I don’t know if it’s the lack of winter weather or the fact that it feels like spring in the middle of March, but it seems like our annual Best of North Tahoe and Truckee contest snuck up on me this year. Nominations are now open through March 25.

Every year, I try to reiterate the importance of the nomination phase. During this period, you want as many nominations as you can possibly get as only the top five nominated businesses/people in each category (which may vary slightly depending on ties) move on to the finals.

Every year, without fail, we get asked why businesses that were nominated do not appear in the finals and I always like to make a sports analogy. The nomination period is the regular season and the finalist voting period is the playoffs. Not every team does well enough to make it to the playoffs, but you’re typically left with the best teams vying for the title.

Every year, also without fail, we get asked the question of why don’t you make to where people can only nominate (or vote in the finals) one time? It’s a valid question – and one that we did spend some time grappling with before the start of the contest this year.

There are reasons.

One of them being that it can very well help a smaller business compete with larger businesses. While one might say it’s actually the opposite of that, if you think about how larger businesses might not have the connection they have with their customers, and how smaller businesses are more equipped to have more intimate relationships, that could prove to be an advantage. It essentially boils down to a larger customer base vs. a more passionate one, and if the passionate base is passionate enough to nominate every day, it can prove to be a winning formula.

Another is keeping the contest top of mind while the window is open. We try to market the contest to let everyone know it’s happening (this column is one example) but there are always people who say they never knew. By keeping it top of mind each day, the chances of it reaching more people grows, and therefore we get more opinions.

Fraud comes into play every year regardless of how many nominations or votes you can place and last year might have been the most we’ve ever flagged. While I love enthusiasm, we always will do our best to weed out those instances to ensure the results are true.

As always, we evaluate categories after every year, taking feedback into account, and look to remove categories that do not generate activity while adding new ones.

This year is exciting because I believe it’s the most new categories (or slightly tweaked) that we’ve added in quite some time.

The last note I want to mention – and I feel like a broken record every year – is have fun. This is a celebration of the people and businesses that make the community what it is, and celebrations should be fun. Maybe your favorite doesn’t win or make it to the finals, but sometimes just being mentioned goes a long way. It could lead to new business, new discoveries, or just reinforcing that other people feel the same as you do – or give that business the support that they are on the right track.

So let your customers, friends and family know that the contest is underway. Every year is different and while some categories may seem like the winner is a foregone conclusion, surprises happen every year.

Best of luck to everyone!

To make your nominations, visit us at: SierraSun.com/best/

Publisher Rob Galloway can be reached at rgalloway@swiftcom.com or 530-542-8046.