That guy you just friended on Facebook might be a second-story expert looking to liberate your plasma television while you’re on the vacation you just wrote about on your wall. And it’s possible some of your followers on twitter are following you, not because they care what you had for lunch, but for larcenous reasons.

Social networking is potentially more dangerous than you might think, according to a report, The Digital Criminal, released by U.K.-based Legal & General, a financial and insurance organization.

The study found that 38 percent of users of sites such as Facebook and Twitter post status updates detailing vacation plans and more than a third of socnet users post updates that say when they are going to be away from home. Mash those numbers up with the finding that a high percentage of users are willing to be “friends” online with people they don’t know, and you’re looking at a potentially serious security threat to your home and stuff.

More disturbing still, the report found that nearly a quarter of social media users discussed their vacation plans publicly “wall-to-wall,” or outside the privacy of their own page, and 17 percent reported seeing people’s residential addresses posted on publicly accessible pages.

Legal & General’s research uncovered a widespread casualness among socnet users toward meeting strangers online: 79 percent think social media are a great way to find people they met on vacation, three-quarters feel they are a good way to meet friends of friends, and 47 percent use socnet sites to meet new people based only on the person’s photo.

Legal & General conducted an experiment to see how many U.K. social media users would accept a “friend” invitation from a complete stranger. Of 100 “friend” or “follow” requests issued to randomly selected strangers, 13 percent were accepted on Facebook and 92 percent on Twitter — without any checks. As a result, it’s possible that a complete stranger with evil intent could learn about a person’s interests, location and movements in and out of their home.

Reformed burglar Michael Fraser, star of the BBC’s “Beat The Burglar” series, consulted with Legal & General on the study:

“In just one week, a professional burglar, or a team, can use social networking sites to harvest dozens of potential targets,” said Fraser. “New users of Facebook, for example, will be a key target, as they are keen to build up their number of ‘friends’ or ‘followers’. People with specific interests are also easy targets. Pet owners are a good example — their home security is often not of a sufficiently high level, as they rely on their dog for security, have cat flaps that weaken a back door, or leave their alarms turned off.

“For a burglar, this kind of information is power — it breeds confidence. Once you start seeing people’s holiday movements, for example, you know when they are leaving their home unattended. By giving away this information, people are making the burglar’s job a lot easier.”

Other study findings include:

• Nearly half of respondents are not worried about the security or privacy of social networking sites.
• Of all social networking sites, Facebook creates the most concern, with 46 percent of respondents believing there are some security and privacy risks.
• The younger you are, the more likely you are to give information away concerning your whereabouts, with 64 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds sharing their vacation plans, which could be a cause for concern for parents.
• 34 percent of respondents have seen someone’s phone number posted on their social networking profile.
• Nearly one in 10 respondents have included their phone number and 5 percent have included their address in the personal information section of social networking sites that are visible to friends.
• Some people share cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses directly with strangers — 6 percent have written their phone number and 3 percent have written their address “wall-to-wall” or on pages open to those who are not accepted contacts.
• Men are more blasé about personal information — 13 percent have included their cell number on their profile compared with just 7 percent of women, and 9 percent of men have included their address, compared with just 4 percent of women.
• 70 percent of users think that social media sites are a great place to share photos of new purchases and presents.

When planning media events for new hotel openings or ship inaugurals, finding a news hook is always the primary goal, and such was the case for the introduction of the Chateau oceanfront resort at Miami Beach.

We suggested — and the owner complied — with a 24-hour hiring of a noted chef whose newsworthiness (and price) was recently enhanced when he won a major TV game show. The “Miami Herald” readily agreed to send a photographer to photograph the introduction, and sure enough the following day’s edition prominently carried a four-column photo of the event.

The caption reported “… at a Miami Beach hotel” without naming the property.

Needless to say, the owner did not extend the contract.

During the early days of our practice, we experienced our share of bizarre wannabe clients.

Especially memorable was the elderly French lady, claiming to be a colleague of the late Madame Eve Curie, who asked us to publicize her food-synthesizing talents which included, among other forms of culinary alchemy, converting carrots into orange marmalade and beets into chicken liver. She was an excellent cook, but failed chemistry 101.

Another, this time a French man, but equally certifiable, desired to retain us to publicize his voyage between Miami and Bimini, Bahamas, on a raft propelled by a shark!

We politely declined, but he found another more naiive — or perhaps more imaginative — publicist.

On the appointed day, with a sizeable gathering of reporters and photographers in attendance, the Frenchman attempted to harness a nurse shark to his raft, but the unappreciative fish turned in its harness, nipped the would be skipper in the leg then took off, raft in tow, for destinations unknown.

When we learned that Gen. Douglas MacArthur was returning from the Philippines after years away from the U.S., I suggested that our client, Miami Beach’s Sherry Frontenac Hotel, invite MacArthur and his family to enjoy some R&R at the resort.

The general manager was about to cable the invitation when the owner walked into the office and asked, “What are you bums up to now?”

When I explained the media potential, he asked, “What kinda rate do I gotta give this guy MacArthur?”

