The National Social Media Awards (NSMA) celebrates excellence, creativity, innovation and positive impact across social media. To ensure the integrity, fairness and reputation of our awards, all nominees, finalists and winners must meet the eligibility requirements outlined below.

By participating in the National Social Media Awards, you agree to comply with these terms.

Eligibility

To be eligible for nomination or selection, entrants must satisfy the following criteria:

Open to Everyone

The National Social Media Awards is an inclusive awards programme. Individuals, creators, influencers, businesses, charities, public figures and organisations of all sizes are welcome to be nominated.

There are no minimum follower requirements, subscriber counts or engagement thresholds.

Authentic Social Media Presence

Nominees must operate genuine and active social media accounts. Accounts should represent real individuals, brands or organisations and comply with the terms of service of the platform(s) they use.

Public Content

Where applicable, content submitted for judging should be publicly accessible during the judging process unless otherwise agreed with the organisers.

Ownership

Nominees must own, manage or have permission to represent the social media account or campaign being nominated.

Good Standing

Entrants should maintain a positive reputation within their industry and wider community and conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the values of the National Social Media Awards.

Grounds for Disqualification

The National Social Media Awards reserves the right to disqualify any nominee, finalist or winner at any stage before, during or after the awards if they are found to have breached these rules.

Disqualification may occur where there is evidence of:

Artificial Growth

The purchase or use of fake followers, fake likes, fake views, fake comments or engagement generated through bots or automated services.

Vote Manipulation

Any attempt to manipulate public voting, including but not limited to:

• Purchasing votes
• Using automated voting software
• Creating multiple fake accounts
• Coordinated fraudulent voting
• Any other activity intended to unfairly influence the outcome

Fraudulent Information

Providing false, misleading or intentionally inaccurate information during nominations or communications with the organisers.

Offensive or Harmful Content

Accounts that consistently promote or publish content containing:

• Hate speech
• Racism
• Harassment or bullying
• Discrimination
• Incitement to violence
• Illegal activity
• Child exploitation
• Terrorism or extremist content
• Explicit content that breaches platform guidelines or applicable law

Criminal Conduct

Individuals convicted of serious criminal offences or currently under investigation for offences that may bring the awards into disrepute may be removed from the competition at the organisers’ discretion.

Reputation Risk

The organisers reserve the right to remove any nominee whose behaviour, public conduct or actions are considered likely to damage the reputation or integrity of the National Social Media Awards.

Verification

The National Social Media Awards may carry out reasonable checks during the nomination, judging and voting process. These may include:

• Reviewing public social media accounts
• Analysing engagement patterns
• Investigating reports from members of the public
• Verifying ownership of accounts
• Requesting additional information where necessary

Failure to cooperate with reasonable verification requests may result in disqualification. Award organisers commonly reserve the right to verify entries and exclude false or misleading submissions to protect the integrity of the competition.

Reporting Concerns

If you believe a nominee has breached these rules, you may report your concerns by contacting the National Social Media Awards team.

All reports will be treated confidentially and investigated fairly.

Submitting knowingly false or malicious allegations may itself result in disqualification.

Organisers’ Decision

All eligibility decisions, shortlisting decisions, judging outcomes and disqualification decisions are final.

The National Social Media Awards reserves the right to:

• Refuse any nomination
• Reassign categories where appropriate
• Remove nominations at any stage
• Withdraw awards if new evidence comes to light
• Amend these eligibility rules where necessary to protect the integrity of the awards programme

Our Commitment

The National Social Media Awards exists to celebrate genuine talent, creativity, innovation and positive influence across social media.

Our goal is to ensure every finalist and winner earns their recognition through authenticity, excellence and the support of the community.