How to Win Best of Charleston: Nominations, Finals and Voting
Best of Charleston voting is won in two rounds: get nominated under your exact business name, then bring real customers back for Charleston City Paper's final round. In 2017 only the defending winner and the four most-nominated others per category reached the final. Read the rules page for how often each person may pick. The contest allows reasonable customer discounts but not paying for votes, and nobody can promise you the title.
By Victor Brown · Last updated
Who runs Best of Charleston, and what does each round decide?
Charleston City Paper runs Best of Charleston on its own website and describes it as a two-stage system: readers first nominate businesses and locals category by category, then a final round settles each category among the entries that came through. The paper sets the dates, the categories and the cut, and the entrants work inside them.
That structure matters more than any slogan on a counter card. A business that would do well in the final but is thin in the opening stage never gets to use its strength, because the final only lists names that came out of nominations. So the real work starts in December. February is the second half.
In our tracking, Charleston City Paper Best Of shows up in six editions between 2021 and 2026, and the next one is expected in 2027. It is also the only recurring public-vote program our records file under the Charleston metro. One title, once a year, with a fixed calendar: that makes it easy to plan for and easy to miss.
Five weeks of nominations, then a February final in Charleston
For the 2026 edition, Charleston City Paper took nominations from Monday, Dec. 8 at midnight through Sunday, Jan. 11 at 11:59 p.m., then ran final voting from Friday, Feb. 13 at midnight to Sunday, March 8 at 11:59 p.m. The nomination stage lasted 35 days and the final 24.
Between the stages sits a quiet month, Jan. 12 to Feb. 12, while the paper turns nominations into finalists. Use it to sort out who nominated you and how to reach them again. When the final opens, look for your exact name in your category before you send a single reminder.
In our tracking, one of the three dated rows held for this organizer opens in February and one closes in March, which lines up with the 2026 final. According to our tracking of South Carolina, the median promotion window is 28 days (49 dated promotions, 2016 to 2026). According to the same tracking, September is the most common opening month for the state's recurring programs (17% of 98). Charleston runs off that statewide rhythm: the asking happens over the holidays and in late winter.
Plan for the holidays, then. A shop asking for nominations between Christmas and New Year's is competing with family, travel and a crowded inbox. I'd ask early in December and once more in the first days of January, well before the Jan. 11 close.
Getting nominated in the right one of nearly 400 categories
Charleston City Paper's 2026 contest has nearly 400 categories split into eight sections. The paper tells a business to find the category group that describes it, click into the specific category it wants, and share that category's own link, so each nomination lands in one place instead of scattering across several.
Take that instruction literally. A link to the contest's front page asks a customer to scroll through hundreds of categories and guess which one you meant. A link to the exact category asks one question. With a list that long, the second kind of link is the difference between a nomination and an abandoned browser tab.
The finalist cut is the part to confirm each year. In 2017, the paper took the previous year's winner plus the four other most-nominated entries in each category into the final, five names in all. Under that rule the defending winner's place did not depend on its nomination count, so challengers were really fighting for four spots. Whether the 2026 final used the same cut is a question for the paper; ask it before you plan around five names.
Settle these four points before you share a single category link with anyone:
- The business name customers will recognize, spelled the way your sign spells it
- One category, two at most, where customers already think of you first
- The specific category link, opened on a phone to make sure it lands on the right page
- The people you will ask first: regulars, staff and their families who are real customers
What Charleston City Paper's rules forbid, and the discount they allow
Charleston City Paper's Best of Charleston rules ban paying for votes and bot or spam voting, say every category is checked for suspected fraud, and disqualify businesses that cheat. The same rules let a nominee offer customers reasonable discounts to thank them and to encourage them to take part.
That discount clause is unusual among reader polls, and it's narrow. "Reasonable" is the paper's word, and the paper decides what it means. I'd keep any thank-you offer modest, open to every customer whether they take part or not, and printed the same way on the counter and online, so nobody has to prove a pick to get it.
