nefollowers

Our Christmas edition is currently being put together by our very own little Christmas Elves but there is still time for you to send us information on any products/services you would like to promote in this very special Christmas edition.  Our rates are the most competitive you will find, and that’s before our special Christmas promotional rates – contact us for more details at mail@neflollowersonline.co.uk. 

The Christmas edition will be on line from 5 December until end January so you’re getting two months promotion for the price of one!!! 

If you have any events, or Christmas parties you’d like featured then we can include those too.

Don’t miss out – our sleigh will be dropping the magazine into 10000+ chimneys (otherwise knows as inboxes!!). 

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter too   @nefollowsonline

Well, we had a lovely evening at the Awards Dinner at the Xcel Centre, Newton Aycliffe – very nice venue!!  Lots of people all dressed in their best, looking glamourous (as we were, of course!).  Nice meal followed by the awards – very exciting!! 

Congratulations to  The London Women’s Clinic for winning the Innovation Award, they were sitting on our table and very excited to receive the award.

We’re very happy to congratulate Farm Fresh Direct (who appeared in our first edition) for winning the Best Use of Technology Award – well done!

Unfortunately we didn’t win the New Business/Product award, however, there were quite a few shortlisted companies in this section and we feel lucky to have been shortlisted considering our magazine is so new.  Congratulations to Planet Earth for winning this category. 

We’ll be back next year – so watch out!!!

For more details of the other categories, please click the link    http://www.thisisstar.co.uk/community/businessawards.php

Many thanks to Star Radio for a great night.

ARE YOU THE BEST IN BUSINESS?:

The search starts today for the companies in the North East that can show they are truly the best in business.  The region’s biggest and most prestigious business competition highlights and rewards the success of our most outstanding firms over the last 12 months.

Hundreds of companies came forward to show their strength, ambition and innovation as they entered the nebusiness awards last year, despite the toughest economic conditions for half a century.

And, although every company in the UK still faces big economic challenges, we hope that, this year, even more businesses will want to show they have what it takes to make the North East a strong and growing economy in the future.

The awards – organised by The Journal and the Evening Gazette – will give firms of every size and type the chance to show what makes them special in 10 categories, and they have until December 23 to get their entries in. Since 2001 when the sub-regional heats were launched, around 2,300 companies have entered at least one of the award categories.

That is a fantastic endorsement of the event and shows that the awards really mean something to the business community. And the roll call of big names who sponsor and provide more than 100 category judges gives the event credibility and gravitas.

They are all senior people in the region and they bring integrity, professionalism and diligence to arguably the most important part of the business awards event – ensuring we get the right winners.

The competition will have heats to find the foremost businesses from the three sub-regions of the North East.

Judges are looking for entries from across the region, from Teesside to the Borders, with competitions running for Tyneside and Northumberland, Durham and Wearside, and Teesside before the regional grand final that will reveal the best of the best. Companies which have been successful in past years have found that the awards inspire pride in their workforce, admiration from the business community, and raise their profile and reputation across the country.

The wide range of award categories means there is something for everyone. No matter how small or large your company, no matter which sector you operate in: if you’ve achieved something you’re proud of, there will be a category you can enter, with the best going through to compete for the prestigious title of North East Company of the Year.

The nebusiness awards are nothing without an audience. The core asset of the event is that more than 2,000 business people will attend one of the four dinners, and tens of thousands of newspaper and website readers will find out about the success of the finalists.

The North East, perhaps more than any other region, needs to highlight and celebrate business success. Our economy relies upon winning – successful companies and these awards are an excellent platform to share good practice and to feature the best companies that we have.

You can enter on line:

http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-events/business-awards/2011/10/12/search-is-on-for-the-best-in-business-51140-29577259/

Good luck to you all.

One of the key elements of any magazine is the photography and we are delighted with our front cover and our “meet the team” photo.

We promised to give the credit for the images to the photographer but we want to do more than that and really say thank you to Jessica Penaluna from Naluna Photography. 

Jessica is a highly talented photographer from the North East and she is just getting started with what we are confident will be a very successful career. Jessica has worked with us to capture the front cover images and did the Meet the Team photoshoot which we are delighted with. Not only has Jess photographed us but she also supports a regional dog charity by photographing the dogs that our team member Olive fosters, the photos are always fantastic and truly capture the characters of the lovely foster dogs and are essential in helping the dogs find forever homes. 

Jessica has a passion for photographing dogs and nature and her photographs are fabulous!

Jessica is 18 years old and highly talented, we are so proud to showcase such amazing up and coming talent and we look forward to featuring Jess in the next edition.

In the mean time please ‘like’ Naluna Photography on Facebook, why not book Jessica to photograph your best friend
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Naluna-Photography/177471592287414.

From everyone at NE Followers we wish Jess a lifetime of success and send big thanks for the wonderful images in the magazine.

Click on the cover to view the magazine.

It is the 27th September 2011, tomorrow is the launch of the very first edition of NE Followers Online in its’ new digital format. We have had quite a journey over the last 6 months as we evolved the magazine from being an online blog into what you will see and hopefully love tomorrow.

I love learning new things and when I bought NE Followers in April it was for 2 reasons:

- Firstly, I love our region, it is such a vibrant part of the country packed with brilliant people, places and businesses. NE Followers Online is a way of celebrating that and contributing to its’ growth.

- Secondly, I wanted to write more, in 2012 I will publish my first book and I saw this as an opportunity to learn and the amount of learning I have done since April has been huge.

When Sparkle took over NE Followers it was a relatively popular blog, but feedback from readers told me that the design and format wasn’t right,and that was the first thing we changed, however we didn’t get it quite right first time round. The biggest change happened in June when I really sat back and reflected on what I really wanted to do with this and the idea of producing an actual magazine was always the thing I came back to. At first that seemed like it was almost impossible but following a few months of research around what online technology could be used, how to market the magazine and what kind of things could  be done, it seemed a little more possible.

I am a huge believer in building a strong team and was clear that I wanted to work with 2 people who would share my vision and focus and bring a wealth of expertise to the table. I asked Olive and Amy to join me towards the end of the summer and together we have turned the vision into what you will see tomorrow. 

So its been a huge learning curve, a whole load of fun and lots of hard work but the first edition is the start of the next chapter, we plan to do our next edition in November so we can really reflect on feedback and evolve again before we launch monthly from January 2012.

I’d like to say a huge huge thank you to Olive and Amy … and whole heartedly recommend them both in their professions … if you want fabulous designs that make an impact or social media that works then contact Amy and if you want a Virtual Assistant to make your business run smoothly and allowing you time to do other things or you have a much loved older dog who you want to make sure is well looked after then contact Olive (who is no relation, by the way!).

You can find out more about us all on the Meet the Team page. 

I hope you like the magazine, please let us know what you think and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter so you receive your free copy direct to your inbox every month.