ROB offers advice for small businesses

In our previous life we had the pleasure of doing some business with venues in Toronto's historic Distillery District and we wish them well in this economic uncertainty.

But even if your business isn't targetting high end clientele that the Distillery District attracts, read on in this article from the Globe's Report on Business to hear some sage advice about small business survival - and benefits - when times are tight.

Learning to tweet

We're embarking on expanding our knowledge of the wide world of social media. A little behind the times perhaps, but among our social and professional circles we're savvy to the extreme. Time to expand the social network, you say? We agree. The slightest tweet has our friends saying "yes, I agree - Spring can't come fast enough." They're still finding their way around Facebook while we're mastering Twitter. It's not much, but we'll get there.

Okay, so we're not leading the pack. But we're doing what we can to watch the leaders and take in the possibilities of this wide, exciting world of what blogs, microblogs and social news sites are doing to change the landscape of the public conscioussness. There are exciting opportunities to have real discussion about issues that matter. If they're smart, marketers and communicators will see what's coming and jump on the bandwagon to join - not control - the discussion, and work as part of a community to meet common goals.