Top cop Ali Dizaei is now a disgraced officer languising in jail. His conviction for perverting the course of justice has raised the whole issue of who can we trust. If we can't trust senior police officers, who can we trust? In short, of course, there are a few police officers who are untrustworthy, but there are also a few surgeons you can't trust and a few airline pilots who are not up to much either. In other words, most of us can be trusted but in every group there are individuals who breach the rules and cannot be trusted.

The Dizaei improsonment coincides with an interesting BBC experiment which also exposes the issue of trust. Reporter Stephen Chittenden is currently only receiving his news via places like Twitter or Facebook. He has shunned traditional media in a bid to see if it is possible to keep up-to-date with what is going on in the world. The experiment follows an article in the Huffington Post discussing the notion that we no longer need to go to newspapers, radio or TV for news because thanks to social media "if the news is that impotant it will find me". But, as Stephen Chittenden said in his update this morning on BBC Radio Five Live, he doesn't know if the news he gets (mostly via Twitter) is actually true. Can he trust the army of online reporters in the same way he can trust a traditional news organisation?

So, now we don't know if we can trust senior police officers and we don't know if we can trust the news snippets we get from Twitter. Is there any truth any more?

Well according to the latest annual survey of trust from the PR company, Edelman, we simply don't trust social networks for real information. According to their study, social media is on a par with advertising, which is thought to be biased. Overall - in almost every sector - trust has plummeted from the same survey done a year ago. In fact, according to this study, we even trust our friends only half as much as we did a year ago. But can you even trust this study?

It has been reported widely on several respected sites as though it were "fact". Other sites, like HubSpot, have tried to analyse the information and have come up with some good ideas as to why trust may have fallen in social media. And therein lies the truth about how we measure trust.

When you meet people in the flesh you analyse loads of information simultaneously - tone of voice, eye contact, facial expressions, appearance - and then add that to the databank of information you already have about that individual. This might include what other people have told you about them, or the stereotype you hold for such a person. You then make an assessment and you might find yourself saying "I'm not sure...there's something about him that's not quite right". The various sources of information don't combine in the right way to enable you to fully trust them.

The same is true online - except that we don't have the non-verbals to help us. So we need to use other analytical skills. That means, when we receive news via places like Twitter we may check a link or two to see where it is from; we may email people to find out what they think. What we are doing is trying to gather a set of data that helps us work out whether the material can be trusted. We analyse things more.

And if you analyse the Edelman data you find that it is based on a specific sample primed to talk about trust. The people in the study had to meet specific criteria and be relatively high earners, with high levels of education and high consumers of news. In other words, a non-representative sample. Then you take that educated, news-savvy bunch and you prime them by conducting a survey on trust. Now what results would you expect from that? The chances are they would question trust themselves, because they are likely to be analytical individuals themselves.

So, the Edelman study doesn't tell us that trust in social media is low and falling. What it tells us is that if you take a subset of people and prime them to talk about trust there is a chance they will question trust anyway. The results are unsurprising.

But do you see what I have done here? I have had to analyse the online information I have received. And that's what the BBC experiment on "social news" is likely to find; we can get all our news from Twitter and Facebook, but in order to be sure of it we will analyse it more, check it more and see what other people are saying about it. In other words we will be doing what we do "in the flesh" getting a brainload of information so we can work out what we trust. And if you don't check everything you read online - including this article - then there is a chance what you read is untrustworthy. Do you believe me?

How much do you like being called "traffic"? For that's what most website owners think you are. To them you are just a number. They can look at their analytics and go "wow, traffic is up year on year; excellent". You can find all sorts of information across the web about "how to increase your traffic", or "easy ways to get more traffic" - including from "big guns" like Microsoft. You can even buy website traffic.

It's the same in the retail world for many shops; all they are interested in is "footfall". They want to know how many people are visiting their shop, in just the same way as online businesses want to know how many people visited their site. But focusing on traffic is nonsense; it's the wrong place to start your online business considerations.

In the 1960s British TV series, The Prisoner, "Number Six" tells us "I am not a number, I am a free man". We hate being numbers - just being part of "traffic", or "footfall". And when as a business you concentrate on traffic or footfall you begin to lose sight of one important fact: these are people, not numbers. Chasing traffic influences the way you think about your website visitors and then it affects what you do and how you treat them.