Before you print a flyer, confirm two details on the rules page: how often one person may pick in a category during the final, and whether your offer reads as reasonable. If the page doesn't answer either, put the question to the paper in writing and keep the reply.
Every category gets checked. That line is the whole argument against shortcuts. A burst of picks from people who have never bought a coffee from you is exactly the pattern a category-by-category fraud review is meant to look at, and a disqualification costs you the title and the year.
How Charleston owners win Best of Charleston awards without shortcuts
Local owners win Best of Charleston awards the slow way: a nomination push in December and early January aimed at people who already buy from them, one category link per ask, and a second, separate ask when Charleston City Paper opens final voting in mid-February. The people who nominated you are your first list for the final.
The paper says its two-stage system has drawn a record number of voters in past years. Read that as competition, not comfort. A bigger crowd means one loyal regular counts for less unless you've asked a lot of loyal regulars.
Example scenario (illustrative - not a client result): a neighborhood restaurant prints its category link on receipts during the nomination weeks, asks servers to mention it once per table, and keeps a short list of guests who said yes. When the final opens, it sends that same list one reminder at the start and one near the close, and stops there.
What I'd skip: swap threads that trade picks with strangers, anyone selling a bundle of contest picks, and staff told to nominate from every email address they own. Each of those leaves a trail that a fraud check exists to find, and Charleston City Paper says plainly that offenders are disqualified.
What an agency can add to a Charleston entry, and what it can't
Voting Now does not sell votes for Best of Charleston or any other contest. We sell promotion: paid ads, native PR, posts in partner groups and with bloggers, and our own social channels, aimed at real Charleston-area people who might choose to support an entry. Charleston City Paper's ban on paid votes in the contest stays the outer limit.
The cost is built the way advertisers price leads, with a quote agreed before anything runs. Promotion can put your category link in front of people. It cannot make anyone pick you, it cannot move the finalist cut, and it cannot overrule the paper's fraud review.
The paper sells something nearby itself: it recommends advertising on its contest pages while people are placing nominations, and sends advertisers to its sales team. That's a fair option for awareness. I'd judge it and any outside promotion by the same test: does it reach people who would actually nominate you once reminded?
Send us your category link for a free analysis; we read the rules first and decline anything they forbid.
| Stage | Rule to check first | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Charleston City Paper Best Of nominations | Nominations are collected per category; the 2026 window ran Dec. 8 to Jan. 11. | Share the specific category link, not the contest's front page, and ask early in December. |
| Choosing the category | Nearly 400 categories sit in eight sections on the 2026 contest page. | Pick one or two categories where customers already think of you, and stick to them. |
| Finalist cut | In 2017, last year's winner plus the four other most-nominated entries reached the final. | Ask the paper whether the same five-name cut applies before planning around it. |
| Final voting round | The 2026 final ran Feb. 13 to March 8; check how often one person may pick. | Confirm your listed name, then spread reminders across the window to the 11:59 p.m. close. |
| Rewards for customers | Reasonable discounts to thank customers are allowed; paying for votes in the contest is banned. | Keep any offer modest, open to all customers, and identical in print and online. |
| Advertising with the paper | The paper recommends ads on its contest pages during nominations, through its sales team. | Treat it as awareness, and judge it by whether it reaches real customers. |
| When only a win will do | The paper checks every category for suspected fraud and disqualifies offenders. | Skip anyone who promises the title; outside help cannot buy the result. |
Step by step
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Save Charleston's dated rules
Open the Best of Charleston contest page when the edition is announced and save a copy with the date: nomination window, final window, the ban on paying for contest votes, and the discount clause.
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Pick a category group
Find the group among the eight sections that fits your business, then the exact category inside it. With nearly 400 categories, a near-miss choice splits your support between two lists.
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Share one category link
Send customers the specific category page, never the front page. If you are going for two categories, send two clearly labeled messages so nobody nominates you in the wrong place.
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Check the final-round listing
When final voting opens (Feb. 13 in the 2026 edition), search your category for your exact name before reminding anyone. If it is missing or misspelled, write to the paper first.
