"Just setting up my Twttr". So went the first tweet ever posted on the now ubiquitous social network when founder Jack Dorsey launched it six years ago.

People in Britain have taken to Twitter in a big way - yesterday we passed the milestone of 10 million active users. Whether it's to make connections, keep in touch, promote your business, engage with customers just to follow celebrities and keep up to date with what goes on in the world we can't stay off it.

Worldwide there are 140 million users on Twitter and Britain, with one in six of us signed up, is only behind large countries like the US, Brazil and Japan. Compared to other nations we are more likely to tweet on the go with 80% of us accessing the site on our mobiles.

If you are reading this it is a safe bet that you are a fan and a follower of the 140 character site. Start-ups today can't afford to not have a social media presence, it's as simple as that.

In fact, the first ever British user was an entrepreneur eager to learn more about other start-ups. Jonathan Markwell set up his Twitter account in July 2006, relatively unconvinced that it would take off and he didn't use the account until seven months in.

However, yester day he revealed to the media that having set up his own business, a Brighton based community enterprise, he could attribute £50,000 of consulting revenue to connections made on Twitter and the social site has played a part in establishing most of the business relationships he has today.

So when for the 20 million users? Already 140 businesses in Britain have paid to promote their products on Twitter. There is no sign of us stopping the tweets. And why should we - it's good to talk, isn't it?

Tell us what you think - how has Twitter changed the way you do business? Is it necessary for your start-up to stay connected?

It will have escaped few people's attention that drinks giant Diageo got itself into a spot of bother last week. It was a classic David v. Goliath story, only tweaked for the internet age.

For those who missed it, micro brewery BrewDog had expected to take the trophy for Bar Operator of the Year award at a dinner, organised by the British Institute of Innkeeping Scotland. The independent judging panel had made their decision and the trophy had even been engraved with BrewDog's name.

However, a representative from event sponsors Diageo arrived and spoiled the party, threatening to pull future sponsorship unless the award was given to another winner. The reasoning behind this is hazy, but apparently the issue was BrewDog did not hold membership of the Portman Group, the industry body that promotes responsible drinking. No matter, the award was handed to someone else.

In the past, before the advance of Twitter and blogging, BrewDog would have been upset, outraged even, but the company would probably have been resigned to the fact that there was nothing they could do. After all, bullying by the big boys was not an unusual occurrence.

But with the possibilities of social media, BrewDog, a five-year-old craft beer company, found itself in a great position to bite back. And it did. Founders James Watt and Martin Dickie wasted no time in taking to their blog and Twitter accusing the giant of dirty tricks. Soon Diageo was trending, for all the wrong reasons.

The big players should take note that they can no longer get away with bully boy behaviour. The problem for large companies lies in the vast number of customers; it is impossible to engage with them all.

There is much less of a risk to smaller companies like BrewDog; they know their customers, they understand what they want from them.  The reality for them is simple; if they don't engage with and listen to their customers they won't have a business to run for long.

Diageo is not the first company to feel the full force of the Twittersphere. Fitness centre chain LA Fitness recently faced the wrath of members who were unhappy with the less than flexible terms of their membership.

A couple had been locked into a two-year contract, but when the woman fell pregnant, the man was made redundant and they had to move  house, they tried to cancel their membership and was told they would be charged a £780 to cover the last 15 months of the contract.

The Guardian newspaper published an article about the couple's plight and soon social media users were writing angry statements on Twitter, many announcing that they were cancelling their gym membership in protest. LA Fitness announced - belatedly - that they were waiving all fees, but the damage had been done.

The gym chain was shamed into taking action rather than take control of the situation in a sensible way.

In reality the BrewDog episode is unlikely to cause Diageo any long-term harm, in fact they were super speedy in coming out with a grovelling apology for the "serious misjudgement". Put it this way, people will not stop downing pints of Guinness or shots of Smirnoff Vodka.

On the other hand a lot more people who'd never heard of BrewDog will be looking out for their products. The smaller, nimbler company skilfully turned the setback into a triumph and the PR value of the whole episode potentially outweighed getting the prize in the first place.