Consider shops that treat you as an individual; do you like those shops? Or do you prefer going into stores where you are clearly just another statistic? And what about websites that treat you personally? Do you prefer them to the sites that emblazon their statistics of the number of visitors they have in some little "badge of honour"? The sites that have their stats on show, or who don't connect with you as an individual have probably focused on numbers, on traffic. Whereas the sites that treat you as an individual probably start with the notion of connecting and making relationships.

The not so curious fact is that when you make relationships you will get the traffic simply because people like you. Whereas if you focus on traffic you are in a never-ending battle to win new people over all the time. The only way you can increase your traffic is to constantly focus on traffic, looking for tricks and techniques that get more people to your site. And true, you can get millions of people to your site using many of these techniques. But, rather like retail footfall, what's the point of all those visitors if they do nothing while there?

By focusing on website traffic, many businesses are not making as much money online as might be possible for them. That's because they need to generate even more traffic each year in order to make more money. But the people who create relationships are more easily able to make increased profits because the visitors who have relationships with them are likely to spend more because they like the company. In other words, going the traffic route is like being on a non-stop treadmill. You need to constantly keep battling away to stop your competitors stealing your traffic or to stop your traffic from diverting into other websites. But by building relationships you avoid all this.

Relationship marketing, of course, is nothing new. But when you focus your web efforts on traffic, you are relegating relationships to a lower level. Your traffic will become quality, money-making traffic when you concentrate on building relationships. And if you think that's a daft idea, take a look at what the likes of Dell and Starbucks do to build relationships, rather than traffic. It works for them.Oh, and it gets them traffic too. In other words these successful businesses get website traffic by focusing on relationships first and traffic second. If your concerns for your website are all about traffic, then try changing your stance. Start by focusing on the relationships and the traffic will follow. But by then you won't be calling these people "traffic", you'll be thinking of them entirely differently - customers, readers, people, community, call them what you will, but they'll no longer be "numbers" to you and that means you will treat them entirely differently.

Well, here we are, another week gone and it's important to remember that you have only seven days in which to make sure you have bought that essential Valentine's Day card and present. If you want the love of your life to still be the love of your life this time next week, don't forget that pressie...! And if you think that forgetting is forgivable because you are getting older, think again. It appears that memory loss as you get older may not actually occur; it could be that it is just socially acceptable to forget. Research shows that if you do memory tests in older people who are told they could be forgetful, guess what, they are primed to forget. In other words, the more you tell yourself that it's OK to forget things as you age, the more likely it is you will forget. You are essentially instructing your brain to give up trying to remember things. So, no excuses, you can remember that Valentine's gift this week..! Of course there's plenty more you need to do with your online business as well. So what's on this week's agenda?

Planning: What are you doing to make sure that your website is going to work on mobiles and smartphones. You may already have a phone-firendly website, but the number of people accessing the web using mobiles is increasing day by day. If your online mobile presence is not good enough, you will lose potential custom. With new multi-tasking phones like the Nokia N900 and web-savvy phones like the iPhone people expect your website to operate well on a mobile interface. If you are not already ensuring your website appears OK on mobiles, you need to start organising that soon. Around one in every 20 of your web visitors will access you site using a mobile and that will grow solidly throughout this year. There are several options. You can plan to have a "subdomain" which is mobile friendly such as "m.yourdomain.com". Or you can set up an automatic mobile version of your site. My mobile site is at "grahamjones.mobi" and this is automatically generated each day. All you need is a ".mobi" domain name and "Instant Mobilizer" from Domain Monster. But whatever you do, it's time to get on planning your mobile presence.

Content: Well, clearly this week your content could feature love, dating, relationships and anything to do with Valentine's Day. If that's too sickly for you and your readers then something worth celebrating this week will be on the 11th when it is 20 years since Nelson Mandela was freed from jail. And if you're still worried about your memory, this event is probably carved in your brain as a "flashbulb moment" of episodic memory. So it might trigger another article for you on important things in your industry that "stick out" as major episodes. On Friday, the Winter Olympic Games begins in Vancouver, so that might be able to suggest some kind of topical connection for you too or perhaps an article linked to what's going on in your industry sector in Canada. Pop star Robbie Williams is 36 on Saturday, if you want something lighter to write about. And if you want to write about being "in the shadow" of someone more famous than you, Jamie Murray - older brother of Andy Murray - is 24 this week. And finally, Sunday sees the start of the Chinese New Year - the Year of the Tiger, a time supposedly associated with generosity, humanitarianism, but also with rebelliousness and impulsiveness. Plenty there to write about...!

