Nominate Your Favorite For The 2015 Nose-to-Nose Pet Blogging & Social Media Awards

Nominations open today for the 2015 BlogPaws Nose-to-Nose Pet Blogging and Social Media Awards. These are the preeminent Pet Blogging & Social Media Awards in the pet blogosphere! 

Now is the time to nominate your favorite pet blogs for the fourth annual BlogPaws Nose-to-Nose Pet Blogging and Social Media Awards!  What are the Nose-to-Nose Awards? They are the only award program for which pet bloggers and microbloggers are judged on the expertise, performance and creativity of their blogs. Each category is judged by a distinguished panel of professionals, not by popular vote. Why do we have the Nose-to-Nose Pet Blogging andSocial Media Awards? Simply because the creators of BlogPaws wanted to find a way to recognize and honor those people who write about and support pets online.

When: Nominations open (today) January 15, 2015 and close January 31, 2015. You may nominate yourself or others, in one or more categories, one time each.

What: To determine the finalists and winners, judges use criteria developed by BlogPaws based on experience with our previous competitions. All categories will be scored by independent judging using specific criteria developed by BlogPaws, according to the category topic.

This year’s categories are:

• Best Pet Blog Design: Judged on use of color, images, written content, sidebar content, and overall visual appeal of the blog to the reader’s eye. How are pets represented? How effective is the design in showing the reader there are pets on this blog? Are pets represented appropriately? Last year’s winner:  http://www.glogirlydesign.com/  Debbie Glovatsky
• Best Written Pet Blog Post: Judged on grammar, punctuation, paragraph construction, writing style, purpose, message, and ability to tell a story. Story should be about or include pets as part of the narrative. Where it is appropriate, grammar and punctuation may challenge the judges when post is written in the voice of the pet. Content must be easily understandable by the average human or blog post will be disqualified. Blog posts submitted should represent the purpose of the blog. ONE blog post per blog or nomination. Last year’s winner:  http://lifewithdogsandcats.com/life-with-dogs-and-cats/high-and-mighty/   Susan Willett
• Best Pet Humor Blog: Judged on whether the content makes the reader laugh out loud, or at least smile. Content should be appropriate for pet parents – humor should include pets. Blog content should be original and show creativity. Engagement and sharing will be a plus in this category. Last year’s winner:
  http://www.catversushuman.com/  Yasmine Surovec
• Best Dog Blog: Judged on original, creative writing and visual content about dogs. Design counts! Blog must be focused on dogs. Posts about the writer’s dog, written in an entertaining or educational manner, are just as welcome as posts about specific dog issues. Engagement by the readers is a plus in this category.  Last year’s winner: http://www.intrepidpup.com/shoutout/#.VI8MjTHF-za  Tracy Baetz

• Best Cat Blog:  Judged on original, creative writing and visual content about cats. Design counts! Posts should capture the unique presence of cats in our lives. The focus of the blog as a cat blog is vital. Blogs that include cats should not nominate for this category. Engagement by the readers is a plus in this category. Last year’s winner: http://www.glogirly.com/p/about.html#.VI8M6zHF-zY  Debbie Glovatsky
• Best Unconventional Pet Blog: Judged on writing, originality and creativity in bringing the category of ‘other’ to life. Our ‘other’ pets category is open to any animal NOT a dog or a cat, such as guinea pigs, goats, chickens, pigs, ferrets, horses, yes, even snakes. Content needs to be reflective of the animal the blog is about, although the blog may also write about other animals.  Last year’s winner: http://www.speedyhousebunny.com/2014_12_01_archive.html  Rachel DeJong
• Best New Pet Blog:  Judged on originality, creativity, writing ability, purpose, and focus. The nominations in this category will be judged on ‘intent’ as well as accomplishment. We want to encourage more people to blog, but in doing so we hope to inspire people to take their blog writing seriously.  Show us a blog that is working to be the best it can be.  Last year’s winner: http://vanessa-morgan.blogspot.com/2014/05/best-new-pet-blog.html  Vanessa Morgan
• Best Cause Blog for or about pets: Judged on purpose, effectiveness, achievement, and engagement. We are looking for passion and persistence. Achievement may be how much money was raised and/or how many times the cause was supported. Also, audience engagement will be key to this category; how are reader’s responding? Last year’s winner: http://www.firesafetyrocks.com/  Dayna Hilton
• Best Pet Video on a Blog: Judged on creativity, focus, sound quality, visual quality, and length. Video should be purposeful. Pet(s) must be present in the video. A video about pets, without showing pets, will be disqualified. If the video is 5 minutes or longer, it needs to demonstrate why it’s that long. If it’s a minute and a half, it needs to accomplish its goals in that minute and a half. ONE video per blog or nomination.  Last year’s winner: http://catcatastrophes.com/the-inheritance/ Alana Grelyak
• Best Pet Photo on a Blog: Judged on creativity, focus, visual appeal, use of color, and purpose. If the picture tells a story, all the better. Picture must include pet(s). Must be relevant to the post it is contained in. ONE photo per blog or nomination.  Last year’s winner: http://pawsitivelytexas.com/ Alva Logsdon
• Best Pet Microblog: Judged on the overall look and feel, audience engagement, and the blogger’s participation in the conversation. Is the page effective in its design and its use of the platform?  We are looking for active engagement, sharing, consistency in purpose, original blogger content, creativity and visual appeal, where appropriate. Platforms eligible for nomination are: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram. Last year’s winner: https://twitter.com/deafdogsrock Christina Lee
• Best Use of Social Media by a 501c3: Judged on the creativity, purpose, effectiveness, and ability to convey and support the cause. Must include the results and demonstrate how social helped achieve those results. Must show proof of 501c3 status. Last year’s winner: http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/

New this year!  BlogPaws will recognize select blogs with a Certificate of Excellence in:

• Best series of posts*
• Best collaborative posts*
• Best About page*

Please note: *Nominations not accepted for certificates – the team at BlogPaws will choose from all qualifying nominations received by the deadline date of January 31, 2015.

Finalists will be announced on or about February 27 – 28, 2015 in a featured blog post on the BlogPaws blog, and through all social channels. Finalists of each Nose-to-Nose award will receive a badge to announce their standing in the pet community, for display on their blog and one free conference pass to BlogPaws 2015.

Winners will be announced at the BlogPaws 2015 conference in Nashville, TN during a live red carpet event on Saturday evening, May 30, 2015. Winners will receive a one of a kind personalized trophy at BlogPaws 2015 as well as a package of other prizes.

You don’t have to be present at this red carpet event to win, but we do encourage finalists to attend BlogPaws for a chance to meet the other nominees and to possibly be called up on stage to accept the prestigious Nose-to-Nose award and be recognized by your peers!

For more inspiration, check out the 2013 Winners, too!