Far from a ‘charity begins at home’ attitude that you might expect in hard times, the gloom is bringing out the good in people. Imaginations have certainly been captured in Japan, where a small act of kindnesshas snowballed into a new craze for giving.

The concept - guerrilla kindness - is based around surreptitiously doing something nice for someone else, without expecting anything in return.

Be it big or small, another example literally crossed my path a while ago when a friend and I were stopped at Charing Cross Station and given hugs. I found it nice and somewhat intriguing (and my purse was still safely buried in my handbag)! Having Googled the act a bit later, I found out that it was International Free Hugs Day.

The year 2010 was the year of the flash mob and PR campaigns across the country embraced this. Is guerrilla kindness, as an identified trend by trendwatching.com, set to capture the imaginations of PRs in 2011?

Would you, your company or your clients have anything at all to offer, on a random basis, to someone who would so appreciate it? That’s the key, giving the random act of kindness to an appreciative and worthy recipient.

A sprinkling of selfless kindness goes a long way.

This post was written by Charlotte.