For movie, TV, and music freaks out there, this is an exciting time.  It’s awards season!!  These types of shows have plenty of ways they can promote themselves on social media.  Not only can they spark debates over who will win in each category, they can also focus on fashion and celebrities.  However, some awards shows do it better than others.

First up is the People’s Choice Awards.  The awards show aired this past Wednesday on CBS.  Because the show is based on allowing the public to vote for their favorites, they have a distinct social advantage over other awards shows.  This year, over 230 million people voted.  Despite the overall negative reaction to the program due to excessive, poorly integrated advertising, bad writing, and questionable winners, the program still receives a A+ from us for its use of social media.

Leading up to the big night, the People’s Choice Awards used Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and even MySpace to promote the show.  During the awards, host Kaley Cuoco frequently pulled out her phone, read Tweets out loud, and invited viewers to continue live tweeting.  At one point, she even asked the fans to vote for the next dress she should wear.  Fans could also continue voting in a few award categories throughout the beginning of the program.

Overall, the People’s Choice awards did a great job utilizing social media.  They posted interesting content often and made sure to keep their fans engaged.  The hashtag #peopleschoice was extremely popular Wednesday night.  Neil Patrick Harris even said, “Love those Twitter fans. Keep it up, guys” during his acceptance speech.

Alright, now for the Golden Globes, which air this Sunday on NBC.  This program only has about 168,161 fans on Facebook, which is about 100,000 less fans than the People’s Choice Awards– surprising, considering how much longer the Globes have been around and their notoriety.  They also post regularly, but each post gets minimal fan engagement.  They are also giving away 5 of the same gift bags the attendees receive.  While a cool prize, I like the People’s Choice giveaway much better.  They offered one lucky person the chance to actually attend the event– much more exciting than just getting a gift bag.  Finally, the Globes have decided to post pictures like this on their page:

REALLY?

It will be interesting to see how the Globes utilize social media and Social TV throughout their program.  Because they don’t rely explicitly on fan engagement, they need to use a different strategy than the People’s Choice.  They could take a similar approach to last night’s Critic’s Choice Movie Awards on VH1.  The show used the hashtag #CCMA and encouraged the audience to download VH1′s “Co-Star” app to follow along.  Hopefully the Golden Globes will foster a great Social TV experience for fans despite their ho-hum, pre-show social media tactics.

Be sure to watch the Golden Globes on Sunday and keep an eye on Twitter.  Let us know how you think they did!