It’s time once again for the Dose of Digital Dosie Awards. Last year’s awards were a great success and I expect this year to be even bigger. There’s a lot of info in this post, so I’ve tried to break it up a bit into sections, but please try to review everything, as there is important information on the voting process, how to become a judge, and about sponsoring the awards (with all money going to charity).

Background

So, what are the Dosie Awards? The Dosie Awards were created to find the best examples of social media in the healthcare industry. The idea came about as the  Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki grew to more than 550 total entries in 2010 with more than 330 of these come directly from pharma and heatlhcare companies. Now the list is even bigger with more than 700 total entries. It’s great to have a list like this (thanks for all of your submissions), but a list of this size begs one big question: which are the best? Who has the best Facebook page? The best YouTube channel? Which patient community is the finest example of social media in healthcare? That’s where the Dosie Awards come in.

Voting Process

Last year, to determine the winners, we relied completely on a popular voting system (i.e., those with the most votes won). There are some great things about doing it this way including the fact that “the people” decide, but there are also some negatives. It’s possible for one site to rally people to vote for a their site better than another in order to win, but that didn’t necessarily show which sites were actually the most valuable to users. That was part of the point of last year’s awards. While finding out the best sites, we also got to see social media in action and further demonstrate the point that you can’t control it sometimes. This year we’ll be keeping some of the popular voting features, but also adding in a different judging format.

For the 2011 Dosie Awards, there will be a People’s Choice winner in each category. This winner will be determined entirely based on popular voting. There will also be gold, silver, and bronze winners in each category. These will be determined by the voting of a large panel of judges (more info on that in a moment).

Last year, every single listing on the Wiki was eligible to win and that’s the same this year. There are no submission fees or applications. If it’s on the Wiki, it’s eligible. This year, things will be a little different. Since the list has gotten so long, it’s not practical to have people choose from 70+ entries to pick a winner. So, for each category, a group of the judging panel will narrow down the entire list to 10 nominees in each category. The entire judging panel will then vote on these nominees to select the gold, silver, and bronze winners. For the people’s choice category, the same process will be followed. People’s choice voting will be on the nominee list created by the judges in each category versus the entire list. Again, this is to keep the list to a manageable length for people to review and vote. For example, there are currently 108 listings in the Patient Communities (Non-brand controlled) category. That’s a bit too long of a list for people to vote on.

The categories for this year are the same as last year, but with one new addition. Here’s the list:

• Brand-Sponsored Patient Community (Communities created by a pharma or healthcare company for a brand or corporate effort)
• Patient Community – Non-Brand Controlled (Communities created with no direct affiliation to a pharma or healthcare company)
• Healthcare Professional Community (Communities exclusive to healthcare professionals)
• Facebook Page (All pharma and healthcare Facebook pages and apps whether corporate-sponsored or not)
• YouTube Channel (Pharma and healthcare company YouTube pages or videos including corporate and brand specific efforts)
• Twitter Feed (Pharma and healthcare companies using Twitter at a corporate or brand level)
• Company Blog (Pharma and healthcare company created blogs at the corporate or brand level)
• Patient or Caregiver Blog (Blogs created by patients or caregivers, not owned by a pharma or healthcare company)
• Industry Observer Blog (Blogs created by industry observers and commentators…like Dose of Digital)
• Pharma Company of the Year in Social Media

The new category will be:

• Pharma and Healthcare Digital Digital Innovation of the Year

The Winners

Like last year, all voting will take place online and the final winners will be announced live at a conference. This year, I’m pleased announce that the winners will be announced live at Digital Pharma West, which takes place June 27-30, 2011 in San Francisco. The winners will be announced on June 29.  You can find out more information if you’re interested in attending on the conference website. If you’re interested in registering to attend, you can use the discount code “P628DOS” (no quotes when you input) to save 15%. The winners will also be announced on this blog the same day, so don’t worry if you can’t make it.

Sponsorships

[Edit: 4/28, a few people recommended that some money also go to Red Cross relief efforts in the US after recent tornadoes killed more than 250 people and caused widespread destruction, so I've updated the charity information here.] One other new addition to the Dosie Awards this year is sponsorships. There were no sponsorships last year and I’ve never had any sponsors or advertisers on this blog. I’m adding sponsorships for one reason this year. All the money that the sponsors pay will be donated to charity. Specifically, it will all go to the Red Cross to support relief efforts in Japan and in the US after the recent tornadoes. 100%…I’m not keeping a cent. If you’re interested in sponsoring the Dosie Awards, you can contact me or head over to the sponsor information page for more information. The basic idea for sponsorships is that there will be one overall sponsor and a sponsor for each category. It won’t be cheap, but it’s all for charity and you’ll get exposure to a huge portion of the pharma and healthcare industry. I’ve already had interest in 3 categories, so hurry up if you’re interested.

Spreading the Word

Since this is a contest primarily about social media, please help spread the word by tweeting or posting to Facebook (or your favorite social network). If you tweet, add on the #dosie hashtag and follow along to see all the discussion about the awards.

Becoming a Judge

I’ve already mentioned that there will be a large panel of judges this year that will help select the nominees for each category and to ultimately pick the winners. So, how do you become a judge? Simple…there are two ways. First, I’ll be contacting a number of people directly and asking them to participate as judges. The goal is to have both people from inside and outside the industry serve as judges. Alternatively, you can fill out the form at the bottom of this post. Judges will be selected based on relevant experience in either the healthcare industry or digital marketing in general (or both). Not everyone who requests to be a judge will be selected. We’re looking for a good mix of people from inside the industry and outside, on both the “client” and “agency” side, and with varying degrees of experience and areas of expertise. There’s also a finite number of people who can be selected, so please understand if you’re not selected. We’ll contact you in approximately 2 weeks whether you’re selected or not.

In Closing…

Stay tuned for more information about the 2nd Annual Dose of Digital Dosie Awards and thanks in advance for your support of the awards. We’re looking forward to settling who’s the best.

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