Love March Madness?
We sure do at Mashable, which is why we’re putting our own spin on things this March: Instead of pitting college basketball teams against one another, we've created a bracket to crown America’s Most Social Small Business, presented by Capital One Spark.
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Earlier in February, we challenged small businesses all over the country to tell us why they deserve the title. After receiving a flood of submissions from businesses across a variety of industries, we vetted the entrants by dissecting their social presences, consumer engagement, short responses and company size and revenue numbers (not every small business stays small forever).
Now, we're excited to announce our selections -- 32 small businesses that are killing it on social. They're tweeting up a storm, Facebooking from sunrise to sundown and pinning and Instagramming like you wouldn't believe.
Finalists Bracket
Our finalists include (drumroll please):
The Mailbox (by The Education Center, LLC)
A Real Change International, Inc.
We'd like to offer a huge thanks to all of our participants; you created quite the challenge for us in determining the cream of the crop. Please note that we had to disqualify businesses that failed to apply by our Feb. 17 deadline, as well as businesses that fell outside predetermined "small business" parameters for revenues and size.
The first round of eliminations will focus on Facebook performance, and the businesses pairing off against one another are detailed in the bracket below.
Who among these heavy hitters is the most social? Determining this is the task that lies ahead of our socially savvy digital experts this March -- and the winner will have their business profiled in a feature on Mashable. Stay tuned all month as we hand-pick America’s Most Social Small Business, and follow along using the hashtag #SocialSmallBiz.
How Scoring Works
Round 1: Facebook performance, including number of fans, quality and ratio of interactions, evidence of customer service, effective contests and sweepstakes, quality and frequency of posts, etc. *Note that this round has changed from our original guidelines (it was formerly round 2, with Twitter performance as round 1). The businesses that applied tend to favor Facebook over Twitter, which is why we switched our focus for the first round.
Round 2: Performance on Twitter, including number of followers/RTs, engagement, wittiness, etc. Engagement will be weighed against total volume of followers, so as not to favor businesses with larger followings.
Round 3: Use of imagery — this round will focus on how each brand utilizes visuals, including platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube, as well as how the business incorporates visuals into its overall social media presence.
Round 4: Brand voice — we'll look at how each brand has developed its online voice, including cohesiveness, humor, engagement, uniqueness, etc.
Dates to Remember
March 3: Mashable Most Social Small Business Sweet Sixteen announced
March 6: Mashable Most Social Small Business Elite Eight announced
March 10: Mashable Most Social Small Business Final Four announced
March 13: Mashable Most Social Small Business National Championship Game announced
March 18: America’s Most Social Small Business crowned