Small Business Trends, headed by Anita Campbell and SmallBizTechnology, lead by Ramon Ray have teamed up once again to produce the Small Business Influencer Awards for 2012. 
The Awards are brought to you by Blackberry and this is the second year they will select the Top 100 Small Business Influencers from the U.S. and Canada.
“WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO BE A SMALL BUSINESS INFLUENCER?
A small business influencer is a person, app, company or other organization that has made a meaningful and lasting impact on the North American small business market. Impact may mean (i) providing products widely used by significant numbers of small businesses, or (ii) influencing significant numbers of small businesses by being a thought leader, or (iii) providing information or services of note to significant numbers of small businesses.”
I’m nominated in the category of Small Business Expert
I’m very pleased to be nominated for an Award this year in the category of Expert. I was nominated by Susan Payton, President of Egg Marketing, but you don’t have to wait for someone else to nominate you. You can nominate yourself as a Small Business Influencer and here are the six categories that you can choose from:
• Leaders (executives, academics, government officials, or key employees who are part of companies or other organizations serving the small business market)
• Corporations (companies that provide products and services to the small business market, and non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and advocacy and support organizations)
• Journalists (individual journalists, reporters, editors, broadcasters, bloggers, podcasters, freelance writers)
• News Outlets (media companies, newspapers, magazines, broadcasting companies)
• Apps (software applications, software as a service or SaaS, mobile apps, tablet apps)
• Experts (mavens, authors, speakers, consultants, advocates, professionals such as lawyers or CPAs)
I am super excited about being honored with a nomination and I’d like to encourage you to submit at least one nomination in each of these categories. Don’t you think it’s a great idea to give back to the people who have done so much for you and your business throughout the past year? You have until July 15th to submit your nomination after which time the community voting will begin. I’ll be sure to remind you once the voting starts and you can also keep up with the news related to the Awards by following @SMBInfluencer on Twitter.
What you need to nominate a Small Business Influencer
Before you submit your nomination, you’ll need to gather some vital information about the nominee. Here’s a list of what you need:
- Full name of the person, organization, app or company
- Short bio or description (1,000 words or less)
- Head-shot or logo
- List of professional memberships if applicable
- Reason for the nomination
- Contribution to Small Business in the U.S. or Canada
- Website, Twitter handle, Facebook Page/Profile and LinkedIn Profile
- Email address of nominee and yourself
{ 76 comments… read them below or add one }
USA is the leading place for business. If anyone can be an influencer across the globe, it will be from the USA. It is these small businesses that will propel the USA out of economic recession. Ileane Smith, I congratulate you for being nominated for the 2012 small business influencer awards. Wish you the best for future awards as well.
Hi Shalu, thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. Please think about someone you can nominate if possible.
Congrats Ileane for your nomination and thanks for sharing the the here with us at your blog. Will try to nominate a small business Influencer.
Hi Ehsan, thank you for nominating someone as a Small Business Influencer if you do!
Congrats, Ileane! You definitely deserve it.
I’m not going to nominate myself, as I don’t think I’m quite there yet, but I’m definitely going to vote for you. 
Hi Morgan, I think I felt the same way last year, but this year is a different story. Thanks for stopping by. We need to chat offline again soon
I agree, we definitely need to chat again soon!
Wow, congratulations on the nomination. I hope it works out for you in the end.
Abdul, I feel like a winner already
Thank you.
Ileane,
First and foremost.
Excellent work, I’m glad you’ve been nominated.
Fingers crossed.
(I bet a smile has been on your face all day?)
Hi Simmeon, you’re right, I’m still grinning. Thanks for your support.
So..next year.
I want to see you nominated for “Big Business Influencer”
Big step?
NO! You can do it.
Just let me know where to apply for that one Simmeon! I’m on it.
Never heard of this particular award before but sounds brilliant. A great way to increase your visibility and get some more exposure in and outside of your particular niche.
Congrats on the nomination!
Hi Flo, I’m sure I’ll be exposed to a new audience now as a result of the nomination. I’m looking forward to it.
Congratulations
Thank you Justin.
Ms. Ileane I congratulate you for being nominated. I can only dream of such an award. I know you are one of my top 10 influencer bloggers. I have learned so much from you and your style.
Hi Michael, that is so kind of you to say. I really appreciate your support. Thank you.
Great progress and all the best for it
Thank you Bishwajeet for supporting me on my journey.
No matter the outcome of this process, you are tremendously influential in small business, Ilene. Wishing you the best, and thanks for providing the submission details.
Congrats girl…so happy to see that you got nominated. Your contributions here shows all the work you have put into giving back. Girl I hope you win! You got my vote!
Hi Sonia! I’m thrilled for this nomination so thank you. I hope you plan to submit some nominations. This sounds like a great opportunity for some of your clients or perhaps some of the conferences you’ve attended. Give it some thought and let me know if you end up doing it.
Hi Ileane,
I’m so sorry this came very late, I was supposed to comment the first day this post was published but the cry of one of my son made me to get carried away and I didn’t remember to come back again lol.
I am not surprised to see you being nominated as one of the SMB Influencer because a hard work always pays and believe me, we all will definitely support and vote for you!
Valentine
Wow Valentine, you should post a picture of your soothing the cries of the little lad. LOL! I’d love to see you in “Daddy” mode.
Thanks so much for comment. All of your support and friendship is greatly appreciated.
It’s good to be nominated as one of the experts in small business influencer, another goal to achieve for others out there that are into writing blogs. Although this many not get every writers attention, it is still better if we keep influencing others to do something they can get profit from online. Congrats for being nominated..
Congratulations Ileane! No doubts here; you are a big time small business influencer.
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for saying that. I appreciate you.
