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!

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is calling for a radical overhaul in the corporate tax system.  A CBI report released today, ‘UK business tax: a compelling case for change’, proposes a number of key reforms including: a headline corporation tax rate of 18% within eight years; a commitment to no legislative tax surprises; establishment of an independent tax commission, and; a simplified tax system to stimulate SME growth.

Richard Lambert, CBI director general said:

The UK tax system cannot continue as a ball and chain round the ankle of British business, when it should be a springboard for encouraging growth and attracting investment

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) reacted negatively to the CBI proposals, arguing that they represented a ‘tax dodgers’ charter’.  General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

The CBI is either astonishingly naïve or extremely disingenuous if it believes there could be such a thing as a non-political tax commission. Nothing is more political than tax policy.

Meanwhile the FSB is urging reconsideration of the planned changes to family-run business tax arrangements. 

John Wright, FSB national chairman, said:

Changes to income shifting rules will force family business owners to create and maintain an unrealistic amount of paperwork on individuals’ contributions to their business. It totally contradicts promises the Government has made about reducing red tape.

Small business groups have always lobbied hard ahead of Budgets, but you sense that recent flip flopping by the Chancellor is adding a certain piquancy to the process.

According to Chris Glen, FSB transport chairman:

Now is not the time for the government to be adding to their problems by increasing fuel duty. After a really tough year and several major tax increases, small businesses deserve a break.

The implication is that by avoiding an increase in fuel duty the government might be able to restore its battered reputation with SMEs. 

Personally, I think its highly unlikely Britain’s small businesses would be bought off that easily.  It’s equally unlikely that the government will consider a duty freeze for a split second.  Can’t blame the FSB for playing to its constituency though.

Like Dell, BT and Microsoft before them, LaCie has decided to aim one of its latest offerings, a RAID based shared storage system up to two terabytes, squarely at the small business sector.

Remote access allows users to instantly and securely obtain all files stored on the 2big Network situated at the office, with any internet connection.  For small businesses with a dispersed work force this type of shared storage could prove very useful.  However, I’d suggest this is something you’d probably only want to set up with professional in-house or outsourced IT support.

The 2big Network appears to be relatively good value for money with retail pricing for the 1 terabyte model expected to start at