Stevie® Awards Extends 20th American Business Awards® Final Entry Deadline

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Thu, Mar 10, 2022 @ 09:00 AM

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of The American Business Awards®, announced today that the final entry deadline for the 20th annual competition has been extended through April 8, 2022. No additional late fees will be charged. Entries submitted through the new deadline will not be penalized in any way in the judging process.

“We’ve received so many requests for individual deadline extensions that we’ve decided to extend the deadline for everyone,” said Stevie Awards president Maggie Miller. The original final deadline was March 9.

Request the entry kit

ABA22-Extended-Social

The American Business Awards are widely considered to be the premier business awards program in the U.S.A. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations— public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large, and small. The 2022 awards will honor achievements since the beginning of 2020. Entry details are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

The American Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Categories include:

New category groups for 2022 include:

More than 250 professionals nationwide will participate in the judging process through mid-April. The Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie® Award winners will be announced on April 28 and celebrated during a gala event in New York City on June 13.

Every new product or service nominated in The 2022 American Business Awards will automatically be included in voting for the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products, an annual feature of the ABAs in which the general public votes for their favorite new products. Voting will open on April 29.

The list of past Stevie Award winners in The American Business Awards reads like a who’s who of innovation and business success in the U.S.A. Explore the list of last year’s winners.

Sponsors of The 2022 American Business Awards include HCL Technologies, John Hancock, Melissa Sones Consulting, and SoftPro.

Topics: social media awards, marketing awards, American business awards, company awards, Thought Leadership

The 20th American Business Awards® Issues Call for Entries

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Thu, Jan 27, 2022 @ 08:30 AM

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, have issued the call for entries for The 2022 (20th Annual) American Business Awards®, the top business awards competition in the U.S.A. Entry details are available at http://www.stevieawards.com/aba.

The entry deadline is Wednesday, February 9. Late entries will be accepted through March 9 with payment of a late fee.

ABA22 Now Open -Social2

Each year the ABAs attracts more than 3,500 nominations from organizations nationwide. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. – large and small, public and private, for-profit and non-profit - are eligible to submit nominations to the ABAs, in a wide range of categories honoring achievement in every aspect of work life, from customer service and management to public relations and product development.

The 2022 awards will honor outstanding work since the beginning of 2020.

More than 250 professionals nationwide will participate in the judging process beginning in February, through mid-April. The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie® Award winners will be announced on April 28 and celebrated during a gala event in New York City on June 13.

The American Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Categories include:

New category groups for 2022 include:

Every new product or service nominated in The 2022 American Business Awards will automatically be included in voting for the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products, an annual feature of the ABAs in which the general public votes for their favorite new products. Voting will open on April 29.

Topics: social media awards, marketing awards, American business awards, stevie awards, Call for entries

Call for Entries Issued for the 2022 Middle East & North Africa Stevie® Awards

Posted by May Hassan on Wed, Oct 27, 2021 @ 03:04 PM

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has issued a call for entries for the 2022 (third annual) Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards, sponsored by the RAK Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Entry kits and complete details on the competition are available at http://MENA.StevieAwards.com.

The Middle East Stevie & North Africa Awards are the region’s only awards to recognize innovation in all its forms through the workplace. The awards are open to all organizations in 17 nations in the MENA region: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

MENA22 entries now open

All individuals and organizations - public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small - may submit any number of nominations to any number of the categories.

There are no entry fees in this awards program. Organizations may submit as many nominations as they would like, without cost. Instead, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners will pay a “winners fee” for each successful nomination.

Nominations may be submitted online through two entry deadlines: November 4, 2021, and January 26, 2022. Winners’ fees payable will be lower for nominations submitted through the first deadline.

Interested in entering the 2022 Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards? 

Request the Entry Kit

Winners of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards in the competition will be announced on March 24, 2022, and celebrated during a gala event in Ras Al Khaimah at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on May 20.

