Contest

Facebook Awards

Salman Rob

500 million and counting, Facebook has not only become one of the largest sites but is now also the most visited site around the world. Besides linking people, Facebook has done an admirable job in promoting big companies, brands, restaurants and other organisations. There are over 900 million activities to attract users starting from groups, events and community pages. More than 2.5 million developers and partners from more than 190 countries publicise themselves in the global platform that is Facebook.

One of the many entertaining features that Facebook has in store for its Bangladeshi users is the year-end event, 'Facebook award by the Kabir Brothers', a brainchild of Ahsanul Kabir Sohan, an MBA student from Stamford University and Safaytul Kabir, a BBA Student from Independent University, Bangladesh. They nominate members in categories such as: the most addicted member of Facebook, most peculiar profile name, the game freaks, the most stylish profile picture, Best album, Best picture in an album, Best picture comment, Best video, Best status and to finish it off, the best celebrity. Filmmaker Ashfaque Nipun, nominated this year for six nominations and the winner of two, gave us some sneak peeks on how the awards are given. The contest began in 2008. Nipun was also awarded last time for best status and a few more categories. The process is very simple; all you need to do is join the group and post for the awards you would like to be nominated for.

“It was two years back when we started Facebook awards. My brother, Safaytul and I got the idea while watching an Indian award ceremony on television,” says Sohan. “I used to do this myself back in my school days with my friends every year, and the flashbacks it offers were always entertaining. That is exactly how the Facebook awards happened”. He also mentioned that the award usually takes place at the end of December, right after Christmas, while the nominations are out two or three days before Christmas. Safaytul, the younger brother, quips in, “The contest is open for everyone but since we started small, our friends were the ones who mostly took part in it. I was shocked by the response we received. As more people get to know about it, we have plans to arrange it big next year. Digital prizes will be changed to real prizes,” says Safaytul when asked about future plans. Elaborating on how to get into the contest, he says, “Members either have to join our group or add one of us and post his or her facebook activity like status, picture comments, profile picture and others in our group or on our wall to make sure it is authentic and funny.”

The two brothers concluded saying, “Facebook has become a way of life and Bangladeshi users are no exceptions. Other than just connecting people socially, we want to bring a difference that would neither harm nor cause offence to anybody. It is just for fun and that is how we would like others to see it as well.”