The buzz of The Bees – The first international social media awards are here!

Posted by Sarah McVeigh

Living in San Francisco certainly has its perks when I get to meet people in the industry like Bastien Beauchamp and Cara Drolshagen. As organisers of The Bees Awards – the first international industry judged award ceremony for social media – Bastien and Cara have a rare insight into the emerging trends in this burgeoning field.

For me, one of the highlights of the interview is when Cara talks about the importance of engaging with people offline. That is, to actually meet people, share information, and build relationships, rather than just expecting that you can develop some kind of anonymous social media presence. I like that reinforcement of the fact that it’s all about being social.

Further, Bastien shares how the criteria for the awards are structured, with four key points that I think are a great basis for self evaluating any social media activity.

These are:

• Challenge,
• Strategy,
• Execution; and
• Results.

When we discussed the sometimes touchy issue of R.O.I. in social media marketing campaigns, Bastien shared some really valuable points.

“When you go on social media, it’s all real time and if it’s boring, well there’s no result, because people won’t click, won’t view….you have real time feedback. You can’t lie on social media – it’s all real.”

To this Cara added the very relevant point that social media has the same challenges as other advertising campaigns. You’re likely to have an audience who are open to your ideas, however pushing beyond that to a wider group is inevitably a challenge. “It’s just about the execution,” she says.

For more information on The Bees Awards, visit their website, follow them on Twitter, or ‘like’ them on Facebook. The outcomes of these awards are going to have a great impact on the industry in terms of recognising leaders, as well as best practices. Stay tuned!

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About Sarah McVeigh

Sarah McVeigh is part of Bluewire’s alunmni. Sarah worked as a copywriter from 2009-2011, before accepting her dream career of being a journalist for the ABC.

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