It was a great night of celebrating 15 Years of Social Media Breakfast – Madison (thank you to Faith Day for this amazing look back!) as well as hosting our first Social Media Marketing Awards. Here’s a PHOTO RECAP of the evening, along with a few excerpts from a speech by current SMBMad President, Liz Boyd.
Social Media Breakfast Madison is an educational nonprofit that holds monthly events to share best practices from local, regional, and sometimes nationally known speakers on topics related to social media and digital marketing.
Throughout the last 15 years, the organization has changed a lot – for instance, we used to host our monthly meetings in a different location every month! Meetings have been at Madison Turners, Old Sugar Distillery and even the Orpheum Theater.
We’ve always been run by a volunteer board. And so many amazing people have been part of SMBmad over the years – I want to thank and acknowledge all former board members. If you’re a current board member thank you for all of the hard work to make this event and every other event this year happen. We couldn’t do this without all of you.
I also want to acknowledge all of the speakers who have shared their wisdom with us over the years. When the organization started in 2009 social media was still in its infancy. In fact, here are some fun facts from 2009:
- That year, Facebook and Twitter were the most popular social media channels. Facebook reached 350 million users and was taking over MySpace as the most popular social media platform.
- Oprah and Ashton Kutcher joined Twitter that year.
- Tumblr and Friendster were around.
- We were on the iPhone 3Gs that year.
So, a lot has changed, and our speakers have helped us all understand the changing landscape year over year so we can stay up with the trends.
Finally, I want to thank our sponsors! As a nonprofit, we’ve been able to do what we do because of the support or local businesses and organizations who have seen the value in our mission here. Thank you to all of our current and past sponsors, and a big thank you to our wonderful sponsors for tonight’s event, One Community Bank, Serendipity Labs our venue, Salvatore’s who provided the delicious food, and many others.
Ameilia Abraham then took the podium to present awards.
Congratulations to our Madison Social Media Marketing Award Winners
- Outstanding Sponsor: DreamBank – Madison
- Dream Bank has been our primary sponsor for many years, providing us a home for our monthly events and always going above and beyond to make sure our guests feel welcome. We want to especially shout-out Andy who has been a champion for SMBmad for many years and who has made our dreams come true again and again. Thanks to DreamBank for being an Outstanding Sponsor.
- Outstanding Service: Josh Klemons
- Josh led us through so many things! In addition to being Board President for several years, he served as president during a pandemic, which is not easy to do. He’s truly been a fearless leader and has been a guiding force for SMBmad, as well as an amazing mentor and an inspiration for many board members for so long. We wanted to thank him for his years of service, so thank you Josh!
- Best Overall Social Media Presence: Overture Center for the Arts
- Best Facebook: Firefly Coffeehouse
- Best Instagram: Overture Center for the Arts
- Best X/Twitter: Reverbal Communications
- Best Tik Tok: Destination Madison
- Best Podcast: City Cast Podcast
- Best Social Media Campaign: The QTI Group
- Best Social Media Customer Service: A Room of One’s Own Bookstore
- Best Social Media Influencer: Madtownmomma – Alicia Hazen
- Rising Star Award: Arsenio Sorrell
- Best Use of Video in Social Media: Faith Dey, Live Well Video
- Most Digitally Savvy: Ameilia Abraham
- Best Branding throughout all social media platforms: Vitruvian Farms