June 30th came and went and let us just say….it was the BEST Social Media Day ever ! We had an amazing turn out at Ferg’s Live Tampa, raised a ton of money for our benefiting charity, Where Love Grows, and had the opportunity to mingle with some of Tampa’s best and brightest social media lovers.
A huge round of applause needs to go to our presenting sponsor, Reeves VW! They have provided us with so many awesome opportunities and made this event absolutely killer!
Our other key Sponsors include:
JJ Taylor Distributing Florida
Ferg’s Live Tampa
Tito’s Vodka
Green Bar Labs
Second Flight
Strea.ma
Ventured Things
Hype Group
Yelp Tampa Bay
The afternoon kicked off with a gaggle of social media influencers that joined us for our VIB (Very Important Blogger) Caravan sponsored by Reeves VW. Reeves provided six gorgeous VW Beetles to drive around town and the coolest part was the fact that our social media handles were on each of our windows. So as we drove around town, everyone knew who we were! The way the caravan works is this: We follow @SMDayTampa on Instagram in order to know where each stop is along our drive. As a team, the six cars decide on the next location and then drive in a caravan towards that location. This year, SMDay Tampa stepped up the game and had us stop at four, super awesome spots.
Our first stop was Datz and Dough. If you didn’t know, they make ridiculously delicious and indulgent food and they were whipping up something extra special in honor of SMDay this year! We walked in and were treated to their flavorful Cold Brew and had the chance to taste their SMDay Donut Ice Cream Cone complete with a chocolate hashtag! We rounded up the crew, snapped a hilarious pic, and awaited our next clue via Instagram.
The second stop led us to Hyde Park Village. Our friends at the village not only treated us to some cotton candy from Cotton Candy Palace, hanging for the summer at The Fling (Hyde Park Village’s pop up shop), but the new addition, Florist Fire, created some beautiful handmade flower crowns too. We snagged a pic by the famous fountain and continued on our way to the next stop. But not before we snapped THIS epic pic of our cars and Downtown Tampa’s skyline!
The third stop led us to Channelside District. Fabrica Pizza has been opened now just about a year and we have enjoyed their wood fired pizzas and fresh salads. So we stopped by to snap a few more pics before heading to our final stop!
Yeoman’s Cask and Lion is an awesome new spot in Downtown Tampa. Open a little over a year, serving up delicious food, some great live music and some wild British decor, this was sure to be a fun final stop on our VIB Caravan. The group met the Queen’s Guards, donned some hilarious props, and snags a few playful pictures before heading back to the SMDay fun at Ferg’s!
One of the newest additions to this year’s celebrations was the SnapChat Geofilter that we created thanks to Hype Group out of St. Pete.
There were a ton of swag and a variety of raffle prizes ranging from giftcards to local restaurants, a Rockstar Giveaway from Hard Rock , and a basket donated by Hyde Park Village worth over $1,000! Between the raffles and our first ever Social Media Day Awards Ceremony, the crowd was kept entertained throughout the night.
Thanks to hundreds of you for nominating and hundreds more of you for voting in the first ever Social Media Day Tampa Bay Awards. With so many great people in the running for your votes, it was a tight race.
These winners are driving our community forward through their use of social media. They are innovators, relationship builders, and believers in the power of socials.
Here they are…
Best Local Blogger has been awarded to: Lauren Gay- The Outdoorsy Diva
Best Local Instagram Account has been awarded to: Datz 7 Dough- @Datz4Foodies
Best Local Social Media Professional has been awarded to: Jenn Thai
Best Local Social Charity has been awarded to: The Ryan Nece Foundation
As a special “Thank You” to our friends at Ferg’s Live for being awesome event hosts and a great venue for our celebration, Burlap and Boards created this personalized reclaimed wood bottle opener to be hung on display for the bartenders to use! How cool?! Check her out on Instagram by following @BurlapAndBoards.
We ended the night with a delicious cake made by our friend Jen at The Wandering Whisk Bakeshop out of St. Pete. She took the social media theme from our event and totally rocked it out!
Thank you to everyone that participated in this year’s nominations, voting and event! We couldn’t have ran such an awesome event without the support of our friends, Caitlyn (@LiveSweatSleep) and Jenn (@ThisJennGirl) who ran the SMDay socials and took some great photos throughout the night. We look forward to having you back next year as we make the event even better! Happy hashtagging 🙂
-Nicholas & Ryan
NHIE Guys 