No doubt we'll see many more small businesses biting back on social media, just like BrewDog did.

But they too should remember that Twitter works both ways. It is a dream for small businesses wanting to promote themselves for free, it's brilliant to connect with customers, get your message out there and receive feedback from your customers. But when you get it wrong it can go very wrong, very quickly.

Quite simply, there is nowhere to hide on Twitter.

To find out more about Brewdog, click here.

Or you can follow them on Twitter, @Brewdog

The government is currently under big pressure to grow our export business so this week's task was very topical: a marketing campaign to promote English sparkling wine. Did the candidates have enough fizz to rise to the occasion?

Golden boy Tom was in his element as his day-to-day business away from realityTV is wine and he was quickly snapped up as project manager. Again. Fighting in the other corner was semi-pro wrestler Ricky Martin.

The emphasis of this brief was quality, quality and quality. Not tacky, cheesy or ridiculous - a place we quickly entered unfortunately.

Stephen gave his English brand a flipping French name 'Grandeur'. What a complete muppet! He was the driving force behind their advert creative, which is just dire. Jenna followed him like a lost puppy.

Tom and Adam got pissed during a 'tasting' while his team beavered away on a sensible, yet dull, brand and advert. Poor Lord Sugar had a tough choice to make - boring or tacky.

After their pitches the industry experts called time on Ricky's team stating their tacky advert let them down. Steven should be fired but as the snake that we know him as he slithered away to see another Apprentice day. Poor Jenna was sent home and we wish her all the best.

Hero

Gabrielle for developing a decent brand logo and talking sense throughout the task.

Villain

Stephen yet again for managing to always get away with it. How many lives does a snake actually have?

British based website builder Moonfruit have been acquired by directories giant Yell in an £18m cash deal that rewards the hard work of Moonfruit's founders Wendy Tan-White and husband Joe.

Key executive management from the shop building and web-hosting site that is integrated with Smarta Business Builder will receive a golden pat on the back in the form of £5.2m in retention bonuses after two years if they remain exclusively employed by Yell.

Yell is most commonly known as the yellow pages directory with 1.3m small business customers. Its purchase of Moonfruit is a step towards achieving its goal of becoming an online marketplace providing business tools as well as listings.

Currently, Moonfruit is the number one website builder in the UK with over five million sites and 230,000 shops built using it's services. It's managed to forge a following in the US with 1.5m sites built using its services there.

CEO of Yell, Mike Pocock believes the acquisition will be a great advantage to his company. "The addition of Moonfruit's services and team helps us provide competitive advantage to our global small business customers in connecting with consumers through digital, mobile and social," he says.

Wendy Tan-White co-founded Moonfruit with  Joe in 2000 and they've been gradually growing the company since then. They raised £1.57m in funding in 2010. The deal is great news for the pair. "We built Moonfruit to make it easy to publish and sell on the internet, and provide stylish web, blog and shop designs as well as easy-to-use web tools for small businesses," says Tan-White. "Joining Yell and integrating with its local eMarketplace provides access to larger audiences and additional resource to accelerate what is a common vision for the future."

Here's hoping the acquisition helps Moonfruit to continue to innovate and put British start-ups on the map.

Fore more articles about Moonfruit, click here

0-5 seconds: Sum your business up in a sentence.

Bizoogo is a UK social media site where aspiring UK entrepreneurs and professionals connect and collaborate to create new businesses.

5-10 seconds: What's the business model?

We're looking to generate ad-revenue through our directory, which will be a selective listing of business service providers offering value-added startup resources. Longer-term, we hope to add premium features.

10-15 seconds: Who are your competitors?

Start-up recruitment sites promoting vacancies in trading businesses, or freelancer sites that promote individual service-providers. But in contrast, we're a community that aims to source new businesses through working partnerships.

15-20 seconds: What's your USP?

Collaboration and idea-generation. Members across all industries and areas of expertise are able to connect and work together in partnerships that share the talent, time and cost of developing a new business. Instead of paying disconnected freelancers at a time when risks are high and money is limited, you can now find the people you need or collaborate on the ideas you want, with a shared interest to make it work.

