Last week I was away in the Highlands of Scotland, relying on a sporadic Internet connection so it was by text that I heard that I’d made it into the finals of the Social Media Awards for this blog. Of course I’m delighted, and I’m even more delighted to be nominated alongside Beatrice Whelan (for the Sage Ireland blog) and Lorna Sixsmith (for Write on Track). As you are probably aware Beatrice, Lorna and myself have been working together on various blogging events over the last two years.
In 2010 Lorna and myself met eight other keen bloggers in the Clanard Court Hotel in Athy and the KLCK (Kildare, Laois, Carlow, Kilkenny) Bloggers network was born. We’ve been meeting every month since and it’s been great to see some fantastic business blogs evolve. Beatrice was one of the bloggers we saw bloom in our first year. She started blogging after attending one of our meetings and made it into the final of the Blog Awards in 2011 for her own tech blog. Lorna also made it into the finals of the Blog Awards with the Garrendenny Lane blog.
In 2011 we ran our first bigger event, Beatrice had at this stage joined the committee of KLCK and together we joined with a social media group in Chipping Norton for ‘Bloggers International‘. We packed out the room we’d hired in Portlaoise, it was great to meet so many bloggers from all over Ireland.
As you may be aware last year Damien Mulley, who was the brains and brawn of the Irish Blog Awards, announced that 2011 was to be the last awards. As a passionate blogger I didn’t want to see an end to what had become an institution. Irish Blogging deserves to be celebrated, it’s a massively efficient business marketing tool and Ireland is full of amazing blogs, I for one wanted to make sure we could continue the tradition and it didn’t take me long to persuade Lorna and Beatrice to join me in my madness. We chatted to Damien and pumped him for advice.. and two months later we’re in the grips of organising what will be our biggest event yet.
One of the disadvantages of taking on the Blog Awards is that I can’t win! In the last year I’ve made massive changes to the blog, I’m constantly working to make it better. The first hint that I was on the right track was when I made it into the finals of Social Media Examiners best Social Media Blogs of 2012, this spurred me on to work even harder and as a result a blog that didn’t make it into the Blog Awards finals at all last year has made it into the one and only blog category in the Social Media Awards. Of course I want to win, the competition is fierce and any one of the other blogs would be a deserving winner but I can’t help but want to have an award for my mantelpiece. I’ll find out next Thursday night, I’ll be Tweeting, follow the hash tag #sockies. But if I don’t win I’d be almost as delighted to see one of my fellow KLCK team take the trophy.
Would you like to sponsor Blog Awards Ireland 2012? We have category sponsorship available so do get in touch sponsor@blogawardsireland.com.
