“As social networking evolves, we can see the emergence of targeted offerings for business users,” says Nikki Lamba, New York-based analyst at AMI Partners. “In order to attract a greater share of SBs, social networking services must provide customized services that SBs can leverage in order to realize their business goals.”

Social media might be an increasingly attractive option for small businesses in their advertising and marketing efforts. The current economy has businesses scrambling for affordable marketing methods and social media is a possible option, depending on how its leveraged.

(taken from searchenginewatch.com)

Billed as an ‘online lighting superstore’, Castlegate Electrics stocks over 1,100 lines including crystal chandeliers, Tiffany lighting, bathroom fittings, traditional lighting, amongst the wide range of styles for inside and outside the home.

With Ad Agency handling all the online marketing and promotion, the site is now achieving around 7000 hits per day from across the UK, with a 100 per cent increase in sales reported last month (January) compared to last year’s figures.

Owner Colin Boal said: “Given the decline of retail trade, particularly in independent outlets like Castlegate, we knew we had to make changes to the way we operated in order to keep the family name going for the next 30 years!

“The key to the sites’ success is that we are able to combine the convenience of online shopping with excellent, hands-on customer service as a result of many years experience within the retail industry.”

Tom Newbould, ICT adviser at Business Link was able to secure funds via the Subsidised Consultancy Programme towards the services of web specialist John Corner from Stokesley based The Ad Agency, after they were selected by Castlegate from a number of local consultants from Business Link’s National Service Register.

John is responsible for creating and developing the site, as well as the online marketing which includes Google adwords, Froogle price comparison and search engine submission.

Tom said: “Castlegate have proved that it is important businesses should not ignore e-commerce as a possible route to increasing turnover and profitability with the advantage of lower overheads. Castlegate have worked hard to ensure consumers enjoy their online shopping experience and have greatly expanded their customer base as a result. With assistance from Business Link and their consultant, I am sure Castlegate will be able to build on their initial success moving forward.”

Plans for the business include a planned upgrade and re-design of the e-commerce site in the summer in line with the businesses commitment to continual improvement.

John Corner, of Ad Agency, managed large pay-per-click accounts and demonstrated complex understanding of the Google AdWords system.

AdWords is a search marketing program, utilizing small text advertisements on Google on a cost per click basis. AdWords allows you to optimise your adverts and increase hits and sales on your web sites.

John joins an elite group of UK specialists who have passed this exam. He said “It’s great to gain this qualification; it shows that the Ad Agency is perfectly placed to handle large web marketing accounts, but we are not stopping there – other members of the team are now also training to pass the exam”.

AdWords allows you to edit your adverts, which helps attract new customers as well as providing a good return on your marketing investment.

John added: “It’s very important that our clients take their web site marketing seriously and this professional qualification proves our knowledge and experience in this area”.

“We have doubled the web turnover of both Castlegate Electrics based in Middlesbrough and Joseph M based in Darlington in the last 6 months. New clients can now see that we can deliver effective web marketing solutions as well as award winning ecommerce development solutions.”

Ad Agency provide ecommerce and web marketing solutions from their base in Stokesley to companies throughout the UK.

For further information please contact Ad Agency on 01642 713650

Middlesbrough-based Yuzu, which provides web design and brand development services, has assigned its data back-up and hosting to Tyneside-based DataBanx.

Yuzu was awarded the contract to develop DataBanx’s branding and corporate identity at the launch in April 2004.

DataBanx, which is part of the Middlesbrough-based Internet service provider Onyx Group, is a £5m datacentre which provides data security and hosting for more than 100 companies.

Neil Stephenson, sales and marketing director of the Onyx Group, said: “Yuzu is a leading company in its field and we’re glad to be in a position to provide services that will enable them to grow further.

“As we approach our third anniversary, it has become clear by the mix of companies that are turning to DataBanx that business security is at the top of many agendas.

“Companies in the region have embraced the need to protect themselves in the event of a disaster, while companies from outside the region are recognising the North-east and DataBanx as the perfect location to back up their business critical data.”