The competition features two new category groups for 2022. The Video Awards categories will recognize innovation in video productions including design, format, production, distribution, and/or interactivity. The Social Media Awards categories will recognize innovation in social media content creation, moderation, management, and marketing. Virtual events have been newly added to the Events Categories.

Nominations citing innovative achievements will be accepted and judged in both Arabic and English, in more than 100 categories across the following category groups:

Winners of the 2021 edition of the awards included Al Anwar Medical Hospital, Boehringer Ingelheim, DHL Worldwide Express LLC, Dubai Global Village, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai Media Incorporated, Etihad Aviation Group, General Directorate for Traffic - Bahrain, Gulf Marketing Group (GMG), Intisar Foundation, Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure - Dubai, Ooredoo Kuwait, RAK Transport Authority, Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF), Stella Stays, VakifBank and many more.

 

The 2022 competition will be judged by more than 150 professionals around the world. Those who wish to apply to participate on one of the juries may do so at https://mena.stevieawards.com/sa-judge/register.

 

Topics: social media awards, business awards, social media marketing, Middle East, Middle East Stevie Awards, North Africa Awards, virtual events, influencers

Stevie Award-Winner Fulfills Freelancing Needs

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Thu, Jan 26, 2017 @ 10:14 AM

Freelancer is the world's largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and projects.  The company recently won two People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Companies in the 13th Annual International Business Awards. We got a chance to talk to Sebastián Siseles, the International Director of Freelancer about how the group connected with the Stevie Awards years ago and how they’ve seen the value of winning .

The 2017 International Business Awards opens for nominations on February 1. Request your entry kit here and it will be emailed to you as soon as it's available.

Freelancer 1.jpgSebastián remembers when they, “became acquainted with the Stevies back in 2012, when a well-known media outlet announced the winners of the IBAs. We were convinced right away of its importance as it recognizes the achievements of the world's most important organizations and its leaders. The following year, in 2013, we decided we were ready to apply to the awards as Freelancer.com had grown to be an outstanding company. That same year we were honored with our first Stevie Award.”

Freelancer.com has become a staple in connecting employers and freelancers to do work together 24/7 across the globe. Sebastián relayed that, “Freelancer.com is the world's largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and projects. We connect over 23 million employers and freelancers globally from over 247 countries, regions and territories. Through our marketplace, employers can hire freelancers to do work in over 900 areas such as software development, writing, data entry and design right through to engineering, the sciences, sales and marketing, accounting and legal services.

Sebastián stressed the importance of their vision, which is providing jobs and changing the lives of at least one billion people all over the world. For example, in the Philippines, Freelancer.com partnered with the government's Department of Science and Technology to extend online freelancing opportunities to Filipinos in rural areas with limited employment options.

Sebastián continues that they also have, “an ongoing partnership with the Malaysian government’s Multimedia Development Corporation, which provides education for Malaysia’s B40 communities.”

Recently, the company concluded its first round of the Train-the-Trainers program, which educated fifty (50) trainers who will be deployed across Malaysia to help underprivileged Malaysians find online work.

Freelancer.com has been a global success, Sebastián reflects on their first nomination:

“At the time of the nomination, Freelancer.com hit the 15 million users milestone and we wanted to acknowledge our community by putting together an e-book: https://issuu.com/freelancercom/docs/15mm_ebook

Sebastián also notes the significance of winning a Stevie:

“Receiving an award is always an honour for Freelancer.com. It also serves as recognition for the team for all the hard work. We always try to be part of the amazing Stevies Gala and the chance of networking while being there is just awesome.”

“Our community celebrates with us whenever we share the news with them and this seems to further boost their trust on the marketplace. They are always deeply informed about the nominations and always eager to cast their votes for us,” Sebastián adds.

Sebastián highlights the results from winning a Stevie:

“Freelancer.com has gained a lot of exposure due to the awards that we were honored with in the past three  years which led to an increase in user acquisition. With each award, we have reinforced our leadership in the freelancing market, especially with the People´s Choice Awards.”