Tidying up: Is your website operating properly with all the links connecting accurately? As we build and adapt our websites frequently these days it is easy for links to get broken. Time to check all those links and make sure they work, correcting any that are broken. A good way of starting this process is to use the W3 Link Checker, a free tool that will show you whether or not your links in your pages are working. You could also use Inspyder InSite; this program will check all your links and find any spelling errors as well as show your keyword density for each page. Not bad for less than $60. I've already found several link errors on this site which I'm in the midst of fixing...!

New features: Many people might not want to visit your site every day simply because they don't get the time. However, they could be interested in your content. So, why not offer them a "weekly digest"? Using Zinepal you can automate the production of a weekly round-up of your blog or web pages. People can then subscribe to this using RSS and get your content as a PDF, for the Amazon Kindle or simply as an email. If you want my weekly digest you can get it here.

Reading: Social media is growing significantly and is a surefire way to enhance your reputation. But you shouldn't forget the offline world of public relations either; you need to integrate the offline and the online worlds in order to fully promote your business. Ping, by Alan Stevens, is an excellent book that shows you exactly how to do this. Written by someone who has been on both sides of the media divide as a journalist and as a regular guest on radio and TV, Alan's book is a no-nonsense and clear guide to ensuring you benefit from promoting your business effectively in the "new world" that is dominated by social media. The book covers everything from press releases that will get you in the local paper to viral video that will get you noticed worldwide. There are also several useful case studies and a guide on how to measure the impact of your integrated PR approach.

So, another week over; see you next Sunday.

Customers can either help you or hinder you. They can, for instance, let other people know about how wonderful you are, merely because they want to do that. On the other hand they can write negative reviews or blog posts saying how appalling your customer service has become. Clearly you want more people to be positive and helpful towards your business - but how? And why would they help your business for no personal gain?

Such behaviour - altruism - is commonplace. We like helping each other. But we only like helping people if we feel some kind of attachment or bond to them, or if we can understand their position. You recommend businesses to your friends and colleagues ever day; but they are businesses you like, admire, trust and so on. Have you ever altruistically helped someone find the right product using a company you detest? Every business depends on altruistic behaviour in the form of word of mouth. Or companies need altruistic people to help them with surveys, market research and so on. Goodwill is what keeps your business ticking over.

Generating that goodwill and the associated altruitsic behaviour does not happen easily, of course. You have to work at it. But new research conducted on both sides of the Atlantic shows that there is a "trick" you can employ to generate more altruistic behaviour. The study found that "mood elevation" triggered much more altruistic behaviour than when people were either neutral or somewhat depressed. "Mood elevation" means making people feel happy and positive.

In other words, it is rather simple. Make your customers happy and they will do more for you, out of the goodness of their heart. That might translate into increased uptake of upsells, more word of mouth, extra participation in market research. But whatever altruistic action you want customers to take, they are more likely to do what you want if you lighten their mood first. Depending on your type of business there could be several ways of doing this - humour, showing your charity work, doing something for them without prompting. In other words, if you think about the ways you can increase the mood of your customers - making them happy at specific connections with your business - then they are much more likely to help you do what you want (such as buy two instead of one, or complete an online survey).

Think about the companies you seem always prepared to help. It's a fair chance they make you feel happy. But think about the companies you just couldn't be bothered to assist; probably they just don't affect your mood at all - or even they may make you rather depressed. It's an old saying, but "keep your customers happy" seems to have some psychological backing now.

Throughout the world there are people sitting right at this moment, scratching their heads and wondering "Should I use Twitter?". Every day people ponder over joining up with Twitter; yet each day people stop using Twitter as well. There is a never ending revolving door of people joining and then leaving (or at least leaving their accounts dormant). Importantly, though, there is a real pressure for business owners to join. And that in itself could be a problem.