Ileane, Congratulations! What an honor for you and please let us know when we can start voting away
I see you have a Twitter account for us to follow for more info – nice. I will have to think about nominating someone too. When they choose the top 100 are they in any order? Do you win something? I love your nomination logo that is nice. Good luck Ileane.
Lisa, I don’t think they put the winner in any type of ranking order. The voting starts on July 16th but don’t worry I will remind you when the time comes. If you nominate, please come back and let us know how you make out.
Congrats Ileane for the nomination.
Ileane is that necessary to take part into the list the businesses or the person should be US based or any other from the globe can be a part of it?
Ayaz, the Small Business Influencer Awards are exclusive to US and Canada.
That is a great idea and a super nomination – I am very pleased for you it is well deserved – do let us know how you get on.
Kind regards
Nicky
Hi Nicky, don’t worry! You’ll hear a lot from me about the Small Business Influencer Awards and I’m counting on your votes when the time comes.
Thank you so much.
Congratulation Ileane! As you already said, you should feel a winner even in the case of not winning the race. Just the simple fact that your hard work is recognized should be a great motivation to continue the awesome job you do.
Ileane,
Congrats… You are very deserving!! Let me know where and when I need to vote on you and it’s done!
Good Luck!!
Ryan H.
Congratulations Ileane for being nominated.
I remember last year when Christian Hollingsworth was nominated and I did everything in my power to get that boy some votes. He came in second in his category but I was very pleased because the guy that beat him had his own company so he had all his employees voting for him too. Since Christian only had his online presence I thought that was pretty impressive myself.
I will definitely wish you the very best and I know you’ll let us know when voting will start.
You go girl!
~Adrienne
Adrienne, I voted for Christian last year and encouraged others to vote for him as well. I’m sure someone will nominate him again this year, but if not you can certainly nominate him – you can even nominate yourself!
Hey Ileane, this is fantastic, you deserve it!
I wish you good luck!
Really a awesome Blog, very informative content, congrats you earned a new daily visitor……….
Congratulations on your nomination!
Thank you as well for the information. I have someone in mind who is worthy of a nomination as well. 
Way to go Ileane you deserve it. You help so many people everyday, in fact it’s amazing your success is in fact based our your amazing personality. Congrats again and hey it’s nice to have people like Susan out there thinking about you. I know Nicole Fende was also nominated so it’s going to be a great event.
Wow! Congrats to your nomination! That must be really a big deal! And after reading some of your posts, I have the feeling that you really deserve it. Big up!
What do I need to do to help you win?
Hi,
Congrats , you totally deserve it.
Congratulations! You really are an influencer.
Hi Ileane,
Good to hear the great news. I’ll vote for you and tweet about it to my followers.
Wish you best results.
For sure, you deserve to be. I am not quite sure that I will be able to cast my vote for you, as I am living in Asia, but I will give a try. Good luck, Ileane!
Wow – That is great news Ileane. Best of luck for the upcoming nomination.
Hello Ileane, thank you for sharing this. I a really happy to see this. You are rightly nominated as Small Business Expert. You deserve this, and i have no doubt at all. My all the best wishes with you!
Congratulations on your nomination Ileane! It only goes to show that you are doing a great job and that you have inspired, influence and gave a big impact on your reader’s lives. A truly well deserve nomination! Good luck and hopefully you’ll hit the spot.
congrats Ileane for the nomination… you really deserve it as you have inspired many bloggers and small business owners a lot…
Hi Ileane,
I’m a little late chiming in, but just wanted to say congrats on the nomination! You deserve it.
First of all i’d like to congratz for being a awesome honor that you earned through your emerging qualities of being a small business leader, What i think being a good leader one have to be a great INFLUENCER as this is one of the main definition of a leadership. hope to vote you but i’m in the region of America
Their for congratz again for your achievement.
Ileane you are fan following was increasing day by day and congratulation for nomination you are true inspiration for new bloggers.
that is very great achievement i hope you can in the award
as we all love reading your blog ..! we will support you
You certainly got my vote, ma dear!
If I will be able to call myself a businesman in 2012 I will be really happy
)
Congratulations Ileane! The best of luck to you, I hope you get it! You know you certainly deserve it!
First of all i’d like to congratz for being a awesome honor that you earned through your emerging qualities of being a small business leader,
congrats Ileane for the nomination…You really are an influencer.
Congrats Ileane for your nomination and thanks for sharing here with us. It is very great achievement and you are true inspiration for new bloggers.
Congrats Ileane for your nomination. You certainly deserve it!
Congratulations Ileane…. i am sure that you will win it… best of luck
Hi Ileane thanks so much for taking the time to nominate me into this website. I have taken the liberty to also share your link with our blog engage Facebook group. I have voted twice and plan on voting more as much as I can. Best of luck Ileane.
Did You Win The Award ?
Wow congratulations Ileane on the nomination.You totally deserve it.
This is an awesome post and something to consider once you start getting your site to where it needs to be!
Congrats Ileane!! peoples are wishing you for nomination but I guess you won it already, I could see the same in sidebar
Hi Ileane,
Thanks for sharing the information,Whenever i visit your blog i get some thing very informative like i got to know about what is small business influenzer.
Thank You
Shorya Bist
From Youthofest
Hey Ileane, this is fantastic
I wish good luck!
Hi Ileane, congratulations on the nomination. I’ve only just recently found your blog but I’m amazed from the quality of help and information you provide here, you have a tremendous influence in small business sector. I wish to find out you won!
Anyway, I’m sure you’ll keep the good work!
You Deserves This or I say You Are The Only One For This.. Congrats…
Quality information you provided here.it is really very useful for newbies.
Thanks for post.
Hi Ms.Ileane
I’m glad you’ve been nominated. The best wishes for you to be a Big Business Influencer 
Thank you for this sharing
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