"Here are links to press releases on our Stevie Awards since 2015":

Freelance work is growing exponentially. Sebastián reports their findings in this growing sector:

“Expanding opportunities for entrepreneurship and jobseekers’ preferences are driving changes in the online freelancing and crowdsourcing industry. And as seen in our growing number of users from around the world (currently at 23 million), more and more businesses and entrepreneurs are hiring freelancers online and a growing number of skilled professionals are providing services in their fields of expertise.

Sebastián details their industry highlights in, “seeing more employers from small businesses to major companies now collaborating with freelancers through crowdsourcing. An example of this  is  NASA’s partnership with Freelancer. Not only are they crowdsourcing the best ideas through a contest on Freelancer.com, they are putting together a virtual team of freelancers from around the world through remote collaboration. For example, they will hire a graphic designer from Latin America, a web developer from Asia, and  an internet marketer from North America.  These freelancers are working together as a team despite their locations. This is why we are continuously looking for ways to equip our community based on how their needs are evolving.”

Lastly, we asked if there is an inspirational story related to Freelancer.com that might appeal to our blog readers. Sebastian shared their 15 million users e-book that contains stories of how Freelancer.com helped change the lives of our users: https://issuu.com/freelancercom/docs/15mm_ebook

Here are recent stories from Freelancer in the Philippines:

Topics: social media awards, International business awards, media awards, The Stevie Awards, International Awards, international business

New Media 101, From a Stevie Awards Winner

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Mon, Jun 30, 2014 @ 12:00 PM

Suzanne McDonald is CEO of Designated Editor in Newport, Rhode Island, USA and winner of the Gold Stevie® Award for Upstart of the Year in the management awards categories of The 2014 American Business Awards, the top business awards program in the USA. 

Suzanne Mcdonald(Join the mailing list for the 2015 ABAs and you'll be emailed the entry kit as soon as entries open again in October.)

We asked Suzanne McDonald to explain how she came to found her company. “When I started in the Social Media business, I had been a successful journalist. By 2006, with the looming end of print as we knew it in the form of magazines and newspapers, it was clear to me that print would ultimately coalescence with New Media. Even though it was early days for this trend, I chose to jump the journalism ship and set a course for the new world of Social Media, which is where I believed the future of journalism lay.

“Since then, I have become an expert in New Media—the area of marketing information, rather than brands themselves—that includes every aspect of social media, plus everything that is crucial to have a powerful and fully integrated marketing platform and results. This can include face-to-face networking or it can include branding. It all depends on the client.”

Bringing Social Media to Educators
Suzanne explained how she had started providing services in New Media to universities. “In the past year I have become one of the national leaders in the movement to bring social media—really New Media—into university settings. I have spearheaded this movement because I saw—and still see—what happens when young people use Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and Instagram, but have no idea how to use these tools cohesively to become useful, usable, and effective in a business setting.”

Continues Suzanne: “I believe students must learn these key tools in college and/or graduate school, and then bring their tool-based skills and strategic know-how to the workplace. Doing this, I believe, will make finding jobs a lot easier. There’s nothing like results to prove your value in the workplace, big or small, and today’s metrics-linked communications and marketing makes this entirely doable.”

Top 10 Tips for Students & Businesses
Suzanne has some useful advice for both businesses and university students, the most fundamental of which is: Be sure to get the New Media guidance you need as you move along your online journey. Following are the ten areas where Suzanne feels both businesses and university students need help:

1. The Campaign Counts.  Whether you are a giant global company or a college student or administrator, you must build a comprehensive and consistent focus for your social media/New Media work—and that focus needs to be a “direct hit” with your target audience. 

2. Know your Target Audience.  Believe it or not, most companies—no matter their size—haven’t taken the time to pinpoint their actual target audience. Do it! An often-seen example: Your audience is B-to-B and you are posting some or all C-to-B. 

