Over the past few months I’ve begun to notice something sinister in some of the social media training sessions I’ve been giving. No, it’s not Gollum sitting in the corner, but something far worse. In fact, if left unchecked it threatens to ruin the public face of some of the larger corporates we know. Indeed, it appears the F-Factor is spreading through firms like bindweed and choking their creativity.

When Rick Perry took to the floor for the recent televised presidential debates in the US few could have imagined the spectacular self-destruction that would occur live, on air, in front of the world’s media.

Most mainstream film studios and distributors have embraced social media, but what are they gaining from it?

Watching movies at the cinema is an inherently social experience increasingly reflected across platforms and sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Even US trade magazine Box Office Magazine has anticipation and appreciation indexes based on Facebook likes and tweets. The principal reason is to raise awareness as part of a marketing campaign, but looking at two different types of releases use social media can be revealing.

PR: Hello. We’d like you to travel to a briefing. Don’t worry, we’ll pay your train or plane fare as our client wants to meet you face-to-face. We want to talk to you about how videoconferencing does away with the need for expensive travel, saves you time and money and…hello?? Oh…He's gone.

Companies contradict themselves. In fact communications companies are often the worst at communicating. Especially the telecoms people.

Similarly, IT companies always boast that they are about agility, reacting quickly and empowering their staff to make decisions. Then they panic if a journalist even asks them for their name, job title or a photograph. Either that or they send out a hapless untrained engineer to do a 'tech' interview.

The opportunistic violence that we've seen on the streets of London over the past few days has no place in today's society and for those of us who are proud Londoners brings shame upon the nation's capital.