small business :: Thinking Home Business | Practical Tips For People Who Work From Home

I have to admit that at any given moment I don’t know whether to be highly impressed or highly amused by the way Twitter, which allows you to share messages with a 140 character limit, has taken the social media world by storm.

Maybe a bit of both. It mightn’t be – no, isn’t – the only game in town, but it is a fascinating game and one I see as going on for quite a while.

And while I don’t know, and doubt that anyone does, how many Twitter users are owners of home based businesses, I’m guessing that the answer is A LOT.

Jeremiah Owyang’s estimate, as of late January, is for around 5 million registered Twitter users and some 3,400,000 active users.

So what would be a reasonable guesstimate of the number of Twitter users with home based businesses or – not the same thing but interesting anyway – users who work from home? A million? Two million?

Whatever the figure is, I find, as a professional working from home, that Twitter has a special appeal for me. On any given day I am as likely to be:

amazed at how a tweet has made me aware of a resource I would not likely have known about otherwise
annoyed with myself for wasting time on Twitter trivia
amused and entertained by the wit of fellow twitterers
inspired by how helpful people on Twitter can be – and have been, to me and to others

In March last year I listed five ways Twitter helps me in business.

And now Anita Campbell, who edits the Small Business Trend site, has put together the ambitiously titled Ultimate Small Business Twitter List.

I have to say I think Anita has been very brave in doing this list. There will always be people who feel left out. As Anita acknowledges, in seeking to list “the people on Twitter who regularly provide information by, about and for small businesses”, she had taken on an “impossible task”.

Nevertheless, for anyone in small business interested in exploring Twitter, this is a great list of tweeple to start following.

Good to see @BeckyMcCray there, whose blot Small Biz Success is focused on business in rural communities and small towns.

Denise O’Berry – @deniseoberry at Justforsmallbusiness.com – has been providing resources for small business for as long as I can remember, as indeed has Anita herself.

What I found more interesting than the listing of individuals on Twitter – “tweeple” – was the listing of corporate Twitter presences.

Some of these are anonymous, others have individuals fronting the brand: there is a third category of what appear to be individuals but may or may not not represent real, individual people.

@AngelaATHP and @tacanderson at HP look like real people.

As does @DannyUrquiea at American Express.

@bbsnewswire is a disembodied corporate id for Better Business Bureau.

@gowithabc is not representing a broadcasting company but a group blog, America’s Best Companies – tag line “The Future of Small Business”.

Some seem confused: for example, at Microsoft there is Louise Rasho as @officelivegal and Amanda as @officelivegirl who has a tweet on Feb 7 saying “Merging accounts here. Please start following me at OfficeLiveGal”. So would that be Amanda or Louise we would be following?

I would love to see a list of Twitter people with home based businesses and Twitter names for companies servicing that market. If you are part of one or both of those groups, please feel free to leave some info about what you do and your Twitter id in the comments here.

If you choose to follow me on Twitter – @deswalsh is my handle there – I’m likely to reciprocate as long as I can see something real about you, preferably a blog, or LinkedIn profile. I don’t usually follow anonymous corporate Twitter identities or sales pages.

Tweetbird image courtesy of ProductiveDreams

Here’s an interesting challenge. Make a 30 second video which answers the question “Why does small business work for America?” and you could be on your way with an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C.

The prize includes participating in the 2008 National Small Business Summit, June 8-11, where, the organizers say “you can interact with business leaders, entrepreneurs and policymakers to share your experiences and find new ideas to boost your business”. Oh, and there’s a $5,000 cash award too. And staying at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C.

Sponsors of the Small Business Works for America Video Contest are the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and eBay.

The selection process is: initial review, then entries posted on YouTube for you and others to rate them, then a selection of semi-finalists and an overall winner, by a panel of judges.

Criteria are:

Originality (50 percent)

Overall creativity (25 percent)

How well the video answers the “Why Does Small Business Work for America?” question (25 percent)

Guidelines include:

1. Exciting, passionate, fun, modern, smart, cool, adventurous and entrepreneurial.

2. Video can be in any style: live action, animated, etc.

3. Take risks. Be fresh.

The objective is that when people have watched your video they should be “intrigued enough to visit the NFIB site and find out more”.

To participate, you do not have to be a small business owner, but you do have to be a “legal resident” of the United States.

The Small Business Works for America Video Contest opened on April 1 and entries can be submitted till May 15, 2008.

Note: I have no involvement with NFIB or in the contest. The NFIB asked me to publicize the contest and it looked like something some people would want to know about. If you decide to participate and your video is selected to go on the contest YouTube site, please leave a comment here to let us know.