Published On: Fri, Feb 26th, 2010

Get the Champagne!

Wow! Yesterday I won a social media award for the Best Practitioner/Researcher blog at the European Public Relations Education and Research Association Spring Symposium or #ess2010 for short.

This year’s conference is a 3 day affair taking place at the wonderful University College Arteveldehogeschool in Ghent, Belgium and plays host to many of Europe’s top PR academics. It has been a teriffic opportunity to network and actually meet people face to face having read many of their tweets, blogs and feature articles over the years.

I’m delighted to have won the award and must confess that I’m exceptionally proud, if slightly surprised given the strong standard of blogs that SWT was up against. As I said throughout my presentation with Neville Hobson and Philip Young, the success of SWT has little to do with me and much to do with the many people who have kindly given their time to answer Q&As or give opinions – which in turn have stimulated much debate. So thank you all.

In particular, I’d like to thank the following:

It is their views and insights which have added real value and a fresh perspective to SWT.

I recognise that over the last couple of months the blog has taken a more employability focused approach – this was not a deliberate change, but is something that the blog is increasingly becoming recognised for.

Rest assured I still plan offer my views, as well as hoping to become something of a resource for graduates and young people looking to get into the PR industry – I seem to have found something of a niche. Indeed, it is these topics which people seem to engage with most and for me creating a dialogue, rather than a monologue is always pleasing.

I didn’t quite manage to find that bottle of Champagne last night, so ended up toasting the success of SWT with a couple of tasty Belgian beers.


In the absense of Champagne!

About the Author

- Marketing Manager with a passion for inbound at HubSpot, Founder of Growth Hack Talks, Blogger at Ben-Cotton.com and Chief Quaffer at CraftySwine.org .

Displaying 15 Comments
Have Your Say
  1. Supriya says:

    Congratulations Ben. Your success spells H-O-P-E for aspiring PR enthusiasts like me:)

  2. Well done Ben!! Your blog and portfolio have been a great help to my own development.

  3. The above comment was from Adam Burns. Logged in on my other blog. Well done again!!!

  4. Ben Cotton says:

    No worries Adam – glad you find it useful!

    Do get in contact if you have any questions/suggestions.

  5. Ben Cotton says:

    Supriya, that is very kind. Thanks for the support…I hope your studies are going well?

  6. hjmartin says:

    Ahh congratulations Ben! 🙂
    Agree with Adam, thanks for all your tips & help!

  7. Honza says:

    Congratulations Ben!

    I believe we need more practitioners like you. Even though the mantra “it’s all about a dialogue” has become a cliché, your material is a proof that if done well, even the cliché might work. 🙂

  8. Ben Cotton says:

    Hey Hayley and Honza, thanks for the congrats! It’s been a great 6 months…here’s to the next – and beyond 🙂

  9. […] 04/17/2010 · Leave a Comment I gave a presentation yesterday to some Public Relations students at London Met University, having been kindly invited by their lecturer Gareth Thompson who got in touch after our paths crossed at the Euprera Spring Symposium. […]

  10. […] · 2 Comments In February of this year I won the Euprera Social Media award for the Best Practitioner/Researcher blog and was asked to give a presentation explaining my […]

  11. […] me, personally and SWT – the blog has gone from strength to strength, winning an award at the EUPRERA Spring Symposium, as well as being nominated for ‘best blog’ at the some comms and CRAPPs. For something which […]

  12. […] of the 2010 winners had to say about the Awards – Laura Fischer (Best Student Blogger) and Ben Cotton (Best […]

  13. […] a previous winner, I can testify that this is a fantastic opportunity to raise your profile, present at one of […]

  14. […] the space of a few short months I had started blogging, networked with industry leaders, won an award for my blog and landed my dream job. Social Web Thing wasn’t the only factor to help me the land the job, but […]

  15. […] change my life forever. In fact, we’re now engaged and set to be married later this month. I also picked up and award for my blog, and a few more nominations soon followed. SWT continued to gather some momentum (I’m not sure […]

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these html tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Subscribe to SWT


Most Popular Posts

Follow

Get every new post on this blog delivered to your Inbox.

Join other followers:

n/a