Complete list of winners,
Austin Police, Food for Lovers, Q Austin, St. Edward’s honored.
From college campuses to local retailers, more than 100 nominees were submitted for the Statesman’s Social Media Awards. A team of judges identified the top 10 people and organizations who found creative ways to engage online audiences. Video production company Rooster Teeth won the overall honor. Here’s a look at the other nine winners:
Austin Police Department
From sharing tips about road closures to asking for the public’s help finding suspects, the Austin Police Department finds helpful ways to engage with the city via social media. One of its Twitter highlights is a tweet-a-long, where a staff member rides along with a patrol officer and live tweets what happens to give its social media followers a look into police operations.
Food for Lovers
“Vegan queso and salsa company Food for Lovers doesn’t just use its social channels to promote its own products. With tweets and posts about restaurants, other animal-free products and news, the company has created a valuable resource and support network for the vegan community,” says Statesman food writer and Social Media Awards judge Addie Broyles.
Allens Boots
The famed boot shop may have been around since 1977, but it’s bringing loyal customers into the future with them. On the Statesman’s Social Media Awards nomination page, one fan wrote, “I follow Allens Boots on all social media accounts! They are awesome! They always offer fresh fashion ideas, local stuff (event info or pics) and giveaways. I love how active they are because it really makes me feel the connection of real people — not some huge corporate business. It’s refreshing.”
Transmission Events
Social media guru Bianca Fiesta Flores livens up the Internet with her fun and informative messages on behalf of Transmission Events, which handles booking for many live music venues and offers production services for local events.
One online commenter wrote on Flores’ nomination form: “Her ability to create a character within each social media account makes all of her work fun. It’s this distinguished voice that lets people interact with her organizations more like friends than just some business they know of, and that’s why people remember what she posts.”
HomeAway
The Austin-based travel site HomeAway has become an online destination for anyone searching for rest and relaxation. “HomeAway has blossomed online with its smart use of services such as Pinterest and its strong focus on customer care,” says Statesman tech culture writer and Social Media Awards judge Omar L. Gallaga. “Lots of service-based companies work to please customers, but HomeAway has done it in elegant ways that are consistent with its brand and business.”
The Q Austin
Whether it’s a funny video or photo, The Q Austin, a project of AIDS Services of Austin, finds clever and relevant ways via social media to raise awareness among the young LGBTQ community.
St. Edward’s University
How does a college campus reach people across generations, from parents to students, via social media? “St. Edward’s University tells a story on its social media about the personality of the campus,” wrote one commenter on the online nomination form. “The characters of that story are the students, faculty and alumni. All their pages have tales that collect into one uniformly dynamic narrative that is shared with its followers.”
Very Short Story
Who says you can’t inspire someone in 140 characters?
Austinite Sean Hill fits moving short fiction into a tweet.
Hilah Cooking
The online cooking show starring Austinite Hilah Johnson offers beginner and intermediate cooks informative and entertaining instruction in a fun way. Johnson’s YouTube channel has more than 100,000 subscribers as well as Twitter and Instagram accounts that let fans share their culinary adventures.