Triads, the Middlesbrough-based store owned by Collin and Gary Donaldson, has walked away with the Best Sales and Marketing On-line title and runner-up in the Best Customer Care On-Line section in the regional final of the E-Commerce Awards.

The company, which specialises in designer clothing for men and women, will now go forward to the national finals of the competition, organised by the Department of Trade and Industry and Interforum. The overall winner will receive £50,000.

The regional awards were sponsored by regional development agency One NorthEast.

Triads’ new site is being used by Business Link Tees Valley as a model of good practice for other web-based businesses in the area, after a major overhaul by Middlesbrough-based web design firm Yuzu Media.

Collin Donaldson said: “This is a fantastic achievement for Triads after a number of years spent refining the website concept.

“Part of our success is due to the fact that our website is updated on a daily basis in-house. It is of paramount importance to maintain an updated website and is critical to any firm wishing to do business online.”

Business Link was instrumental in the site’s nomination for the E-commerce Awards. It has also played a crucial role in advising on the site’s specification, as well as providing funds towards its development.

The new site was launched last October and features exclusive collections from labels such as Maharishi, Stussy, Adidas Originals, Nike Heritage, Levi Red/Vintage and Adidas Y3.

The number of people visiting the site has been very high, peaking at more than one million within ten days in April, during the launch of a particularly exclusive range.

“After having a website that didn’t work, the new website has effectively become a third store for us. As well as having a huge impact on our turnover, we have taken on a further three members of staff since the site’s relaunch,” added Collin.

Tom Newbould, ICT adviser at Business Link, has worked with Triads since early 2004.

Triads was established in 1988 by Collin and Gary and had its original base at 274 Linthorpe Road. Three years later the company moved to more central premises in Albert Road.

A second state-of-the art store, again on Linthorpe Road, was opened in 2002, offering a wider range of men’s and women’s clothing, including ready-to-wear collections from Prada, Gucci and Vivienne Westwood.

Triads has its own label in production, which is expected to launch in the coming weeks.

The first collection will feature windbreakers, hooded tops and T-shirts designed exclusively in a special collaboration with renowned cult graphic artist Gassius, who can count Nike and Being Hunted among his recent projects.

Media company Yuzu, based in Middlesbrough, has designed and developed the airline’s Flying without Fear website in line with the Disability Discrimination Act guidelines.

The website, at www.flying withoutfear.info, helps people overcome their fears by providing courses designed to teach people everything to do with flying – including how an aircraft works and all the noises and events passengers can expect during a flight. The courses finish with a 45-minute flight.

Yuzu managing director John Corner said: “We believe this contract will be a catalyst for us to win even more of this kind of prestigious work.

“By winning this contract, we believe we are proving that companies in the North really can compete on a level playing field with our counterparts in London’s Soho.

“The Tees Valley no longer has the reputation for chemicals and engineering – it now has a thriving digital technology sector which has spawned a series of recent start-ups.”

Yuzu is a member of Codeworks Connect, the trade association for the North-East’s digital industries. Codeworks Chief executive officer Herb Kim said: “North-East companies like Yuzu are showing that they can compete on a national level and win contracts from large corporate organisations. The benefits of a lower cost-base without compromise on quality or creativity give the region’s companies a great advantage when pitching for this type of work.”

British universities are emulating America by supporting their graduates in setting up spin-out companies. The result is a new generation of entrepreneurs. Gareth Rubin investigates

“The university’s very proud of us; they keep shouting about us from the rooftops,” says John Corner. What the university in question – Teesside to be precise – is proud about is Yuzu, the web- design spin-out company that Corner jointly owns and Teesside helped him set up.

“The university’s very proud of us; they keep shouting about us from the rooftops,” says John Corner. What the university in question – Teesside to be precise – is proud about is Yuzu, the web-design spin-out company that Corner jointly owns and Teesside helped him set up.

