Posted By Jessica Northey on May 26, 2014

I am so thrilled for all the excitement we’ve seen throughout the #CMchattys process. So much of which was, honestly, baptism by fire on my part. I wanted to do Digital Country Music Awards for nearly two years, but couldn’t wrap my brain around the process. After kicking it around, I finally came up with what I thought would be pretty darn cool:

-have 100% open nominations via Social Media
-recognize fans, stars and industry pros side by side

#CMchattys were designed as a way to honor Country Music Industry folks and fans who excel in Social Media.

We asked the #CMchat community to nominate their favorite Must Follow Country Music Stars, Fans and Industry Pros. We had thousands and thousands of nominations. We then used Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus to narrow down the categories and ultimately took it to the website where we set up a structure that was meant to be 1 person/human = 1 vote, from 1 browser or 1 cookie.  I am not an expert in online voting or polling, nor do I claim to be an expert in voting applications or widgets, but I set up the back end of the contest in such a way that I thought was fair, not knowing it could be bypassed or that some people would purposefully distribute ways to get around the cookie or IP throttle.  Some of that made me sad but I still think that in the end the people with amazing communities are winning.

In all honestly, we never really gave any rules. I sincerely wanted the #CMchattys to be “of the people, by the people, for the people” and I consider myself a people.  With that said, this past week I’ve learned that you are never gonna make everybody happy. EVER. So, please just bear in mind that the #CMchattys are meant to be special and honor those who are active on Social Media, not that they talk to everyone all the time, but that create content that you just can’t wait to consume. I refer back my original #CMchattys announcement:

Ask yourself … Who stands out to you, wherever you are, when you’re online? Is she the Queen of the Instagram selfie? Can’t get enough of his webisodes on Youtube? Reading their tweets is better than a box of chocolates? Your fingers simply can’t wait to click on their Facebook page? The way they Google+ makes you giggle? Their Vines are divine?

Some of the results aren’t at all what, or who I expected, but it was really incredible to see mass amounts of people rally for their favorite artists. To think that some of these newer artists ARE the stars of tomorrow is incredible, and I hope you’re paying attention to the results so far. Did you know that we have had nearly 750,000 votes this past week? Thank God for the guys at HostGator giving my website some extra BOOM and being such an AMAZING Sponsor to work with! BTW they have a 50% off deal on hosting this Memorial weekend!

In closing I’d like to thank some people who made the #CMchattys happen!