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Spread asks to March 8
Confirm on the rules page how often one person may pick, then space reminders across the 24-day final so the last one lands well before the 11:59 p.m. close.
Questions and answers
Can a Charleston restaurant win local business awards without advertising?
Yes. Charleston City Paper's 2026 contest page presents advertising as a recommendation for awareness during nominations, while the two stages are settled by reader nominations and final voting. A restaurant without an ad budget wins the same way one with a budget does: a clean category link, regulars who actually nominate, and the same regulars asked back for the final in February and March.
What would a Charleston two-stage plan teach you about how to get Best of Omaha?
A Charleston plan teaches the habits, not the details: one exact name, one category link, asking people who already buy from you, and reading the rules before spending anything. Charleston's dates, its nearly 400 categories, its discount clause and its 2017 five-name cut belong to Charleston City Paper alone. Best of Omaha answers to its own organizer, so each of those points has to be read fresh there.
Would the Charleston approach help you win Best of Boston?
Yes, in part. The working habits carry over to Best of Boston, but the rules do not. Charleston City Paper allows reasonable customer discounts, and another publisher may ban any reward outright; dates, the finalist rule and the per-person allowance also differ by organizer. Read Boston's rules in the same sequence: dates first, then the fraud clause, then anything about rewards, before you ask a single customer.
What does Charleston's category link teach about getting nominated for Best of Las Vegas?
Charleston's category link teaches that a nomination counts only where it lands: in the exact category, under the name the organizer will list. Getting nominated for Best of Las Vegas follows that organizer's own form and categories. Read its rules for the nomination window, any minimum count and how names are matched, then send customers straight to the right place.
When did Best of Charleston 2026 nominations run?
Best of Charleston 2026 nominations ran from Monday, Dec. 8 at midnight through Sunday, Jan. 11 at 11:59 p.m., with final voting from Friday, Feb. 13 through Sunday, March 8. In our tracking the next edition is expected in 2027. Dates for that edition are the paper's to announce, so save the new contest page when it appears instead of assuming the same days.
Can a Charleston business offer customers a discount for taking part?
Yes. Charleston City Paper's 2026 rules let nominees offer customers reasonable discounts to thank them and to encourage them to vote. The same contest rules ban paying for votes, so the line runs between a modest thank-you open to customers and anything that looks like buying a pick. When in doubt about what counts as reasonable, ask the paper before printing the offer.
Sources
- charlestoncitypaper.com. charlestoncitypaper.com.
- charlestoncitypaper.com. charlestoncitypaper.com.
- charlestoncitypaper.com. charlestoncitypaper.com.
- charlestoncitypaper.com. charlestoncitypaper.com.
- charlestoncitypaper.com. charlestoncitypaper.com.
Voting Now does not sell votes, nominations or finalist places in the Best of Charleston contest, and never uses bots or spam picks, which Charleston City Paper's rules forbid. We cannot change the paper's finalist cut, its category-by-category fraud review or a decision to disqualify. We do not promote entries in political or governmental votes, and we decline any contest whose rules forbid paid promotion.
A contest vote sits under two rulebooks, the platform's and the organizer's. Meta's Spam standard lists offering anything of monetary value in exchange for engagement as a covered behavior, and the Santa Barbara Independent says it will disqualify a business that offers voters incentives of any kind. Voting Now reads both rulebooks before it plans anything, and a clause that forbids outside promotion ends the job.
Contest platforms check votes as routine. Easypromos runs each vote through 11 security controls and does not count one that fails any of them, and Woobox says voting fraud is becoming more common as contests grow popular. Voting Now promotes to real people who choose for themselves, at the contest's own pace, and none of this is a method for getting past a check.
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No quote promises a win, a ranking or a vote count, because the organizer counts the votes and applies its own rules. The Santa Barbara Independent, for one, says it will disqualify a business that offers voters incentives of any kind. Nothing runs before the client approves a written quote.