After spending a few hours watching the Academy Awards and catching up with the red carpet gossip on Twitter, we couldn’t help but wonder what the Oscar ceremony would be like if instead of actors and actresses, the crowd was filled with brands and businesses vying for the top spot. Imagine McDonalds rubbing elbows with American Express, and Chapters walking down the red carpet with Ford. In honor of the yearly event we’ve decided to nominate businesses that truly deserve a Social Media Oscar for their dedication and creativity.



The Best Interactivity

There’s nothing better than visiting a social media fan page and being able to truly interact with the brand by sharing content and helping to build the community online. This Oscar belongs in the hands of Mountain Dew. Their wall is filled with posts giving suggestions on new flavours or campaigns, people confessing their love for the product and sharing photos, videos and stories of their experience with the brand. You can’t fake brand loyalty like that.



 

 

 

 
The Best Sense of Humor

It takes a lot to convey a joke through a status update but the people over at Skittles seem to be doing just fine. There’s nothing quite like a good giggle and there are no shortage of them on the Skittles fan page. Silly updates, questions, and just plain crazy antics cover their wall and their fans can’t get enough. Skittles has a quirky brand personality and it shows in their advertising and their social media efforts, which makes the brand not only entertaining, but cohesive across all platforms.



 

 

 
The Best Promotions

Everyone loves a great deal, especially when it’s available to a social media community. For quite some time now, Chapters Indigo has been rewarding their online fan base with exclusive savings that deserve a standing ovation! They’re always adding new tabs with discounts online and in-store that you only get if you become a fan on Facebook. It’s a great way to spark some conversation within the group and get people talking about what they plan to use the coupon to purchase. Partially rewarding loyalty and partially learning more about their customers buying habits, it’s a win-win situation!



 

The Best Creative Use Of A Platform

It’s all about what’s happening next, what’s trending next and what else is possible in the future and that’s why this Oscar goes to Threadless for outstanding innovation! As a Facebook user you can check out their new t-shirts, let your friends know what you think, and order them in your size right from the Threadless Facebook page. They also have a frequently asked questions tab built in to address user concerns about things like shipping and returns since they can buy directly from the page. It’s the integration of this technology that earns Threadless the top spot for creative use of the Facebook platform. Plus who doesn’t love t-shirts?!



 

The Best Overall Community

Winning this award was not an easy task but Mashable deserves it! In our opinion, the definition of the best overall community is a place where we can go to interact with other users, share opinions and comments freely, keep up with current news and most importantly, educate ourselves. With tons of resources and a great user environment, Mashable never fails to impress. Congratulations to the social media giants for winning over The Academy this year.

 

 

Which companies do you think deserve awards for their social media efforts?