Globe Tattoo holds Tatt Awards for social media netizens

WINNERS@TATT AWARDS. Winners of the first Globe Tatt Awards and the Globe Tatt Council gather after the ceremonies at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City Friday night, Aug. 26, 2011. FRANCES MANGOSING

MANILA, Philippines – As social media turns to be a powerful tool in this day and age, several netizens have risen as trendsetters in Facebook, Twitter and blog sites.

For the first time, Globe Tattoo held its first ever Tatt Awards at the Manila Peninsula Friday night to recognize those who have made a “remarkable impact” on the local social media landscape.

There were 10 categories with five finalists per category. The winners exemplified the Tattoo ideals of “a life without limits,” said Tattoo Head of Nomadic Broadband Dong Ronquillo.

Loi Reyes Landicho of professionalheckler.wordpress.com won the Wordslayer category for showcasing the mastery of words through witty blog entries.
For his videos that shook the Filipino online community, Mike Bustos of youtube.com/MikeyBustosVideos bagged the Video Slinger award.

Celebrity-host Bianca Gonzales of twitter.com/iamsuperbianca won the #Thought-Mover award for uniting people “around one thought in 140 characters or less” in the local Twitter scene.

For her excellence in photography “that caught fire in the local online art scene,” Jin Joson of jinjoson.com won the award of The Artiste.

Meanwhile, in recognition for “improving the state of a societal cause in the Philippines through social media,” Elizabeth Angsioco of dswp.org.ph won The Advocate award.

As a musical band “who fought hard to claim their space in the hearts of the Filipino audience,” the Indie rocker award went to Up Dharma Down of updharmadown.com.
Laureen Uy of breakmystyle.com won the Stylisimo award for setting trends in fashion.

For her thought-provoking posts “that spread like a virus and took a life of its own,” world-renowned singer and actress Lea Salonga bagged the Ball Breaker award.

Mark Macanas of techpinas.com won the Tech Junkie award for sharing the access to latest trends in technology.

Filipino Freethinkers of filipinofreethinkers.org brought home The One award for leading the pack in terms of online popularity and shaping opinion the local online community.

All winners received P100,000 cash and premium broadband products from Tattoo.

Special Awards were also given to Divine Lee of divinemlee.com as Tatt Trending Personality, Youtube sensations Arjohn Gilbert and Maria Aragon as Tatt Viral Rookie, Vice Ganda as Tatt Most Likeable based on his Facebook fan page.

The winners were determined through public voting and by the Tatt Council made up of veteran journalist Maria Ressa, Rock Ed Philippines founder Gang Badoy, blogger and entrepreneur Cecile Zamora-Van Straten, tech blogger and Tattoo ambassador Rico Mossesgeld, director and video blogger Kring Elenzano, radio DJ Chico Garcia, President of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines Hans Roxas-Chua and Tattoo Head of Nomadic Broadband Dong Ronquillo.

With the Philippines named as social networking capital of the world in these changing times, Maria Ressa encouraged netizens to come together and push for progress.

“We should be at the forefront of the revolution we are leading,” she said.

“Every powerful tool can be used positively and negatively….[The] earlier we focus on the positive, the sooner we can have innovation,” Ressa also said.