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It seems Instagram, the image and video sharing service has overtaken Twitter in number of users, with a reported 400 million monthly active users compared to 300 million or so Twitter users.

I'll confess to missing the Instagram craze, there are only so many social networks to keep up with, although maybe I should have looked at Instagram instead of Google Plus?

But is Instagram any good as a business marketing platform? I've seen various discussions on Linked In and some marketing sites that Instagram is an untapped marketing resource.

Webpro News reports that Instagram which is owned by Facebook (didn't know that!) is about to launch an adverts as from today, utilising Facebooks advert infrastructure, following on from the ramping up of recent twitter adverts.

So is anyone dabbling with Instagram marketing or planning to use it for business promotion? Is it worth investigating as a marketing opportunity?

Be interested to hear your thoughts.

Terrible news about the Redcar Steel plant today, as the site will stop production with the loss of 1700 jobs. The plan is to mothball it, so it remains viable if a buyer happens to come along.

The Thai owner SSI has blamed the decision on falling steel prices, mainly from China making the plant unviable.

Unions are calling for the plant to be taken over and nationalised, but the Government has hit back saying that would mean stock piling steel if it couldn't be sold, and the losses footed by the Tax Payer.

The counter argument is that the banks were propped up at Tax Payers expense, so why not other industries?

With the decline of manufacturing over the previous decades, is it time to accept that traditional industry like this will be dominated by Chinese imports, or should we do something about it, event though we are trying to reduce our debt, not add to it?

Seems to be a tough call on either side, what do you think?

I'd assume the engines must be the same or at least derivatives across all the VW brands.

Unfortunately one downside of democracy is freedom of the press, which also equates to propaganda dependant on the political views of the editorial team 

Remember the likes of the Sun have moved from the left to the right, taking readership with them. Makes me smile that a newspaper can have so much influence over someones political opinions, including changing them. The trick is to fuel stories with a normally stereotypical slant from a supported political party. Sometimes you have to take a step back from headlines and media frenzy and take a balanced view.

One thing I like to do is was watch BBC News, then RT News (Russian news agency). Fascinating to see two different angles of the same story, but played out to manipulate different audiences. Somewhere in the middle sits the truth. Al Jazeera news is another good one, sometimes can be an eyeopener when you remove local petty left/right politics, and move into global politics, East, West, MiddleEast etc.

I suspect Corbyn and crew will resolve voter apathy, as the right wing press will steam into action about a year from election time with all sorts of doomsday scenarios, scaring people to the polling station  Meanwhile the Corbyn strategy is to engage in Labour grass roots and engage the young, who are more likely to vote, and full of impressionable ideology.

I reckon the next election will be a record voter turn out. 

Hi Phillip, I noticed your PM was disabled, so have enabled it so people can contact you, but your email is bouncing. Not sure if you are having email probs? Maybe add an alternative email so people can get in touch?

"Your message wasn't delivered due to a permission or security issue. It may have been rejected by a moderator, the address may only accept email from certain senders, or another restriction may be preventing delivery."

Well as Corbyn and his team start to settle in, and kick off with the Labour conference, he's certainly generating some positive coverage and keen to try and push a new "peoples" style of politics.

I'm cynical as it's early days, but some of the ideas are quite refreshing. Be interesting to see how the reaction goes down at his conference, and how much infighting there is.

Well the pattern has started, as expected the CEO walked, and now we already have "it is just a small group of employees that are responsible." So we are moving onto the scapegoat stage, no doubt it will be their line manager, or maybe his/her boss.

Lawyers around the world must be clapping their hands in joy, as a fresh PPI scale wave of compensation will no doubt descend on us. Can hear the call centre scripts all ready.. "Have you owned a VW in the last 5 years?"  I think VW will survive the initial crisis, but they must be worried about the long term legal bill.

Interesting story on the Beeb this morning. Apparently Brussels-based lobby group Transport & Environment has produced evidence that us motorists are being hoodwinked by all car manufacturers with false economy claims. That may take some pressure of VW.

On average, it found a 40% gap between the amount of petrol and C02 released in lab tests compared to real life.

Drivers are spending €450 (£331m) a year more than expected on fuel.

Over the lifetime of a car, this adds up to an average €2,800 for additional fuel, the report found.

Source: BBC - Motorists 'tricked' in car test abuses, claims report

I'll bet the banks are breathing a sigh of relief as it becomes the Motor Industry's turn for scrutiny (oh and World football).

It's great to lean from the mistakes of others and listen to advice. But one thing I can guarantee is that you won't get it right first time

Successful email campaigns evolve, sometimes over years. Change a line, response rate drops off, change a subject line, your open rate increases 20%.

There are so many variables that there isn't a one hat fits all approach. It depends on what you are trying to achieve and expectations.

What you won't get is a flood of new customers from a cold sales mail. So normally the aim is to introduce yourself and try and generate a potential lead. The hook on the mail will send them to a landing page which will make them want to get in touch. So the landing page has to be incredible otherwise your wasting time and money.

I would concentrate on getting your landing page/site up to scratch first, so any new possible lead has the highest possible chance of converting.

Then decide on the mail message, short to the point. Then one of the hardest things, convincing someone to actually open your mail and not delete it, so a killer subject line.

As I've said before, when it comes to data, it's about quality. So you want highly targeted data, tailored to match your ideal client base. No point sending to a fish and chip shop, or someone like us who aren't interested in import/export.

Email campaigns are an art form, and big companies will normally have a dedicated marketing person or team to develop and manage them. So for most of us, we tend to learn the old fashioned way which is trial and error 

Sending snail mail can be a very effective way of doing things, but the cost obviously goes up as you have postage, mail merging, printing etc. Or another option, telesales, get a call centre to try out some lead generation. All depends on aims and budget.

Be interesting to hear some other thoughts on mail marketing.

According to the British Chambers of Commerce, if an in-out referendum were to be held tomorrow, 63% of businesspeople would vote to remain in the European Union, 27% would vote to leave, and 10% are unsure.  Yet fully 50% said their vote could change depending on David Cameron’s renegotiation package.

Source: British Chambers of Commerce

It's interesting that one of the key debate issues, open borders and the freedom of movement, something the UK has been arguing against, is now under attack from within the EU itself! It seems every day we see new fences going up and "temporary" border controls getting implemented across EU countries, admittedly at the extreme reaches of the EU.

I wonder if the current migrant crisis will actually strengthen the UK's hand in the EU reform discussions, or give us more bargaining power?

With a small business head on, how would you vote if there was a referendum tomorrow?

Do you think we should leave and go it alone, or stay in the EU but continue to try and change from within?

Are you of the 50% that could be swayed either way depending on how effective Camerons negotiations are?