Five entries in the Twitter Business Plan Contest. Five winners: because, in keeping with the current state of social media marketing, participation equals winning.
Here they are:
smallbiztrends @hoovers Monetize answering research questions for readers on a section of my website – ad supported – listing fees featured research 11:08 AM March 04, 2008 from web in reply to hoovers 
@smallbiztrends wins the coveted ‘clearest articulation of how to make money in a ridiculously small number of characters’ award! Congratulations, smallbiztrends!
zackgonzales @hoovers pink eraser scentd cologne in pink parallellogram bottle, distro thru urban outfitters, archie mcphee, and scholastic book fairs 07:52 PM March 03, 2008 from web in reply to hoovers
@zackgonzales ties for ‘best channel strategy’ and wins the ‘best use of olfactory imagery’ ribbon. 50 bonus points for using the word ‘parallelogram’. Great job, Zack!
AndyBeard @hoovers Business plan by tweet? Sim Startup (All formats – I am sure I could get Activision to publish) 02:25 AM March 04, 2008 from web in reply to hoovers
@AndyBeard takes the award for ‘most likely to get the Egghead as a beta customer’, and ties with Zack for ‘Best Channel Strategy.’ Nicely done!
TwitterTutor @hoovers I want in on your “business plan contest”: @TwitterTutor offers live training on Twitter http://tinyurl.com/38pfwk 06:35 PM March 02, 2008 from web in reply to hoovers
TwitterTutor wins the “I’m already doing it, why wait for some silly contest!” cup, leaving the rest of us in the dust.
omni @hoovers integrate twitter into a student management system to send notifications to Middle and High School parents and students. about 5 hours ago from web in reply to hoovers
@omni brings home the gold in the ‘most practical application’ sweepstakes and the ‘best chin authority’ prize! The award is null and void if my daughter hacks the system once she hits middle school, though. And she’s already got mad skillz for a 4-year-old.
Thank you all for playing! You’ve validated (in my mind, anyway) two principles:
- That a medium like Twitter can be used as effectively as any other to communicate a business idea
- That any good business idea can be boiled down to a few words. I’m always suspicious of any idea that requires a fifty-page deck and a one-hour pitch to explain it
Winners are entitled to a free RSS feed to Egghead Marketing, redeemable by clicking the RSS icon to the left. Winners also receive bragging rights. Now back to sxsw or back to the weekend, depending on your plans.
Tags: microblogging, social media marketing, Twitter, Twitter business plan contest, Twitter business use
March 10, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Way to go Anita!
Too bad there were only five, these were quite interesting to read through. Way to force someone to be creative in getting their point across.
March 10, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Thanks Chelle!
~200 people viewed the contest post, so about 2.5% took the step to participate. That makes me think two things:
1) The Twitter population is well above the ‘rule of 1%’ in participation, referring to http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/2006/05/charting_wiki_p.html
2) I humbly recognize that I’ve got a ways to go in bringing folks in to the blog. But since I’ve only had it going since January I feel good about the progress and am delighted by the participation!
March 10, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Hi Russ, thanks for the acknowledgement. I think the business plan contest was a brilliant idea. I’ll be writing about this.
Have a good one!
Anita
March 11, 2008 at 6:28 am
Anita, thank YOU for your brilliant tweet and participation! Good luck with the business. Serving small business is very close to my heart as both my parents were entrepreneurs. If I can ever help in any way, let me know!
March 13, 2008 at 2:21 pm
yeehaw fame and filthy lucre awaits!
whens the next contest?
March 13, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Congrats Zack! Based on your TwitBizPlan, my guess is you can come up with brilliant ideas quicker than I can…so when’s YOUR next contest?
March 16, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Russ Somers,
I am still trying to figure out how I should use Twitter in my daily life…
Could you tell me how you came up with the name of your company (Egghead Marketing)?
Anita: Congratulations to the award!
All the Best,
Martin Lindeskog – American in Spirit.
Gothenburg, Sweden.
March 16, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Hi Martin!
Working Twitter into the daily life is interesting…I tend to use it as a text version of a radio playing in the background. I ‘tune’ the radio by choosing to follow interesting folks and then keep it playing all the time. My attention wanders, but the stream of information/insight is constant.
Egghead Marketing came up as a name because my nearly-bald head resembles an egg, and because of my fondness for the scene in ‘Cool Hand Luke’ in which Paul Newman bets that he can eat fifty eggs. No more thought than that…I just needed a nom de blog.
Cheers,
RS
March 16, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Russ,
Thanks for the mental picture on how to use Twitter. It was funny to learn about the name of your company and blog.
Cheerio!
Martin
March 23, 2008 at 8:40 pm
nice work, brother
April 1, 2008 at 11:03 am
[...] Won a Twitter Business Plan Competition by Egghead Marketing (Twitter is an online social media site where you are limited to writing in micro-chunks of just 140 characters — smallest business plan I ever wrote!) [...]
April 1, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I was just thinking about this over lunch. I came back to my desk and there was your post sitting on in my reader. Your latest post that is…
April 8, 2008 at 8:23 pm
[...] the first-ever Twitter Business Plan Contest where you have to explain your business in 140 characters or less to the very [...]