The Chartered Institute of Public Relations has launched a best practice guide for using statistics in communications.

Supported by the Market Research Society and the Royal Statistical Society, it will contain guidance on using statistics effectively, both to achieve day-to-day campaign objectives and to enhance over time the reputation of communication organisations.

The American Red Cross has averted potential embarrassment and won plaudits for its honest handling of a Twitter faux pas.

In a lesson to clumsier corporate social media users, the Red Cross acted surefootedly after a member of staff using Hootsuite accidentally tweeted a personal message from the official @RedCross account: “Ryan found two more bottles of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch Beer…. when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd”

A new search engine dedicated to seeking press releases has been launched.

PRFilter, said to be the first press release search engine, indexes thousands of releases each day and is designed to save journalists and bloggers time.

In an example of direct, frank investor relations, a company’s CEO has responded publicly to an investor and succeeded in altering their investment behaviour.

The public dialogue, covered in IR Web Report, between Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Whitney Tilson, managing partner of T2 Partners LLC, has resulted in the short-seller covering his short position in the stock.

A memo from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to the company's employees has been leaked, revealing a startling perspective on Nokia's current position in the telecoms marketplace.

Elop compares Nokia to a man standing on a "burning platform", who is faced with a choice between certain death - remaining on the fiery platform - or jumping into the freezing waters below. He makes the point - and does so powerfully - that Nokia needs to change its behaviour in order to continue to compete.

A new best practice guide for companies seeking to get the most out of their Facebook presence has been released this month by the publishing and training group Econsultancy.

Many brands and organisations have struggled to build Facebook pages that reach the full potential of the social networking site. Econsultancy has responded to requests from its marketing community for guidance in using the platform to build brands and awareness.

Wiltshire Council's 2009 rebrand has come under fire after a newspaper survey of 300 local authorities revealed that Wiltshire had spent the most on rebranding in the last three years of all the respondents.

The £475,000 exercise was undertaken after five councils merged into one, including £179,000 spent replacing logos on buildings, and £113,000 on new uniforms for council workers.

Landmark PCC rulings have confirmed that information originating from Twitter is in the public sphere - and is therefore perfectly liable for republication by newspapers and magazines.

The rulings relate to the cases brought by Sarah Baskerville - otherwise known as @baskers - against the Daily Mail and the Independent on Sunday. Ms Baskerville, a civil servant at the Department for Transport, complained that messages sent from her private, though not secured, Twitter account were quoted in a Daily Mail article and then in a follow-up piece in the Independent.

Fleishman-Hillard has been named as the Holmes Report's Pan-European Consultancy of the Year for the second year running, due to its industry-leading growth at a time when many consultancies are struggling to hold steady.

The public relations news and analysis site has announced its 2011 EMEA Consultancies of the Year, with awards given for Consumer, Corporate, Financial, Healthcare, Public Affairs, Technology, Digital and New Consultancies of the Year, as well as national gongs. 

Tom Nixon, director and co-founder of digital and social media agency Nixon McInnes, has announced he is to quit the firm at the end of April.

Writing on the company’s blog, Nixon said he is leaving the agency he created in 2000 to go travelling and work in social enterprise. “Whilst it’s scary to give up the very fortunate position I’m in, I don’t want to regret not following my dreams,” he said. “You only live once and all that.”

Nixon’s exit has been planned for 18 months. His shareholding will be shared among existing and new shareholders – all of whom are on the team – and he will retain a stake in the company.

Will McInnes will continue to lead the firm as managing director. He said: “It’s a real mixture of happiness, nostalgia and excitement. I do look at our partnership with a big nostalgic smile. Whatever the drama, we dealt with it together. And looking ahead, I’m excited too – we have an abundance of opportunities before us, a friend out there in the ether, and move into a new phase for the company.”

The shortlist for the 2011 Transform Awards has been announced, with financial services firms featuring most heavily in the running .

Now in their second year, the Transform awards are the UK’s only dedicated celebration of rebranding, brand transformation and reputational change. And several of this year’s hopefuls come from a sector that was understandably keen to alter perceptions. 

Craig Oliver, Controller of English at BBC Global News and a former editor of BBC News at Six and Ten, has been chosen as the new Director of Government Communications for David Cameron.

Following the resignation of Andy Coulson last month, citing pressure following from the coverage of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, Cameron has appointed Oliver, an experienced broadcast journalist, to step into the role.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, has been awarded the 2010 President’s Medal by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Founded in 1966, the award is made annually at the president's sole discretion for distinguished service to public relations and exemplary use of communications. 

Software Radio Technology (SRT), an AIM-listed company specialising in digital technology, has been praised for its unscripted live video webchat for answering questions from investors.

SRT’s CEO Simon Tucker answered questions that were emailed from investors in a 37 minute realtime unedited session from the company’s Somerset headquarters, last Friday.

New research into the use of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogs by FTSE100 companies has shown a steady increase on all platforms since November 2009.

The survey, carried out by The Group, points to Twitter as the most popular social media channel amongst the FTSE100, with 45% of companies operating active accounts, and 17% on top of that with dormant holding accounts.

The KWD Webranking Awards 2010 took place in London last night, with top honours going to Eni, Deutsche Post DHL, and Telecom Italia.

Webranking 2010 has surveyed over 950 listed companies' online communications, including the FT Europe 500 and the FT Global 100, to measure how well they meet market and employee needs.

With “Big Society” established firmly in the national psyche, and 2011 declared the Year of Philanthropy, Communicate magazine has launched the Corporate Engagement Awards 2011 to celebrate excellence in corporate partnerships, sponsorship and philanthropy.

Investis has altered its corporate website ranking as of the last quarter of 2010 in order to give more weighting to how effectively companies are using social media.

Their corporate website ranking of four national indices - the FTSE250, the MDAX, the SM120 and the ATX20 - now looks at the web presence of individual companies on social media channels, such as Twitter and Fa  external to their corporate sites.

The PRCA has announced that it will be making its training courses available for the first time in the Middle East.

Having run public relations training courses since 2001, the PRCA has partnered with Emirates Consulting and Media Services to offer training in the UAE and other Gulf states.

The UK's trust in banks, financial services and media continues to decline, with those three industries ranked as the least-trusted in the country by the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer.

While trust in business and government  institutions has remained stable, the steadily declining trust in industry - trust levels in banks have fallen by 30% in three years - is a worrying indicator for the UK economy, which has relied heavily on banking, media and financial services in recent years.