Alyssa Smith Jewellery Limited

Many entrepreneurs can say that Twitter helped them enhance their brand. Alyssa Smith can boast that it really was the making of hers.

The 26-year-old jewellery designer took advantage of Twitter to find out exactly what her customers were looking for, and then used it as a means to drive awareness of her fledgling brand. Some of her most recognisable work even takes direct inspiration from the micro-blogging site, such as her Tweetie bird pendant and her hashtag necklace.

The result is a company which, just two years after launching, is highly profitable and has a 6,500-strong Twitter following. The business has plenty of celebrity fans too: Theo Paphitis, Richard Branson, Dawn Porter, Carol Vorderman and X Factor's Caroline Flack all buying her designs.

Alyssa has gone from making all her pieces in a small workshop by herself to having a team of jewellers in the UK creating them for her. Along the way, she's managed to bag an array of high profile business and fashion award nominations and wins. Most recently she scooped the Star of the Future gong at the Specsavers Everywoman Retail Awards.

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