Shine a Spotlight on Your Awards!

Image courtesy Curb Signs Inc.

Many different industries hand out awards on a yearly basis either at a suit and tie event or tradeshow. These awards make great opportunities to do one of two things:

• Congratulate clients or prospective clients
• Promote your company as an award recipient. 

Either of the above can easily be done using social media.  

CONGRATULATE CLIENTS

Congratulations to @themintogroup for being @OntarioHBA's "Homebuilder of the Year" http://t.co/Hcns6hltBX
— Curb Signs Inc. (@CurbSigns) September 23, 2014

Congratulating clients is fairly easy.  Here are some pointers on how to do that:

1. Know of an industry award show your clients might be in?  Check out the show's program or awards list. Many of these are posted online or are reported on by the press.
Example: The Ontario Home Builder's Association (OHBA) Awards of Distinction Winners are posted online here and mentioned in an article by the Ottawa Citizen here.

2. Congratulate the clients publicly using your social media accounts:

a) Twitter: Make sure to include the award recipient's twitter handle (i.e. @themintogroup) and the event hashtag (#OHBA). By doing this the client will see your congratulations and more than likely retweet it to their followers.  As well, anyone following the event hashtag will also see the tweet.

b) Facebook: Post on the award recipient's  page your message of congratulations.  Others visiting the page will also see it and the award recipient will also receive a notification of the posting.

c) Linkedin: Provide a status update on your Linkedin page noting the recipient.  Make sure to mention the recipient in the update as they will then receive a notification on their account and will probably share it with their followers.

4. Watch for the shares / retweets from your clients and their followers.  Many clients will retreat congratulatory messages to others from their social media accounts.  By doing sharing and retweeting, the clients are spreading your message and, thus, your brand to a wider audience.

PROMOTE YOUR COMPANY AS A RECIPIENT

We are proud to be the @SACACE's #CONSAC Tradeshow Award Winner for "Best Low-Rise Identification Signage": http://t.co/FHyuiT5wn0
— Curb Signs Inc. (@CurbSigns) October 6, 2014

Did your company receive an award?  Then promote it online!

Many prospective and current customers love to be reassured of the quality of your work through either testimonials or awards.  What's better than an industry testimonial that your work is tops? Show off the awards received:

1. Blog Entry: Have a company blog? If so, this is a great place to update prospective and current customers with how your company won the award.  If the award was for a certain project, tell the story from start to finish.  Be sure to include photos and/or a link to an online photo album of the project along with those on hand receiving the award.  After posting, promote the blog entry on your various social media channels.
Example: Curb Signs Inc. received the Canadian Sign Association's CONSAC Tradeshow Award in 2014 for "Best Low-Rise Identification Signage" and wrote about it on their blog.

2. Facebook: Post an update about the award on Facebook.  One of the easiest ways to do this is to first gather and sort through the photos of both the award and, if applicable, the project that won the award.  Next, upload and arrange the photos in the Facebook albums with captions and, if possible, tag those in the photos.  Finally, fill out the title and description of the project and post the photos.  By doing this, Facebook will post a status update on your company's page along with photos of the project.
Example: Curb Signs Inc. created an album for their signage work at The Upper House condominium development presentation centre and noted the award in the album description.

3. Twitter: Tweet about it from your Twitter Account!  Make sure to include the award or event hashtag as well as include the award sponsor (i.e. @sacace).   Doing all of this will widen the audience and increase the likelihood of retweets by either hashtag and/or award sponsor followers.

4. Linkedin: Provide a status update on your company page for your followers to see. As well, if you are the award recipient, mention it in the awards section.

Social Media platforms are great ways to congratulate and let others know about awards. By mentioning the awards your company receives on social media provides a choice confirmation to those looking for your products or services.  Prospective customers are looking to see how others feel about your business offerings.  An industry award is a prominent way to show prospective customers that you are one of the best in the industry!

Need help showing off your award winning ways using social media? Suddcorp Solutions can help!