Dublin station 98FM and Limerick-based regional youth station Spin South West – both owned by Communicorp – are the only radio stations to make it to the finals of the 2015 Social Media Awards.
Organised and run by Damien Mulley, the awards – nicknamed the “Sockies” – are sponsored this year by Maximum Media – the group behind web sites Joe.ie and Her.ie. They are a “relaxed and informal” celebration of social media in Ireland.
98FM and Spin South West are both finalists in the “Best Use of Facebook by a Media Organisation” category, where they face competition from Operation Transformation and The Sunday Game – both RTÉ productions, newspapers the Cork Independent, the Galway Advertiser and The Irish Independent, BreakingNews.ie and Dreamwedding.com.
Both stations are also in the list of finalists for the “Best Experimental Format (Vine, Whatsapp, Snapchat)” category, with Electric Ireland, Aer Lingus, Independent.ie, the Immigrant Council of Ireland, RTÉ’s Republic of Telly, UCC Students’ Union, Life Style Sports, Tyndall National Institute and Universal Pictures.
98FM also make into the finalists list for the “Best Video/Video Campaign (non broadcast)” award for their Best of Dublin Awards. Alongside them here are Toyota Ireland, Club Orange, Aviva Ireland’s #EducationMatters, Laya Healthcare’s online safety campaign, Samsung Ireland’s #GalaxyAlphaStyle, AIB’s GAA video #TheToughestTrade, Clisare’s “Irish Bucket List” and comedy duo Peter and Chris of Final Boss Media.
The Dublin station are also nominated in the “Best Business Twitter account (in-house run)” category with Aer Lingus, The Maxol Group, Lidl Ireland, Iarnród Éireann, O’Mahoney’s Booksellers, GoCar Ireland, the Irish Examiner, Aura Sports & Leisure Management and A.A. Roadwatch.
A full list of the finalists in all the categories can be seen here. The awards ceremony will take place on the evening of Wednesday June 3rd in the R.D.S. Concert Hall in Dublin, and will be hosted by RTÉ 2FM’s Rick O’Shea.