20-25 seconds: How have you funded it so far?

So far we're self-funded. I actually collaborated with my developers to get the idea off the ground, so I know from personal experience how much it helps.

25-30 seconds: What were you doing before?

I trained and qualified as a lawyer at a London firm.

30-35 seconds: Where did the idea come from?

Dealing with my own start-up dilemma of having a business idea, but not having the technical skills or the industry know-how to develop it. We want to be a one-stop shop for talented, ambitious, aspiring entrepreneurs interested in pitching together to start new businesses.

35-40 seconds: What's the smartest thing you've
done so far?

Finding the right people to work with. It took a little trial and error, but I was lucky, or persistent enough to find a really great developer who was on my page from the start and made things happen.

40-45 seconds: What's the stupidest?

I could've been quicker to market in hindsight; the research, design and development took longer than I would have hoped. I think as a general rule, develop and launch your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) early and evolve as you go along according to feedback.

45-50 seconds: If your business was a biscuit, what would it be?

A Jaffa Cake; ordinary on the outside but with an amazing filling. Hopefully from a really simple and easy-to-use site we'll see a lot of great teams and businesses come out of Bizoogo.

50-55 seconds: Which idea are you a bit jealous of?

Instagram, definitely. An amazing product and a pay-day to match. If I was them, I'd be pretty happy right now.

55-60 seconds: Where are you going to be in 12 months' time?

We want Bizoogo to be a creative, dynamic and ambitious community packed full of ideas (big or small) and professionals looking to get involved across the industries. Watch out for added features along the way that are going to redefine this space. We're excited, so hopefully you will be too.

Follow Bizoogo on twitter @bizoogo, and 'like' them on facebook.com/bizoogo to stay connected.

For more information about Bizoogo, click here.

This speech included some announcements relevant to businesses, including cutting red tape on bureaucracy, fairer deals for the suppliers of supermarkets of which it includes diminishing regulatory barriers for businesses operations and expected reform changes on the Enterprise and Regulatory Bill, but it just wasn't enough. In fact, it was so lacking in terms of its focus on business I worry the coalition has run out of ideas or is no longer able to listen.

We are always looking over our shoulders at Germany, but the bulk of their growth and exports comes from small and medium-sized businesses. These are the very businesses that are not just strangled by red tape but also looked down upon by banks.

The government thinks that infrastructure as a headline grabbing story will be the way to kick start the economy. This is wrong for two reasons. First, infrastructure takes time to build and second, the funds are barely available unless we sell infrastructure to overseas investors. The sale of nuclear power to EDF and its recent cancellation would suggest that such a route is very high risk.

Getting the economy moving needs to be thought of far more laterally than mere investment. I hope that President Hollande in France also recognises this. De-regulation is a very important part of this, but the creation of enterprise zones will lead the way. These need to be expanded across the UK, as does the thinking behind them.

Let's take an example. In round numbers it looks like the government is overspending on ministry of defence re-fuelling tankers by £6bn over the next ten years. Assuming it corrected this overspend, it has £600m a year to put towards supporting small businesses and start-ups. Supposing each start up needed £50k, that fund alone would enable the establishment of 12,000 new businesses, each employing five people taking 60,000 people off the unemployed total. Not to mention the fact there would be 60,000 people spending more in the economy and paying taxes.

Now suppose the government goes into matched funding partnership with the banks so that their exposure is halved. We now have 120,000 more people a year employed. Add to this corporation tax, national insurance and rates support for say two years and for a zero sum there are seven more incentives to start and sustain a business and employ people.

There needs to be greater incentives and support for exporters too, which will see the balance of payments starting to improve. This is the only way our debt will be reduced in the long run. Also, the government needs to bring in a tax system whereby employers can get corporation tax rebates if they employ more people.

The coalition needs courage and imagination and it needs to come quickly. Osborne looks locked into the City and Westminster bubble and is missing the bigger picture.

