Twenty leading professionals from all continents across the world will judge excellence in the fast-growing social media marketing industry via the The Bees Awards — the San Francisco-based social media marketing awards.

The event will once again award winners in more than 23 specialised categories, including eight new categories in the fast-paced social media marketing world. The ceremony will be held at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco on May 3, 2011 at 7pm and will be live-streamed over the web. (See winning social media entries from last year)

One-fifth of the planet is using social media platforms. That new reality calls for a new type of expertise.

“Social Media Marketing is not a matter of one country, one language or few companies. It is happening everywhere on the planet, in every language,” according to Cara Drolshagen, Co-Founder and Vice-President of The Bees Awards.

As testament that social media is a worldwide phenomenon, The Bees Awards received entries from 21 countries across five continents in 2010.

Drolshagen notes that “74% of these entries came from large brands such as Ikea, Old Spice and Toyota. Social Media Marketing is serious business and it’s growing faster each day.”

These professionals have been selected as a result of their expertise, the references they received from peers, their passion for social media and their geographic location.

Together, they will honour the best social media marketing practices, define standard practices and establish the greatest ethics for the long term growth of the profession.

“Social Media Marketing is not revolutionary. It is evolutionary,” says Co-Founder & President, Bastien Beauchamp.

“It remains faithful to the principals of the founders of our industry: Albert Lasker, David Ogilvy, and Bill Bernback. These founders felt strongly that a company should always care about its brand and its reputation, always try to build a brand that is truthful to its product, understand its consumers, and communicate with personality.

“These marketing fundamentals don’t change and The Bees Awards 2011 Jury reflects the fact that large marketing agencies evolve in their practices but are also challenged every day by small specialized social media agencies.”

Important Dates

• January 24: Social media, public relations, advertising agencies, brands and consultants from around the world can submit their work at http://www.beesawards.com
• March 31: Deadline to submit entries April 18.