The Bees: Global social media awards were postponed, now back on again

It’s been a topsy-turvy week for The Bees, the international social media awards which debuted in 2010. On the 24th of March, an email went around the social media community announcing that the awards would be “postponed until further notice due to insufficient funding”.

But a search to the website four days later revealed that the awards were back on again with a simple paragraph on the homepage, which says “The Bees are back! We apologise for the interruption. The show will go on. Agencies, brands, consultant, students, and companies are invited to submit their social media work to the competition before the new deadline: April 8, 2011.”

The Awards were confirmed via the company’s Twitter stream.

Details are still scarce but it seems definite that the awards will be happening. The Bees 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 and will be live-streamed over the web.

The Bees Awards is looking to expand its global footprint. In 2010, it received entries from 21 countries across five continents. This year, the awards want to go even bigger. “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.

South Africa’s RLabs was the winner of “Best Use of Mobile” in 2010 for its work in “providing youth at risk an opportunity to reach help through the use of mobile chat and mobile social network”.

The new deadline for entries is April 8, 2011, so if you have created a social media campaign that you’re proud of, make sure you enter it for the Bees Awards 2011.

The Bees Awards 2010 – 1st World Social Media Marketing Award Ceremony from BeesAwards on Vimeo.