How to enter (and win) awards in 2022

I took this to heart and immediately started entering awards. Although my business was still EXTREMELY young, I entered awards I thought I had no hope of winning. And much to my shock, we started to get shortlisted as finalists. We even took home a number of recognitions I thought we had no hope of getting.

In the past 10 years of entering and winning awards, I’ve learnt there are a lot of advantages to taking the time to find and enter awards. Here are some of my top takeaways:

• It helps you stand out from the crowd – let’s face it yours isn’t the only charity or social enterprise out there. Awards help you stand apart.
• It builds trustworthiness. I remember when we won the Telstra Micro Business of the Year Award in WA, it was like we had a giant stamp of credibility and approval overnight. 
• It is an incredible opportunity to reflect and practice gratitude on everything you’ve achieved. In this space, we’re so go go that we don’t often take the time to see how far we’ve come and acknowledge all the wins along the way. Entering awards will make you take stock of this (plus identify lots of great stories for your social media channels along the way).
• It is an incredible way of rewarding your team. They can brag about being part of that award-winning whatever it was to the end of their days. It shows them you appreciate them and you think their work is worth public recognition. 
• Publicity opportunities. I have had so many money-can’t-buy opportunities that have come from being part of awards. When we won the award with Telstra, I found myself being flown across the country to sit on a panel for a press conference about small business growth. I was also one of the first people to ever be interviewed on the Telstra business podcast. 
• Feedback from industry professionals. Even when we haven’t won awards, we’ve often received feedback from the judges or process that have helped us identify weaknesses in our organisation that we can then work on correcting. It has always helped push us out of our comfort zone and become stronger as a result.
• It can also be incredibly validating and confidence building. To know a panel of people you admire chose your work or organisation over dozens of others, it can give you the boost you need to keep on going – no matter how tough times may be.

Now it’s your turn. I am super excited to be launching my own awards to recognise nonprofits, charities, social enterprises and other great organisations for their achievements in the world of social media.

If you’d like to start out with a super simple entry process that won’t take you a long time, but has the opportunity to really help your organisation stand out, you will definitely want to check this out.

Find out more about the Social Media Awards for Not-for-Profits and get your entries in for the best of 2021.