Manama-Nov12(BNA)The 2nd Social Media Award-distribution ceremony will be held on December 11th at the Ritz Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa. The Ministry of State for Communications (MoSC) today announced the event, in coordination with the Social Media Club (SMC) .
The Award-distribution ceremony will are being held on the sidelines of the Social Media Masters Forum 2013, where discussions and presentations will take place by a panel of experts including speakers from the Social Media Club (USA), Crowdbabble (Canada), Mindshare and TEDx speaker Patrick Schwerdtfeger.

The Social Media Masters Forum will be taking place on the 10th and 11th of December 2013 at the Movenpick Hotel. Nominations for government, corporate entities and individual accounts will be accepted starting on Sunday, November 17 2013. This can be done by tweeting the nominee and category to @SMA_Bahrain using the hashtag#SMA2013 or by email on sma@mosc.gov.bh

The announcement came at a press conference at the Ritz Carlton today in which His Excellency Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of State for Communications, stated, “With over 260,000 Twitter users, 514,000 users on Facebook, 120,000 Instagram users and 160,000 LinkedIn users in Bahrain, this reflects an increase in users of over 14%, 20% and 50% respectively since last year. Government entities and the private sector cannot overlook the significance of social media in the communications sector and we aim for the Awards to encourage and promote responsible social media use.”

Also speaking at the press conference, Ali Sabkar, President of the Social Media Club, thanked Tamkeen, the event’s main sponsor and some of the major players in the Telecoms industry who have also committed to sponsoring the Forum and Social Media Awards.

Sabkar also noted that a panel of experts will act as judges in the competition as part of the forum, and will include members of Bahrain’s Social Media Club, as well as regional and international experts in the field. The categories for awards will focus on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Nominees for this year’s awards will be selected from corporate, government and individual accounts. The criteria for nomination reflect the following Social Media Awards values: Responsible, Ethical, Innovative, Non-derogatory, and Credible.

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BNA 2000 GMT 2013/11/12