For more information about Spring Partnerships, click here

You may have read recently the story of a car sales business in my home county of Kent that suffered a 'no-show' from all seven new members of staff due to start work on a wet Monday morning. Well, apart from the inclement weather, the common excuse for keeping them at home seemed to be 'better off on benefits' than risking failure in the commissioned-based role they'd earlier chosen to accept.

This beggars belief when you consider that the Centre for Economics & Business Research has just published figures that show how unemployment is forecast to rise in almost every region of the UK. In London for example, where we run the 100-seat Make It Cheaper call centre operation, it'll go up from 10.3% to 10.7% and in some regions it'll hit 13% by 2016. That's the highest it's been for two decades. So you'd be mistaken for believing that jobseekers would be a little more enthusiastic about turning up for their first day at work.

At Make It Cheaper, we champion a staff-get-staff recruitment policy and this is reflected in the levels of attendance and retention that are pretty abnormal for our line of business. I would estimate that at least a quarter of all staff have been appointed via referrals from existing employees.

We are more than happy to pay out £500 a time to the introducer (once the newbies have passed a three month probation period) because of the cost savings this brings. That's not because it's cheaper than using an agency or that we save on advertising (actually we always post job ads regardless). It's more about the value that our staff-sourced applicants deliver in terms of cultural fit, skills and motivation. We know that they come pre-loaded with the right attitude and have an instinctive obligation to work hard and deliver results. The introducer helps their friend to settle in and they both know they have something to prove.

Put it this way, no one who has been recruited in this way has failed to turn up for work on Day One.

Click here to discover how you could save your business thousands.

 In association with

There's never a bad time to launch a great business

If you have a great idea and you really are bringing a different proposition to the market, you can do it. I do think it is a difficult time to be a "me too" business at the moment unless you are just coming in on price.

It's always been hard to get investment. When we launched it was difficult to get investment as a non-web business, but when the bubble burst a couple of years later it would have been easier. I think it is always difficult, but if the idea is great it is always the right time.

At the end of the day most people only need one investor.

Employ brilliant people

Never be afraid of employing people who are smart and who understand the areas that you don't. You should always employ people who are great at dealing with the issues that you are weak at.

Hard work pays off

We were lucky in the way that nails inc instantly became popular and we were busy straight away. But as great as the idea is you need to work hard making the back end of the business operate well. Financially this took a bit of time and a lot of hard work.

It helps to have worked for somebody

I think it is very difficult to start a business if you have not worked for someone. It just means that somebody can help you work out your strengths and weaknesses.

Having said that, I would encourage anybody with a great idea and the real desire to go for it. But go into it with your eyes wide open having done all the research and with the right level of investment.

Embrace change

When we first started pitching for investment for nails inc all the potential investors wanted us to be a dotcom business, but that's not what we were. We now have a great website and an app, we take online bookings and send people text message reminders. I love all the digital elements but nails inc wouldn't have worked as a web only business because it has that service element.

For more information about nails inc click here, www.nailsinc.com.

The research, from energy provider E.ON, highlights the advantages of embracing technology and using a smart meter.

But we already know that there are potentially many more savings to be had for those who stay on top of their bills, not just in gas and electricity.

Smarta has teamed up with the money saving experts for business at Make It Cheaper and they can save you a bundle on all your bills.

Make It Cheaper has proven that there are savings to be found even where you think you're already on the best rates.

The free money saving service is totally independent and compares rates from suppliers to ensure you get on, and stay on, the best rates for your energy, telecommunications contracts, merchant services and insurance. Product specific experts are only a short phone call away, saving you time, money and hassle.

For more information about the service and to start saving today click here.

It's pretty much guaranteed that the Olympic torch will bring some unnatural disruption when it comes jogging into town. There's likely to be staff absences as well as problems with travel and deliveries.

However, if you plan in advance you can make sure your business feels the benefit from the extra attention our country will be receiving during the Olympic months.

You can start your preparation on 15 May, when NatWest hosts a special event titled The 2012 London Olympic Games - How will your business cope?

Taking place at the University of East London, Docklands Campus from 5pm, the event will showcase talks from Transport for London, a HR professional and will provide inspiration for special products that your business could offer that may sell well during the games.

Places are limited; you can register and find out more about the event, here.