Here’s a quick round up of a few you might want to think about entering or voting in.

First off there’s the annual O2 X awards for UK businesses with 1-50 employees that have done something daring, different or unique. Details online from the above link with a closing date of 1 August 2009.

Next up there’s the Techcrunch Europas, a celebration for all things web startup throughout Europe on which you can vote. If you want to vote for your favourite be quick, as winners are announced next Wednesday 9 July.

For businesses with an eye on international trade with China there’s the Cathay Pacific China Business Awards. These aim to recognise successful British businesses in the region. Entries to be submitted online by 31 October 2009.

Finally bringing awards right back down to a local level, we’ve just heard about the Martin & Audrey Wood Enterprise Awards launched by Oxford Innovation. The awards celebrate hi-tech startups in Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley. To enter or nominate a company before the closing date of 15 September 2009, head to the above link.

We’re great believers in recognising success here at SmallBizPod, so if you know of other awards we should be highlighting, do get in touch.

[Picture credit: terren in Virginia licenced from Flickr]

But it’s not just geeks and celebrities who are now into Twitter. Small businesses are adopting the platform in increasing numbers according to research released today by mobile phone network O2.

Nearly one in five (17%) SMEs surveyed said they were tweeting regularly, with more than a quarter (28%) of those signing up over the last 4 weeks.

According to the research marketing and recruitment cost savings are cited as the main benefits of the much hyped micro-blogging service.  One in ten firms claim to have saved £5,000 by using Twitter and nearly a third £1,000.

In addition to the 74% who highlight cost savings and marketing advantages, small businesses found the service useful for keeping in touch with customers and suppliers (42%), monitoring competitors (34%) and generally feeling the benefit of being connected to other small companies (28%).

The simplicity of Twitter may also be seen as a plus.  Four in ten say they are using it more than either LinkedIn or Facebook.

The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne for O2, surveyed around 500 SMEs and estimates 700,000 UK small businesses are now using Twitter (i.e. 1 in 6 of the total UK SME population).  This is probably a bit of a stretch bearing in mind the total number of twitter users globally is guestimated to be around 6 million as of February 2009.

Nevertheless, the basic findings of the survey feel right anecdotally.  SmallBizPod has been tweeting (@alexbellinger and @smallbiztweets) since 2007 and we’ve written about the business and business benefits of twitter on several occasions.  It’s certainly our experience that there’s been a surge of small business interest in Twitter over the last 12 months.

Even the Federation of Small Businesses has recently started to tweet, so perhaps we really have reached some kind of SME micro-blogging tipping point!

Nearly half (49%) of the 500 firms that took part in the research said they’d lost business as a direct result of malfunctioning technology or internet outages.  In addition 43% said staff frustration at IT issues had lowered productivity.

Taking this lost time and productivity into account 22% of SMEs assessed the total annual cost to exceed £5,000.

This situation is made worse by a DIY approach to fixing IT problems as small businesses shun professional help to cut costs.  This comes at a time when the survey suggests that small firms are leading the way in adopting new technology as a means to compete more effectively.

Almost a quarter (24%) of those surveyed said they rely on mobile technology as they spend up to half of their time out of the office.

Gary O’Connel, managing director of Burn Marketing, commented on the research saying:

We never thought twice about downing tools and just trying to fix any technical hiccups ourselves …  It wasn’t until we’d expanded a bit and got a dedicated tech support service we realised how much valuable time we were losing trying to be IT technicians and not marketers. Now we’re able to concentrate on doing what we’re good at.

The old issues of delegation and false economies are as relevant in the technology space as any other for startups and small businesses.  Clearly, however, SMEs are facing tougher decisions on what they spend their money on as the economy continues to look bleak.

[Picture credit: Don Fulano licenced from Flickr]