5 secrets to really harness Twitter for your business Should you follow everyone who follows you? Which hashtags should you use for your business? And is it a bad idea to start a reply with the @ symbol? Twitter is a killer marketing tool, if you know how to use it!

Yell to launch Facebook advert integration Yell, the online telephone directory service, is to give a strong boost to small businesses in the UK by enabling targeted advertising on Facebook.

Misner warns against playing the numbers game online & hails Kent as referral capital of Europe One of the world's leading business networking gurus Dr Ivan Misner has hit out against the explosion of "premature solicitation" for work on social media websites by people who play the numbers game rather than cultivate relationships.

Money down the drain as Social Media Experts train staff ‘to suck eggs’ Businesses could be wasting thousands on unecessary social media training which teaches many employees what they already know and could simply work to fuel the fear that middle aged workers have towards social media, claim experts at online marketing consultancy E-mphasis.

Win a role in a national TV campaign Alibaba.com, the world’s leading small business e-commerce company, is inviting its users to audition their business for a starring role in its forthcoming high profile UK ad campaign.

How many contacts can one person cope with? Who's worthy of going into your CRM system, Outlook, your mobile or your social network, etc.? What should be the criteria so you don't end up with 500 e-mail addresses and can't remember who half the people are?

Musician & entrepreneur Midge Ure wants business to aim high The musician and entrepreneur Midge Ure will be headlining a show with a difference as the guest speaker at a business event to promote and inspire great leadership.

Stand out on the high street - Choose a comedy name UK’s most common high street names revealed as business directory launches hunt for UK’s ‘punniest’ business

24 tips for using social media in your business Wading into the fast-moving flow of social media can be daunting to a small business owner with very little time on his hands. Here's Business Matters comprehensive social media cheat sheet for the time-strapped entrepreneur.

Explained: Elevator pitch The elevator pitch describes your company concisely and in a compelling way. The elevator pitch is the answer you give when you coincidentally meet someone in an elevator and they ask you: “So, what do you do?”

Are you Britain’s best entrepreneur? The UK’s most competitive search for exciting new businesses has returned and this year, your small business could be crowned Britain's best!

The complete guide to email marketing analytics Email marketing provides a wealth of valuable statistics which can improve campaigns for consumers and marketers, however many of these stats are misunderstood or not utilised effectively. To help demystify this Matt McNeill, who has over 12 years of email marketing experience and is the founder and CEO of Sign-Up.to. has written an ebook providing people with expert tips and actionable advice.

Twitter prank for small business boosts awareness to huge proportions In the age old tradition of marriage, there stands an even older tradition: the prank pulled off by the best man on the bride and groom. While the practice is ancient, it has taken on a new twist in the viral microblogging world of Twitter.

Creating a memorable brand We recently spoke to Mark Artus, CEO of 1HQ, one of Europe’s largest branding companies to get his top 10 branding tips.
Mark has been the brains behind the advertising campaigns for the likes of Kraft, Nestle, Rowntree and Heinz, amongst many others and knows how to create memorable brands.

Exactly how do i launch my business? Anyone with a good idea and adequate common sense can start a business, but establishing and growing it is another matter.

In the current climate, where money lending has all but dried up, orders are falling, and firms are trimming all the fat possible by cutting costs, the hard part is often working out how to grow your business.

How should your business use social media? Do you have a business Twitter feed as well as a personal one? Does your business have a FaceBook page? Want to know how best you should use Social Media to build your brand?

Start the New Year by learning how to increase your sales.... Mike Southon, co-author of best-selling book The Beermat Entrepreneur, invites you to a sales training event!

Based on the best-selling book "Sales on a Beermat", this event is suitable for everyone. If you don’t consider yourself a salesperson and hate to sell, but you have to sell to make a living, then this course is for you! If you love to sell, this course will still help you develop your skills.

Is your business one of Britain's top 100? Smarta.com, a free online business resource for small business owners, has joined forces with TV Dragon Deborah Meaden and Bebo Founder Michael Birch in a nationwide search for the UK’s smartest businesses.

Top ten ways to ensure your networking is more effective and produces results Why do so many people struggle to attain a real return from all of their networking activities? There are a host of possible reasons but I thought this might be a good time to share some ways in which you can get more of a return from your networking.

Mythbusters: Business networking might not generate sales Business networking specialist Andy Lopata takes time to shatter a few illusions, as networking groups do not produce referrals.

That may disappoint a few people who have spent a lot of time and money joining groups in the hope of generating new business. Hours spent at breakfast meetings, lunches and chatting over canapés when you could have been watching The Apprentice…..all wasted.

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