3. Share Cautiously. The number-one problem in the world of New Media—whether you are a business executive or a student learning the New Media ropes—is oversharing. If you are putting out too much information, some of it will ultimately be detrimental to your image or your cause. And once it’s up, it can be difficult to remove (although this is one of the fastest-growing areas in New Media jobs). If you’re not sure what to post and when, get the expert advice you need first.

4. Ask Yourself: “Are We Boring our Audience?” This may seem like part of the two items above, but in the world of New Media, it very much stands alone. Avoid putting information online that is not of interest to your target audiences. Do that and you risk losing them. Example: Many companies I work with pack their online arenas with press releases that few people care about. My constant advice: Revise those press releases to resonate with your target audiences.

5. Be Smart about SEO.  As noted above, before you post online, make sure that the post is a perfect fit for your target audience. Avoid posting just for search engines (e.g. the press releases). Have a perfect fit first. Then, if you get great SEO to boot, even better.

6. Know Where to Find Your Audience! Yes, you’ve already segmented your key target audiences, but after doing a nice job, you’ve fallen into the next big New Media trap: you’ve forgotten to find out WHERE your audience exists online. Example: Your audience is primarily female, and you really need to be on Pinterest (largely female) but you’re on only Facebook.

7. Know Your Metrics—and Metric Tools.  Are you analyzing what you have done so far and seeing where you succeeded and where you need to refocus or retool? Example: A participant in one highly successful university-based project I ran used Google and Twitter to analyze the results of a campaign and came up with very little. I stepped in and instead compared them to similar campaigns at other universities and— guess what—they came up near the top, which is where they belonged.

8. Know Your Top Influencers. Be sure you know—and know well—who is following you on Facebook; who is following you on Twitter; and who the influencers are on both. It’s easy to get this information, particularly on Twitter, so use it.  An influencer response can yield big results—if not the first time, then certainly over time—and it’s your job to know who the influencers are.

9. Build New Media Relationships. This is an adjunct of the item above, but it also stands on its own as a key aspect of New Media: build relationships with your top influencers and stick with it until you get New Media placements.

10. Be Pitch Perfect! Where do I see companies and university students/administrators miss the mark most often? Call it “off-pitching.” Example: You’ve found an influential fitness blogger who is vegan, and yes, he or she reaches millions—but you work for a snack food company. Don’t pitch that blogger. Instead, look for influencers who are a perfect match for your product or idea or point of view. One “off-pitch,” and the influencers may never work with you again.

According to Suzanne, these suggestions should be looked on as a tune-up for businesses and university leaders. As she puts it: “Be sure to get the help you need, even if you are working with an agency. You need to know all relevant aspects of New Media, and it is sometimes the case that so-called ‘experts’ give you what they know, not what you need to learn.”

Suzanne’s conclusion: “Whatever it is, take the time to learn the fundamentals in order to be able to ask good questions!”

About Suzanne McDonald
Suzanne McDonald is a revolutionary in New Media who started her company, Designated Editor, with the express purpose of educating clients on every aspect of New Media. This includes social media from Google+ to Twitter, as well as WordPress, blogger outreach/strategy, fully integrated marketing, and face-to-face events/networking.

McDonald’s objective is to combine all New Media into a consistent whole, and to do it affordably and thoroughly. By so doing, she has become the leading purveyor of New Media expertise in New England. McDonald's "techie" forum in Newport, Rhode Island, reaches nearly 1,000 business leaders, and her business has doubled in size each year since it began.

About Designated Editor
Designated Editor is New England's leading purveyor of New Media expertise at affordable rates, encompassing every aspect of New Media including Social Media. Founded in 2006 by Suzanne McDonald, Designated Editor is New England's leading source for techie forums, business-to-business networking for technology pros, and for global clients needing one-stop-shopping for a world that has become treacherous to navigate. As of 2013, Designated Editor is a leader in the movement to educate university students nationwide in New Media. For more information go to www.designatededitor.com.

Topics: social media awards, business awards, American business awards, management awards, entrepreneur awards, New Media, Designated Editor, Suzanne McDonald