Behind the scenes of Free Times’ annual awards. 🏆

We all know about Free Times Best of Columbia awards – they’re basically the Westminster Dog Show of local biz in Cola. 🏅 (And if somehow you didn’t know about them before, you certainly do now, since we were nominated for Best Instagram this year.)

Image via free-times.com

But what exactly goes on behind the scenes of all that nominating, voting, counting, tallying + awarding? Just in time for today’s announcement of the 2017 winners + tonight’s 1987-themed Best of Columbia party, we worked with the Free Times team to find out •exactly• how much community input goes into the annual awards (hint: it’s a lot) – all for your favorite brunch spot to get that Best of Columbia sticker (a.k.a. badge of honor) on their front door.

📝 Nominations

11,000+ | nominations cast

6,000+ | unique nominees

Most nominations received: 1️⃣ Best Hair Stylist (193), 2️⃣ Best Restaurant (178), 3️⃣ Best Bartender (176)

Least nominations received: Best Store for Vinyl (4), Best Gun Shop (5), Best Cycle Shop (5)

945 unique nominees advanced to the voting round. ⬇

☑ Voting

508,425 | total votes cast (one vote = one vote for a single nomination, like Best Insta ➡ COLAtoday)

15,906 | unique users who voted (number of individual people who cast votes)

32 | average number of categories each voter voted in

4,938 | most votes cast in a single category: Best Annual Event or Festival (Greek Festival won 🇬🇷 )

460 | least votes in a single category: Best Vaping Store

101,094 | most votes received in a single day (Wednesday, June 7 – a.k.a. the first day of voting)

5,715 | least votes received in a single day (Sunday, June 25)

#⃣ Number of votes per category

163,912 votes | Food & beverage

65,047 votes | Politics & city life

51,322 votes | Clubs & bars

50,666 votes | Services

38,903 votes | Local media

35,564 votes | Shopping

28,260 votes | Arts & entertainment

25,871 votes | Health & wellness

21,339 votes | Music

10,789 votes | Transportation

9,869 votes | Places to live

7,034 votes | Pet services

💅 Top three ‘vote-getters’ (top total votes across all categories)

1️⃣ 6,911 votes | Cantina 76

2️⃣ 6,697 votes | The Whig

3️⃣ 5,305 votes | Chick-fil-A

😅 Two funniest nominations

Best Place to be Buried: Under the back deck at New Brookland Tavern

Biggest Local Hero: Gamecock Jesus

🤞 Closest contests

177 vs. 176 votes (1 vote difference) | Best Oil Change

406 vs. 405 votes (1 vote difference) | Best Orthopedic Practice

752 vs. 748 votes (4 vote difference) | Best Local Instagram (EEEEK.)

177 vs. 171 votes (6 vote difference) | Best Physical Therapy

579 vs. 570 votes (9 vote difference) | Best Gay Bar

173 vs.163 votes (10 vote difference) | Best Dentist

Okay, you guessed it: We won Columbia’s Best Instagram in Free Times’ awards. 🎉 (By 4 votes (!!) – shoutout to our moms.) Thank you all for voting for us – we appreciate every single follow, like + comment since we launched our Instagram in February. Y’all rock.

Tickets to tonight’s 80s party are still available for $35. Actual footage of our team on the dance floor tonight. ⬇

Gif via Giphy

–Beth

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