How to Run an Online People's Choice Award
Published 18 August 2026 · 5 min read · How-to
In short
A People's Choice award is decided by public vote rather than by a judging panel. To run one online, choose a shortlist of nominees, publish them on a voting page with equal presentation, set a vote limit such as one vote per person or one per day, open voting for one to three weeks, and announce the winner with the total number of votes cast. The award's credibility depends on publishing the rules before voting opens.
A People's Choice award is the easiest award to run and the easiest to devalue. Done well, it is the category everyone remembers — the one the audience genuinely decided. Done carelessly, it becomes a measure of who has the largest mailing list, and everyone knows it. The difference is a handful of decisions made before the first vote is cast.
What is a People's Choice award actually measuring?
Popular support. That is a real thing worth measuring, and it is not the same as quality — which is why the award works best beside a judged category rather than instead of one.
Being clear about this shapes everything else. If the award is meant to recognise the nominee the audience most connected with, then a nominee with a big following winning is not a failure of the process — it is the process. If you wanted quality assessed, you wanted judges.
How do you choose the nominees?
The shortlist is where most of the quality control happens, and it is the step organisers most often skip.
| Method | How it works | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Judged shortlist, public final vote | Judges pick five or six; public picks the winner | Best of both; needs a judging round |
| Open nominations, then public vote | Anyone can nominate; all nominees go forward | Inclusive, but the field can be unwieldy |
| Nominations with a cut-off | Top nominated entries become the shortlist | Rewards early mobilisation as much as merit |
| Full field | Everyone who entered is votable | Simple and fair; dilutes attention |
The first row is the strongest structure for most awards. A judged shortlist guarantees every nominee is worth voting for, and the public decides between genuinely comparable options.
What vote rules should a People's Choice award use?
- 1Vote limit — one vote per person produces a cleaner result; one per day generates more engagement and more traffic
- 2Verification — email verification where the award carries real value; open voting where it is for fun
- 3Voting window — one to three weeks, closing at a stated time with the time zone
- 4Eligibility — whether anyone may vote or only members, ticket holders or attendees
- 5Tiebreak — decided in advance
- 6Manipulation — state that automated votes will be removed
Publish all six with the voting link. The reasoning behind the limit choice is in how to prevent online voting fraud.
How do you present nominees fairly?
Presentation is a silent thumb on the scale. Nominees presented inconsistently are not competing on equal terms, however fair the counting is.
- The same image treatment for every nominee — same crop, same quality, same style
- The same description length, enforced with a word limit
- A display order that is alphabetical, randomised per visitor, or by entry number — never by current vote total
- The same links and social handles fields for everyone, or none
- No editorial commentary favouring one nominee over another
Ordering by vote total deserves particular attention: it creates a self-reinforcing advantage for whoever leads early, and it is the most common accidental bias in public voting pages.
How do you get people to actually vote?
A People's Choice award with forty votes is worse than no award at all — it advertises that nobody cared. Turnout is the whole product.
- 1Give every nominee a personal share link and ask them to use it
- 2Provide a graphic pack so nominees can post without designing anything
- 3Announce the shortlist as its own moment, separately from opening voting
- 4Send one mid-campaign reminder with the closing time
- 5Use a QR code on printed material if there is an associated event
- 6Send a final reminder in the last 24 hours — it reliably produces the largest single day
Voorna issues a personal share link to every nominee automatically and records which votes came through it, so nominees who genuinely mobilised support can be credited.
How should the winner be announced?
Announce the winner, the total number of votes cast across all nominees, and nothing else. Publishing the total signals scale and makes the result feel measured. Publishing individual nominees' totals is a choice with consequences: it is transparent, and it also publicly ranks people who agreed to be nominated, not to be ranked.
Most awards publish the winner and the overall total, and share individual figures only with nominees who ask. Decide the position before voting opens and say which you will do.
Frequently asked questions
- How many nominees should a People's Choice award have?
- Five to eight works best. Fewer than four makes the vote feel predetermined; more than ten splits attention so thinly that the winner can emerge on a small share of the total. If your field is larger, use a judged shortlist to bring it down before public voting opens.
- Should a People's Choice award have a prize?
- It can, but recognition is often enough and carries less risk. Once a prize of real value is attached, the incentive to manipulate rises and, in some countries, promotional rules about prize competitions may apply. If you attach a substantial prize, check the rules for your market before advertising it.
- Can the same award have both a judged and a public winner?
- Yes, and it is the strongest structure. Judges decide the main award on merit, the public decides People's Choice on support, and the two are announced separately. Nominees can win both, which makes for a genuinely good moment.
- What if one nominee has a much larger following?
- They will probably win, and that is what the award measures. If that outcome would embarrass you, the award you actually want is a judged one. What you can do is use a judged shortlist so every nominee is credible, and keep the People's Choice title separate from any merit award.
Sources
- Promotional marketing: Competitions — Advertising Standards Authority / Committee of Advertising Practice (UK). The requirement that significant conditions of a promotion be stated before or at the time of entry.
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 — World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The accessibility standard a public voting page should meet at Level AA.
Adding an audience-voted category this year? Voorna runs the nominee page, the vote limits and the count for you.
See Voorna for awards