When January 1^st hits, you almost feel forced into making New Year's resolutions. And they are always the same ones; eat healthier, go to the gym, stop smoking. Most people resent making resolutions as it can feel like you are setting yourself up for failure. How realistic is it to eat healthily for the entire year?! You are bound to fall off the wagon at some point.

However, in business it can be very different, and creating resolutions - or goals if you wish - for the year ahead can be quite refreshing. You can sit back and reflect on the past year, look at what worked and what didn't, and make resolutions based on what will make your company even better.

So here @OctopusComms, we got together to discuss what we would like to achieve or do more of this year, and have pulled together our list of resolutions for making 2012 an even better year.

1) Network more

As PR professionals, we all know that contacts are key. You never know, that person you were wowing with your oh-so-witty-and-intelligent conversation at the pub last night could turn out to be a golden connection for you in the future. There's potential business relationships and partnerships to be made in so many places, and you can never have enough friends, so one resolution that we fully intend to keep in 2012 is to get out there and get networking. We'll regularly be showing our faces at industry, client and social events throughout the year, and we can't wait to see you there!

2) Expand our business

This year we want to expand our client base by going after yet more new business, winning exciting clients in new, exciting spaces. All while keeping our lovely current clients happy of course! As new technology emerges - and consumer and business trends change - we want to stay ahead of the curve and work with clients in these new spaces. We also want to apply what we learn to our existing clients to keep them ahead of their competitors.

3) Spend more time with journalists

We talk to them day in, day out, we know what issues and topics excite them and when they need to file their story. But we want to get to know them even better, preferably over a beer or two. This year we are each tasking ourselves with taking at least five key media contacts (whether national, broadcast, trade, consumer or blogger) out for a drink to learn more about what interests them, both in and out of work. This will help us develop even closer relationships and ensure we are always getting it right. Times change and journalists move on, so this knowledge will help us stay ahead of the game and continue to stay relevant to the journalists we work with.

4) Better utilise social media channels

Social media is something we can't live without, and in 2011 we saw more and more journalists using social platforms, like Twitter, to connect with brands. So this year, we are aiming to better utilise these channels to make the journalist pitching process a whole lot more informal (not to mention a darn sight shorter!). Using a neat little 140 characters instead of a long-winded email or a dreaded follow-up phone call has proved very successful, and we'll be trying our utmost to do it more this year.

5) We will put our hands up for 2012

It's safe to say we have had some stonking brand buddies and celeb link ups in recent years. Everyone from Amanda Holden and Colin Jackson, to Theo Paphitis and The Prime Minister(!) have helped us to tell our clients' stories to the rest of the world. Finding fame with our various London 2012 campaigns and exciting charity work with organisations like Comic Relief (we've even had lunch at the House of Commons), it's difficult to think of how we can top all we've achieved so far. But this year we have decided to work extra hard, setting our sights even higher, yes higher than working with David Cameron!  After all, we only have 'one shot' to bag the ultimate of celebrity endorsements.

Aston, Oriche, Marvin and JB, if you're reading this (and why wouldn't you be?!), we put our hands up!

They say that old habits die hard, but in this case its new habits made great.

Here's for an exciting 2012.

Jen and the team at Octopus Comms