TNB Announces Social Media Award Winners

Technology News Bytes, which organized the third annual Hawaii Social Media Summit, announced the names of 15 winners of its “Social Media Awards.”

The Summit was held concurrently with Hawaii Pacific Entertainment‘s Technology Expo for Business & Consumers last week at the Neal Blaisdell Center.

The awards “honor those who have impacted social media in our community in a significant way…. and exemplify social media innovation in business,” according to a TNB release.  “Nominees must have dynamic personalities that attract others to them, and must be experts at interacting with and maintaining their audience in the cutting-edge field of social media.”

Winners were selected by TNB from a pool of candidates nominated by the public. This second round of awards were presented to:

• Catherine Toth
  Cat, a trained journalist known for her blog, “The Daily Dish,” is “prolific, engaging, forthcoming, skilled, smart and tireless” in her quest for the next great way to engage her audience.
• Dania Katz
  Dania of Edible Hawaiian Magazine is a social media force to be reckoned with, building successful social media campaigns for Maui’s food scenes and even launched her own pop-up restaurant, KupuMaui, on Maui, with all the buzz being driven by Twitter and Twitvite.
• Danielle Scherman
  One of the organizers of Startup Weekend Honolulu, Danielle of Social Wahines is a tireless advocate on social media and in real life for Honolulu’s innovators, startups and small local businesses.
• Fernando Pacheco
  Fernando, otherwise known as a blogger for Being808, a stand-up comedian, lead singer/trombonist for Pimpbot, and for numerous bands and projects, is equally as well known for his cheerful, informative presence on social media platforms.
• Gwen Woltz
  Gwen is a member of the Social Media Club, instructor with Pacific New Media and an active member of Hawaii’s social media community.
• John Garcia
  John is known for his dynamic, innovative personality and involvement with countless projects. He’s well known on social media for always sharing the latest, most relevant information about the tech world and the local startup community.
• Karen Weikert
  Karen is known for her “aloha” on Hawaii’s social media networks. She supports a variety of initiatives and nonprofits via social media and is the co-founder of Wahine Media, a company that manages social media for businesses.
• Kari Nettel
  Kari has a Master’s Degree in Internet Marketing from the University of San Francisco, and as a trained educator, uses her social media skills to support local nonprofits, especially those that help kids.
• Kelly Mitchell
  Kelly is not just a big social media player locally; this social media consultant and real estate expert speaks across the country at conferences. She also runs a weekly podcast at AgentCaffeine.com that features national voices on real estate, tech, branding and marketing and is the CEO of REcake.com, a brand communication application for realtors and their clients in North America.
• Laura Kinoshita
  Laura is an active social media presence, marketing and PR for Social Media Club Hawaii and an award-winning social marketer, responsible for, among other campaigns, the Bite Me Sportfishing social media campaign, for which she was awarded the PRSA Koa Anvil Award.
• Michael Choy
  Michael is known for being at almost every single foodie event in town, and always shares his experiences and photos to educate his followers on social media. He’s as personable and outgoing in real life as he is online.
• Paul Klink
  A retired businessman who currently promotes for LUX VIP Events and uses social media prolifically to promote other businesses, events and causes, Paul is known for being tireless in his efforts to connect people and for his “live aloha” attitude.
• Roxanne Darling
  Roxanne of Bare Feet Studios is one of Hawaii’s original social media innovators. She started the Hawaii chapter of the Social Media Club Hawaii and teaches social media literacy to businesses.
• Sara Burnett
  Sara, known for her popular wedding blog, Burnett’s Boards, and her blogging and pinning on Pinterest for Modern Weddings Hawaii, has used her knowledge of social media to build not only a useful site for wedding information, but also a dynamic, thriving community with her social media networks.
• Thomas Obungen
  An experienced social media native, Thomas has managed Yelp’s social media, and currently works at Maven Media Marketing. In addition to being a prolific, fun, helpful and informative presence on social media, he can be found networking with a smile at most of the happening social media events in town.

For more information about the Hawaii Social Media Summit and the Social Media Awards, visit www.smshi.org or contact Quincy Solano at quincy@tnblive.com or (808) 381-2552.