for companies in today’s market that aren’t completely lucid. For companies like L’Oreal, which rely on a media-created brand image to sell products, trust and accountability is absolutely key. Without these two qualities, a company can very quickly go under, à la News of the World.

As someone working within the communications industry, I really feel for L’Oréal’s press officers as they attempt to manage the situation and rebuild consumer faith in their brand. As we all know, once the trust has gone, it’s that little bit harder to get back.

Last night, a few of the Peppermints headed into town to celebrate Social Media Day. Yes, that’s right: yesterday was a day to celebrate “the revolution of media becoming social” and discuss how it’s transforming our personal and professional lives.

This year’s #SMDay is the second annual celebration to be organised by Mashable. In its inaugural year, Social Media Day prompted nearly 12,000 people to meet in more than 600 locations across 93 countries to talk about the latest topics, trends and technologies that social media offers – massive kudos to Pete Cashmore.

Held in Castlefield, Manchester’s meet-up brought together food bloggers, digital delivery managers from Premiership football clubs, social media leads from the BBC, specialists in digital production and even Greater Manchester Police!

At a time when activity on social media platforms accounts for 25 per cent of all time spent online, Social Media Day provides a fantastic focal point from which to survey the digital landscape and look to the future – and also hear stories about embarrassing SM gaffes!

No one needs to be told that, as a business tool, social media is becoming increasingly important on a day-to-day basis, especially within the creative industries. However, in the last year, I’ve noticed a significant shift in the way that journalists like to be engaged. The number of times I now contact a journalist with a tweet rather than an email has increased significantly, as has the number of times I get an immediate response.

The power that social media has over the way we do business, especially in PR, continues to grow and evolve, and I for one am looking forward to what the future may bring – here’s to an even busier Social Media Day in 2012!

It comes as little surprise that news out today shows the average social media user has more friends online than in real life. This latest research shows that the average Joe has 55 physical friends but 121 online buddies.

Apparently, us Brits now spend at least two hours every single day trying to keep up with our online mates – phew! The way relationships are formed is, it seems, changing – and social media has a big part to play. According to the study, only five per cent of people would ask for someone’s phone number, whereas 23 per cent would ask for an email address or a full name to add them on a social network.

It’s certainly true that social media makes introductions easier. Two thirds of the survey respondents hailed the ‘ease’ of conducting online friendships from the comfort of their own home as the reason for their popularity. Given the instant connection of a tweet, it can sometimes seem like comparatively hard work to arrange to go out in the real world with your mates.

Participants also cited the confident attitude they could adopt with their online pals. True, we’re able to portray ourselves in the way we want online (ah, the good old ‘de-tag’ button) and so avoid any embarrassment or awkwardness.

But are we sacrificing the relationships that really count to entertain those 121 online buddies? Call me old fashioned, but, when push comes to shove, aren’t real life friends – the type you can go out for a meal with or share a 3am phone call with – the sort of friends we really need?

Last Friday I attended Ladies’ Day at Aintree Racecourse. Having become something of a regular over the past few years, it’s become clear that the only sport us ladies (and the Daily Mail) REALLY care about on the day is power-dressing.

The Matalan-sponsored style contest is always a highlight of Ladies’ Day. The pull of the substantial prize – a holiday for two in Saint Lucia, £5,000 cash, over £1,000 of vouchers and a Matalan photo shoot – is enough to make thousands of female racegoers wait for hours to register. But, what really makes the women of the North West queue for miles around the ‘style enclosure’ is the fact that this is a contest open to all. Having been judged by Coleen Rooney, champion of ‘real women’, until this year, Matalan’s style contest is judged on how you look, not how much you’ve spent. According to Matalan’s marketing manager, the great thing about the competition is “that it’s about style rather than fashion”, i.e. it doesn’t matter what your outfit cost or where it’s from.

I was therefore a little surprised when, this year, 33-year-old Lystra Adams triumphed, wearing a Vivienne Westwood suit, Prada shoes, a Christian Louboutin bag and a towering hat hand-made by York milliner Dawn Guibert. I think Matalan might have its marketing messages muddled.

Surely the idea of a discount fashion retailer championing a ‘style’ contest at an event attended, mostly, by ‘Joe public’, is a great marketing platform for Matalan to shout: “Look! You don’t need loads of dosh to have style! See how fabulous you can look without spending gazzilions on your outfit. If you shop at Matalan you can afford to look this stylish everyday!”

Instead, race horse owner and designer diva Lystra, will now feature in the chain’s new adverts. I’m sure she’s someone that every Matalan shopper, frantically scouring the racks for a cheapo ten quid dress for Friday night, can really identify with.