[UPDATED]
Deadline extended to August 29th for the Top 10 Influencer Marketing Awards!
If you are running an influencer marketing program, there are three exciting opportunities to be recognized for your work: The Top 10 Influencer Marketing Awards, the 2013 Wommy Awards and the 7th annual Forrester Groundswell Awards.
These competitions will award organizations for effectively using influencer marketing to achieve a business outcome, for example to increase product awareness, boost demand generation or drive attendance.
It's great to see opportunities like these emerge for brave marketing explorers to be recognized for the amazing work they're doing to take influencer marketing to the next level. Check them out and apply to one, two or all three of them!
Top 10 Influencer Marketing Awards
The inaugural Top 10 Influencer Marketing Awards is an initiative of Forbes columnist and Raynforest CEO, Mark Fidelman. The competition will recognize 10 of the most inspiring influencer campaigns – those that demonstrate that engaging customers, suppliers, partners and stakeholders within their trusted communications channels can deliver tangible business results.
Winners will be selected by an expert panel, including Chris Heuer, Sam Fiorella and Danny Brown, and public vote. Plus, the winners will be announced in Forbes. The deadline for submissions is August 15th. To apply, go to: http://raynforestcontests.com/
2013 Wommy Awards
The second opportunity is the brand new influencer marketing category of the 2013 Wommy Awards. This is the first time the Word of Mouth Marketing Association is specifically recognizing brands and agencies who have effectively put influencer marketing to work for a business use case.
For the Wommy, you'll have to demonstrate your alignment to the principles of influencer marketing that WOMMA created this year. You can download that guidebook here. The deadline is August 23rd. To apply for the Wommy, visit http://www.womma.org/wommys.
Forrester Groundswell Awards
The Forrester Groundswell Awards recognize outstanding examples of effective use of social technologies to advance an organizational goal. Their Social Reach category is specifically about using social programs to reach new audiences.
The deadline for Forrester is August 3oth. To enter, visit Forrester's blog for more details.
For us these awards signal much more than a simple competition. Influencer marketing is no longer seen as an afterthought to other marketing activities. It's strategic value has been established.
Late last year, Derek Skaletsky noticed that influencer technology was beginning to find its way into marketing budgets and earlier this year Raymond Marin said 2013 would be the year of influencer marketing.
In the first half of the year, a lot has evolved in the influencer marketing industry. More sophisticated conversations have emerged. Social scoring is no longer confused with true influence (well, almost) and an in-depth business book was published on the topic.
By all accounts, the predictions have come true and influencer marketing has been elevated its rightful place as a core marketing strategy. We can't wait to see who applies to and wins these awards -- you are all pioneers!