“Rate!” I exclaimed. “Why he and his entourage will be your guest for several suites and meals,” which of course further annoyed the notoriously frugal hotel owner who protested loudly until I mentioned that most of the media people would no doubt be spending freely in the hotel’s bars while awaiting the general’s daily press conference.

“OK,” he responded, seemingly mollified. “I’ll go for the deal, but remember,” he ordered, poking me in the chest, “When this MacArthur guy checks in you can welcome him, but you’re responsible for telling him — no steaks or chops!”

Fortunately, I was spared that onerous task when the MacArthur party declined the invitation.

New resort openings and cruise ship introductions unfailingly result in unexpected reactions from participating travel writers and broadcasters.

One of my most memorable emanated from the pre-Castro era inaugural of Havana’s Capri Hotel and Casino from the buttoned-down mind of Horace Sutton, arguably the most widely syndicated travel writer of the time.

Sutton’s lead: “Today I joined in the opening of Havana’s newest luxury resort-casino—the Capri. It was a race. A race to determine who would be plastered first: the hotel or the guests.”

While the remainder of his column was largely complimentary, it did accurately comment on a scenario hardly unique in new resort or cruise ship inaugurals with painters and other workmen completing finishing touches with guests as their audience.

Most seasoned travel journalists take such events in stride but, on occasion it takes considerable hand-holding by the property’s media representative to urge them not to let the negatives dominate the subsequent coverage.

That’s what a recent survey would have us believe:

There’s a vacuum in strong leadership in the public relations and communications industry, at least that’s what top US PR leaders themselves say, according to a study released today by Heyman Associates and the University of Alabama.

Nearly 30 percent of those responding to the question said nobody came to mind when asked to name a PR leader.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama was cited most often as the nation’s most effective communications leader in response to the open-ended question — but he was named by just 4 percent of all those surveyed.

Others named nearly as often as Obama were Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore.

Public-relations professionals mentioned most often were Harold Burson, founder of Burson-Marsteller; Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman, and Jon Iwata, IBM’s marketing and communications chief.

“Politicians and celebrities were named more often than PR specialists because those who stayed on message and were highly visible in national media were the true leaders in the field, not those who worked behind the scenes,” said Dr. Bruce Berger, who chairs the Advertising and PR program at Alabama. “But the largest number of respondents simply said they couldn’t name a leader.”

The online poll of 222 PR practitioners was conducted as part of a national study — ”Excellence in Public Relations Leadership” — by graduate students attending Alabama’s Advertising and PR program. The report examines the key attributes of communications leadership and the qualities deemed most important by practitioners.

The survey found that the most important qualities of PR leaders include the following:

• Strategic decision-making: More than half of respondents said the most important quality among PR leaders is strategic decision-making — an ability to fully understand what drives an organization’s business and to develop working partnerships with organizational leaders.
• Exposure to sources of leadership skills and development: Work experiences, individual initiative, and access to role models are typically the richest sources of leadership skills and development; the lowest-ranked factors cited include training and genetics.
• Strong role models: Role models exert the greatest influence on beliefs about leadership values, practices, and questions; role models were described as exemplifying strong values and ethics (especially in times of crisis and tumult), possessing strong communication and strategic-thinking skills, and leading by example.

About the research: The project, launched in February 2008, included a deliberate sample of 1,000 diverse and experienced PR professionals selected from databases maintained by Heyman Associates. Among the 1,000 who received the online survey, 222 completed it. The final survey included 72 questions on the dimensions of communications leadership, today’s leaders in the field and their success factors. Some 60 percent of the respondents were female and 40 percent were male.

Three observations on this:
1. In our shop we believe that if you are doing PR correctly, you’re invisible.
2. Politicians are not public relations practitioners, no matter what their PR people tell you.
3. Going to graduate school in public relations is a major waste of time and treasure — unless you just want to postpone the inevitable of joining the workforce and becoming a productive member of society.

Keeping pace with the increasing professionalism of the public relations discipline, almost all college level courses today recognize
the craft as a bona fide segment of the journalism agenda.

It was not always that way, however.

During my undergraduate years at the University of Florida — in the early 1940s — the JM 201 textbook attitude toward public relations was reflected in the following cavalier treatment in its chapter on public relations:

The grizzled vet slid onto a stool at the Busy Bee diner, next to a newly hired cub reporter and selected the 35 cent blue plate special.

When the waitress brought their orders, he noticed that the young reporter was served a minute steak with a side of asparagus — in those Depression-era times a lavish lunch, indeed.

“Ah-ha,” he exclaimed, nodding sagely, “doing publicity on the sly!”

Today, the public relations department at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism, where we sponsor a PR scholarship, is on a level with the college’s journalism, broadcasting and advertising departments, demonstrating the recognition the discipline has achieved.

There are times when the most effective public relations can be achieved by a total lack of publicity.

In the late 1940s a Miami Beach oceanfront hotel owner was exceedingly proud of a new fire sprinkler system installed in his property shortly after a major hotel fire in Boston. He urged the agency to publicize the feature.

We pointed out that there was little purpose to be served in reminding potential guests of possible hotel room fires and he agreed — reluctantly.