The 2011 Mashable Awards Have Arrived! Will you?

Last year we were honored with a top 5 nomination for the 2010 Mashable Awards, in the “Best Social Media Service for Small Business” category. The 2011 Mashable Awards are now underway, and votes are coming in by the thousands. It’s a great feeling to be acknowledged by such an influencer in the field of social media, and we wish all new nominees the best, for this year’s selection.

Courtesy of mashable.com

Voting for this year’s social award ceremony is now open, and it ends on November 18th of this month. Each category will go through a selection process that involves Mashable readers, and its editors. An individual can vote once for each category, but you may only vote once a day – so you’ll have to space this out.

In 2010 there were 25 categories that were honored, though this year there have been significant changes in the line up. It seems the category we were nominated for last year has been replaced with “Digital Company of the Year,” a more broad view of social marketing companies in general.

If you’d like to vote for SMMU, or any other great social companies that have made an impact on your life this year, you can! Voting is completely open to the public. All you have to do is visit the 5th Annual Mashable Awards voting page, where Mashable has provided you with a fast, efficient way to vote.

Just type in the name of your nominated company, and select the category you feel best describes their contribution to social media. There are 4 main categories – business, entertainment, social media and tech. Choose from 7 subcategories in business, 6 in entertainment, 9 in social media or 6 in the tech category.

You’ll be able to see the latest nominations on the page if you run out of ideas on who to vote for. Voting ends on November 21st, and winners will be announced on Mashable on December 19th. Before that, finalists will be invited to an awards show that takes place in Las Vegas, at the International CES Convention. Mashbash will be held afterwards at the Mirage Hotel on January 11, 2012.

If you’re a social company or have launched a particularly successful marketing campaign this year, you can vote for yourself and spread the word. You aren’t allowed to run a prize based competition or offer incentives to your community if they vote for you however. It has to be something they decide to do for you, because they want to. Spamming will result in disqualification.

So there you have it – the awards are on, courtesy of Pete Cashmore! With only 8 days left to vote, you’ll want to do it as soon as you can, before the clock runs out. If you’ve enjoyed the information and strategies we’ve been providing you over the past few years, maybe you’ll vote for us too. We’d really appreciate that!

To vote for your favorite categories click here.

Who would you vote for in this year’s 2011 Mashable Awards?