Behind the scenes of Free Times’ annual awards. 🏆
We all know about Free Times Best of Columbia awards – they’re basically the Westminster Dog Show of local biz in Cola. 🏅 (And if somehow you didn’t know about them before, you certainly do now, since we were nominated for Best Instagram this year.)
Image via free-times.com
But what exactly goes on behind the scenes of all that nominating, voting, counting, tallying + awarding? Just in time for today’s announcement of the 2017 winners + tonight’s 1987-themed Best of Columbia party, we worked with the Free Times team to find out •exactly• how much community input goes into the annual awards (hint: it’s a lot) – all for your favorite brunch spot to get that Best of Columbia sticker (a.k.a. badge of honor) on their front door.
📝 Nominations
11,000+ | nominations cast
6,000+ | unique nominees
Most nominations received: 1️⃣ Best Hair Stylist (193), 2️⃣ Best Restaurant (178), 3️⃣ Best Bartender (176)
Least nominations received: Best Store for Vinyl (4), Best Gun Shop (5), Best Cycle Shop (5)
945 unique nominees advanced to the voting round. ⬇
☑ Voting
508,425 | total votes cast (one vote = one vote for a single nomination, like Best Insta ➡ COLAtoday)
15,906 | unique users who voted (number of individual people who cast votes)
32 | average number of categories each voter voted in
4,938 | most votes cast in a single category: Best Annual Event or Festival (Greek Festival won 🇬🇷 )
460 | least votes in a single category: Best Vaping Store
101,094 | most votes received in a single day (Wednesday, June 7 – a.k.a. the first day of voting)
5,715 | least votes received in a single day (Sunday, June 25)
#⃣ Number of votes per category
163,912 votes | Food & beverage
65,047 votes | Politics & city life
51,322 votes | Clubs & bars
50,666 votes | Services
38,903 votes | Local media
35,564 votes | Shopping
28,260 votes | Arts & entertainment
25,871 votes | Health & wellness
21,339 votes | Music
10,789 votes | Transportation
9,869 votes | Places to live
7,034 votes | Pet services
💅 Top three ‘vote-getters’ (top total votes across all categories)
1️⃣ 6,911 votes | Cantina 76
2️⃣ 6,697 votes | The Whig
3️⃣ 5,305 votes | Chick-fil-A
😅 Two funniest nominations
Best Place to be Buried: Under the back deck at New Brookland Tavern
Biggest Local Hero: Gamecock Jesus
🤞 Closest contests
177 vs. 176 votes (1 vote difference) | Best Oil Change
406 vs. 405 votes (1 vote difference) | Best Orthopedic Practice
752 vs. 748 votes (4 vote difference) | Best Local Instagram (EEEEK.)
177 vs. 171 votes (6 vote difference) | Best Physical Therapy
579 vs. 570 votes (9 vote difference) | Best Gay Bar
173 vs.163 votes (10 vote difference) | Best Dentist
Okay, you guessed it: We won Columbia’s Best Instagram in Free Times’ awards. 🎉 (By 4 votes (!!) – shoutout to our moms.) Thank you all for voting for us – we appreciate every single follow, like + comment since we launched our Instagram in February. Y’all rock.
Tickets to tonight’s 80s party are still available for $35. Actual footage of our team on the dance floor tonight. ⬇
Gif via Giphy
–Beth
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