Spin-outs are commercial firms established and owned by individual graduates or academics with the helping hand of their university, usually in terms of free office space and business advice. When the university itself sets up and owns or part-owns the firm, it is known as a spin-off. While these have been around for decades, spin-outs have only started to appear in the last few years.

It’s no surprise Teesside is proud of Yuzu – as a new university, part of its brief is to offer new prospects to communities and individuals who would otherwise be without them. Corner is a case in point. “I left school with a couple of O-levels, spent 10 years in a series of dead-end jobs, and ended up packing egg boxes. I decided going to university was the only way I was going to change my life and I was right. So I did a foundation year at Teesside in 1996 and that got me on to a course in technology.”

Within two weeks of finishing his course, Corner had a job at a local college teaching tutors how to put lecture notes on to web pages. When his 18-month contract ended he wanted to run his own business, and did the rounds of funding bodies and agencies. He ended up back at Teesside. “They pointed me in the direction of a business adviser and offered me a room and computer equipment rent-free for a year. That was great because I needed the money.”

Just as important was the environment in which he was working. Teesside has a building set aside for its spin-out companies, what it describes as an incubator unit. It provides advisers who can inform the resident companies on everything from tax to filing patent applications. “Plus,” says Corner, “you were in a room next to like-minded people setting up their own businesses, so you could bounce problems off each other. Someone would say: ‘Oh, I had that problem last week, this is who you should see about it.’ If I hadn’t gone to Teesside, I would probably still be putting egg boxes on shelves for a living.”

Corner also met Liam Dawson in the incubator. The latter was setting up his own design business. One year ago they came together to form Yuzu, which has just moved out of its room in Teesside into plusher offices. They now have two employees and intend to take on another two by the end of the year. In May alone, their revenue equalled that of the whole of last year.

At any one time, Teesside has about 20 spin-out companies on the go. They are about to get a new home in the university’s Victoria Building, a former school, which is being refurbished for the purpose. Teesside is spending £1.4m on the refurbishment to create what it calls its Graduate Business Greenhouse; most of the cash is from European and regional redevelopment agencies. Spin-outs are beloved of such agencies because they give highly skilled young graduates a reason to stay in the area, rather than make a bolt for the south-east.

Laura Woods, Teesside’s director of the department of academic enterprise, says: “We’ve known for a long time that our students have good business ideas but aren’t in a position to do anything about them. Many also leave the area for the south-east to take up jobs in industries like computing, even though 50 per cent of them are from the area, so we have a big skills drain from the region. These companies make a direct contribution to creating jobs in the north-east, which is an economically depressed area.”

And the Middlesbrough firm is also making a name for itself in the leisure industry.

Yuzu has used its creative and technical skills to successfully secure design and web development work for several top nightclubs across the UK.

The company, set up by Liam Dawson and John Corner in 2003, has clinched contracts with Newcastle-based Vimac Leisure, to develop websites for its venues across the UK.

As well as the design and development of each venue site, Yuzu was responsible for the re-branding of Studio nightclub, formerly Victoria’s in Glasgow. Other venues include, Dh-1 in Durham and Milano in Rotherham.

The success comes after the company completed a move to new premises.

It has relocated from Teesside University’s incubator units to its own offices in Middlesbrough’s Bridge Street East.

Yuzu has developed a bespoke content management system for each of the venue sites, which allows the Vimac team to change content, news, events and add and remove gallery images.

“We were originally going to develop static sites for each of the nightclubs, but with regularly changing events, and weekly gallery updates it made sense to develop a site that Vimac could have full control of,” said John Corner, director of Yuzu.

Yuzu has already begun work on three more venue sites, set to coincide with the venue launches over the coming year.

“The sites which Yuzu has put together have been an excellent opportunity for us to promote our venues across the country,” said Vimac Leisure marketing manager, Vicki Hollinshead.

Vimac is one of a long line of clients Yuzu has won recently including Onyx Internet, Databanx, and DomainnamesGB.

Liam and John ran their own media businesses before creating Yuzu.