Mobbies!

The voters have spoken, and the 2011 Mobbies awards are now behind us.  For the uninitiated, Mobbies are the annual awards sponsored by the Baltimore Sun celebrating the great community of bloggers and social media stars in the Baltimore metro area. 

 

This blog was nominated for Best Personal Blog – whoever you were, thank you and I was flattered, but I had no hope or expectations of winning; there were so many more blogs that not only have broader appeal, but are authored by people much more dedicated to the little things, like posting with some frequency.  So I spent the voting period promoting other nominees.  A few of them, I’m happy to say, took home the gold from the party on November 15^th.  My fondest hope was not to finish DFL in my category (DFL being a sailing term meaning “behind all others” – figure it out).

Congratulations to all of the winners, and indeed to all of the nominees.  But I’ll offer a few special congratulations here to a few of my favorites among the winners.  You got (some of) my votes and you are among the people that make Baltimore’s social media scene special and vibrant.  The City of Baltimore and our lives are richer for your efforts!

Best New Blog: Jessica Platt, for Get Jessed Up.  This blog chronicles Jess’ attempts (mostly quite successful) to invoke the fashion style of the stars for women with real bodies and real budgets.  Even for the fashion-challenged (I am president of that club), her blog is entertaining and fun.  Jess is a delightful person and - if you can believe this - is even more lovely in person than in her photos.  She’s promised a special Puerto Rico Edition of GJU when she comes to visit the island in December and I’m holding her to it.  Jess also placed 2^nd in Best Lifestyle Blog. Follow Jess on Twitter at @JessCPlatt.

Best on Twitter (Personal): Sarah Wainio for @SarahRachael.  Another delightful (and beautiful) woman, Sarah is friendly, witty, and has a superb aesthetic sense.  Following her imaginative and fun Mobbies promotion was hysterical and more than worth the price of admission.  Follow her for a never ending stream of optimism and charm.  She also has a cool cat.  And she understands very intimately the meaning of Honor.  Visit her in other social media venues by sauntering over here.

Best Photo Blog: Joe Sterne.  A gifted photographer and true Baltimore wit, Joe has a great eye, a wonderful sense of humor (visual and otherwise), a great body of work and he loves his city.  His city loves him right back.  If you are in need of a photographer in the Baltimore area, hire this guy.  Follow him also at @MrJoeSterne.

Best Sports Blog: the team at I Hate JJ Redick.  The definitive Baltimore sports blog – irreverent, insightful and quirky, just like our city.  This blog is a deserving repeat winner from 2010.  I won a free NFL jersey a while back from them and when I was asked to select my player, editor-in-chief Phil didn’t even flinch that I named Tom Brady (hey, I’m from Boston).  Follow them on Twitter at @IHateJJRedick.

Best on Twitter (Organization): @bad_decisions, the best friendly neighborhood dive in the city, and the best bartender (John) that I know.  Another repeat winner.

There were so many great people producing so much great media that to choose winners among the nominees seems almost unfair.  Voting was held over several days and you could vote every day for each category - many others got votes from me as well as the winners above.  Any omission above of any other winners does not imply that I didn’t love or vote for them too – congratulations to all of you!  Click here to see the complete list and check out some of the best that Baltimore has to offer.

And - for the record - this blog came in 23rd out of 46 in the Best Personal Blog category.  Top 50%! Among this company, I’m very happy with that!

-- Late Breaking! Molly White Marketing (@MollyWhite) was named Bloggers' Choice in the Tech Blog category - congrats Molly!!