An anonymous company executive once said: “Profit is like health. You need it, and the more the better. But it’s not why you exist.” I would agree with this quote 100%. A successful company is not defined by its profits. Especially today, with resources becoming more finite, companies need to reevaluate the core of their business purposes – is it simply just profits that matter, or is it finding a win-win solution that would correspond with the triple bottom line ‘people, planet, profit?’

In my opinion, Milton Friedman’s philosophy “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” no longer holds true because society increasingly demands corporate conscience.

Understanding how business and society are interlinked is now crucial; companies need to find win-win solutions for both as the Earth’s resources are becoming scarcer. It is not about reducing consumption, but about finding sustainable alternatives that benefit nature, our community and organisations.

2012 has been a fantastic year for my blog!

First of all it was the year I launched it and second, it was the year I learned so much about blogging, PR, social media, marketing, business etc. thanks to putting some great efforts into running this blog.

A lot has happened in my life in 2012 – from graduating at Plymouth University to starting my internship in a PR consultancy.

I believe I have managed to capture my experiences and what I’ve been learning in the areas of social media, marketing and PR in my writing (or at least I’ve tried, you’d be the judge :P). Researching and writing for this blog has certainly helped me enhance my knowledge in the communications and business practice.

Briefly, here are some of the blog’s highlights of the year:

For many years I’ve been a big fan of David Ogilvy, the father of advertising, a “pioneering adman and one of the founding fathers of our modern consumer society.” I recently read Ogilvy’s book “Confessions of an Advertising Man” for the second time, and for the second time I was absolutely impressed with it. I can only recommend it.

It is indeed a little unusual for a PR person to be fascinated with a book on advertising (you know, the ‘constant war’ between PR and advertising…), but it is the understanding of consumers and businesses and the practical tips that Ogilvy shares in his book that I enjoyed so much.

As Sir Alan Parker said, the confessions is “a blueprint for good practice in business” because “it’s not just about advertising, it’s also about how people think and behave at the sharp end of business.”

Understanding how consumers, media, business owners and other stakeholders think and what they need is as essential in PR as it is in any other marketing discipline.

While reading the “Confessions” I noted down everything that intrigued me.

Below are my 25 favourite quotes from Ogilvy’s book:

Twitter has been one of the fastest growing social media platforms and has now reached more than 140 million active users worldwide since 2006 (10 million in the UK). It’s a fantastic way of sharing information, engaging with different audiences and providing customer service.

As a business you can’t ignore the potential Twitter offers to boost brand awareness. With its 140 character limit it’s really easy to share ideas, news, information, opinions, images and videos in seconds. Good content generates interest in your products and services, and promotes interaction with your followers.

Here are 5 tips for better engagement on Twitter:

1. Tweet regularly

Sharing valuable content is the first step to growing your Twitter community. It’s your content that your followers will be interested in, so make sure what you share is helpful, fun and worthy of retweeting. Don’t limit yourself to tweeting a few times a week; tweet a few times daily.

Last week I saw a campaign by fashion chain Topshop that I thought was not only creative, but also absolutely brilliant because it managed to successfully integrate advertising, PR and social media. The campaign comes right on time for Christmas, and I just had to share it with you; I’m sure you’ll be impressed.

This year Topshop decided to run a Christmas advert for the first time ever and called the production ‘Winter Wonderland’. The fashion chain announced that the ad would feature a Hollywood celebrity, but said that they would not reveal who the ‘mystery lady’ was until the 4^th of December.

Topshop encouraged people to use the hashtag #whosthatgirl? and tweet @Topshop to guess who the star of the advertisement was with the chance to win a £500 shopping spree.

The fashion retailer shared six short videos on their YouTube channel, each one of which revealed more about the celebrity than the previous video giving clues to fans (check them out here: teaser 1, teaser 2, teaser 3, teaser 4, teaser 5, final clue).