For any business winning awards, no matter how big or small, it can be a great boost for confidence, PR and Marketing and gaining new business. Many businesses will hit the awards scene, as I did myself, and the whole experience of taking part from winning to losing is a great learning curve.
Having won several awards for my businesses over the years to include now putting on my own awards in different business sectors, I wanted to take a look back at what I did in the early days to get underway with awards for business.
Twitter is surprisingly a great place to nose about re awards, there are many that take place weekly that can really help especially those small businesses looking for a little lift. The best way to get these across to you is by listing them so that you can do your own research and start to take part:
- #SBS – This is a weekly award that was set up by @TheoPaphitis of Dragon’s Den fame. Each and every Sunday from 5pm with the results announced by Theo on Monday evening at 8pm (6 winners each week). Once an SBS winner you can network with the growing community on Twitter and there is also an annual event that takes place in the midlands where a great business day can be had and you can get your photo (new winners only) with Theo Paphitis himself.
- #WOW – Another weekly awards by a business entrepreneur this time @Jacqueline_Gold (Ann Summers CEO). Aimed at women in business, each Wednesday 1-3pm where Jacqueline will then choose three winners. You can also get to meet Jacqueline where three of her most favoured #WOW winners are invited for a unique business dinner with her – My wife won this a few years back and had lunch with Jacqueline at The Ivy in London.
- #SmartSocial – Put on by Small Business to Small Business news channel @Marketme, the #SmartSocial badge is awarded weekly to one UK small business that showcases how it uses social media to increase its business profile. There are already hundreds of winners who can get to feature on the Marketme website and receive retweets for using the hashtag #SmartSocial via @SmartSocialUK and @Marketme Twitter accounts that hold 60,000 +
- #QueenOf #KingOf – Run by @AquaDesignGroup with #Queenof every Thursday 9am to 9pm and #KingOf every Tuesday 9am to 9pm. Rewarding small businesses (two of each weekly), AquaDesignGroup look for stand out small businesses that showcase great flair and efforts within their business sector, there is a growing community for this concept.