Social Media – 2008 Winner

Let’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2008 SEMMY Award in the Social Media category is … drum-roll, please …

The Social Media Manual: Read Before You Play
Muhammad Saleem, Search Engine Land | 11/20/07

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

Too many people look at the popularity of a Digg or a StumbleUpon and they think that they absolutely have to sign up for them to succeed. But if you plan on using a site strictly to promote your site or content or that of your clients, don’t sign up, because the social web is certainly not for you. You might be able to call in enough favors or spam enough people to get a few stories popular at first, but you’re going to lose in the long-run.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

1. Social Media’s Direct Influence on Search Engine Ranking
   Loren Baker, Search Engine Journal | 8/31/07
2. The Future of Communications – A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing
   Brian Solis, PR 2.0 | 6/11/07

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!