Nice to hear that a UK company wins a global award. Step forward Wiggly Wigglers and their MD - Heather Gorringe. 

Dell awarded Wiggly Wigglers their Global Dell Small Business Excellence Award. The reason Wiggly Wigglers won....in Dell's own words....

Wiggly Wigglers, a rural England-based natural gardening company, was awarded by Dell and its global partners for its innovation and leadership in social media. Using tools like Facebook, podcasting and blogging, Wiggly Wigglers:

Business Week looks at the value of Social Networking sites to SME businesses.

Their conclusion? I suppose it has to be ‘could be’.

The sub-headline of the article says it all: 

“….To get the most out of social networking sites, small companies should look past the hype, set concrete business goals, then start experimenting…”

Our experience with a larger client (Poundland) was that using Facebook as a community information point worked well. We posted updates on new store openings, new stock lines and special offers. The customers used it as a way of asking questions of the company and sharing information with the company and among themselves. It also became a place for ex-employees to communicate amongst themselves and catch up with old friends and workmates. It was not used as an advertising platform but as a community where the customers shaped the ongoing conversations. The company already had established communication tools with customers but this opened up a new method and one to a previously difficult to reach group of younger consumers.

Another company (not a client) puts most of her success in building a £2.5m+ business down to the power of social media. Check out the Facebook pages of Wiggly Wigglers, their web site and podcasts. Almost 800 members on Facebook and a monthly audience of over 50k for the podcasts is a great ROI for something that takes them little time and money to update. Heather Gorringe, the MD talks about what she has done and the results. 

Heather Gorringe was recently featured in The Sunday Times being interviewed on How She Made It. Taking an initial £15,000 investment she has turned it into a £3m annual turnover business. Check out her mail-order site at Wiggly-Wigglers.

I interviewed Heather for a video podcast while we were both speaking at the recent European Podcasting Summit in London. 

If you want an additional insight into how Heather made it then watch here. You will hear how she has used audio podcasts as a way to help her become a global brand.

Wiggly has embraced social media and now has its own Facebook group.