For instance, research shows that in the past year the most profitable companies have been those who have engaged heavily with social media. In particular, the firms like Starbucks and Dell, who have used Twitter enormously, are the ones that have seen the best financial improvement. There appears to be a link between business results and use of social media. Cash-strapped chief executives and business owners must be looking at this success and asking "if they can do it, why can't we?".

Similarly, family members who engage with Twitter are likely to be enthusiasts for the network, trying to get the rest of the family to join up so they can all have fun together online, share images at TwitPic and keep up-to-date with what each other has been doing. It all sounds like a good idea and so brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts, all think "Mmmm, this might be a good idea".

But then they get online and rather like the CEO facing Twitter for the first time they ask "What on Earth is this all about?". Some people investigate and work out what they can do. Others download useful booklets on Twitter, and some struggle on and just hope they can "get it". But should you struggle on? Should you do all that research and find out how to use Twitter? Should you go to a workshop on Twitter?

Possibly; but possibly not. Some people are just not made for Twitter. They are not the kind of people who will be able to get on with Twitter, no matter how valuable they can see it might be from a logical perspective. If you have struggled with Twitter, you might be one of the people it's not aimed at - so stop using it...! Otherwise you will waste your time trying to understand it, work with it and use it. That will lead to frustration, even stress. And that will affect your business - and your relationships.

Give up Twitter if you are an Introvert
Twitter is a social environment. It's full of people who love being with other people. True there are probably more than a few narcissists there as well, but on the whole it is where people who love talking to other people congregate. Introverted individuals prefer solitary occupation and, importantly, they tend to be single-focus people. In other words they are less able to multi-task than extroverts. Twitter is a multi-tasker's dream - you have Twitter open in one window, while you busy yourself in another, every now and then looking at something your Followers are chatting about. Indeed, you have to use Twitter whilst doing something else, otherwise you'd probably never get any work done. As a result, Twitter is geared much more to the extrovert than the introvert.

Give up Twitter if you are a Perfectionist
If you dot the i's and cross the t's, Twitter is not for you either. You'll spend too long crafting Tweets and replies, when the "instant" conversational tone of Twitter doesn't work well with that kind of approach. You'll also get immensely frustrated with the poor spelling, the inaccuracies and the bad grammar. But spoken language is also grammatically poor when compared with written language - it's just that we don't see it. On screen, that spoken style so dominant on Twitter is exposed, warts and all. If you are a perfectionist, or someone who likes things "done right", then Twitter will frustrate and annoy you considerably.

Give up Twitter if you are Creative
Creative people are generally poor at time management. Studies show that the people who are good at managing time tend to be less creative than people who are pretty rubbish at time management. Twitter can eat into your plans easily. As you get hooked into a conversation, as you discover interesting things to read and as you find more fascinating people to Follow, you can spend hours and hours just Twittering away. If you are not a creative type you will be able to more easily manage these kinds of distraction which Twitter provides. But if you are a creative individual, there's a chance you'll while away the hours and not get any work done..!

So who should be using Twitter then? Well if we take away the introverts, the perfectionists and the creatives we are left with a careless, unimaginative, extrovert...! And do you really want to spend your time with lots of them...?

Having said this, you might not need to give up Twitter after all. If you are an Introvert you can listen - just read the Tweets that interest you and follow the links, but don't join in. In other words, do the same as you do down the pub - eavesdrop. If you are a Perfectionist you can get your own Tweets right, of course, but if you learn the Twitter lingo, you'll discover that the spelling isn't incorrect, it's just a new language you need to learn. And if you are a Creative person why not come up with an idea for earning your living via Twitter? Your creative brain could work that out and you'd then be able to while away those unplanned hours on Twitter and still pay the bills.

In other words, Twitter is for everyone - and we all use it in entirely different ways. So just because people in your company say there is a "right way" of using Twitter and just because your cousin tells you that you ought to share family photos using Twitter - don't believe them. Do what works for you and use Twitter the way you want to. That way it will work for your business or your family because you will be enjoying it. Much of the frustration about Twitter is because people feel forced to use it in particular ways. There is no right or wrong - unless you are a perfectionist of course..!