Looking for an easy way to add value for someone in your network? Nominate them for something!

There's simply no shortage of awards, events and other honors that are looking for great nominees. The recognition you can bring a friend simply by nominating them is considerable, and who knows. They might even win!

Typically the time investment to nominate someone for something is just a few minutes, and all too often I've seen groups looking to give away awards who are struggling just to get enough nominees or finalists. That mean the odds of your nominee actually getting some type of award are very high.

Here's how easy this is in practice. My e-mail newsletter vendor Emma sent out a nomination request e-mail a few weeks ago for the Sixth Annual Emma 25. In reality this is more like the Emma 50 as they honor 25 general non-profits and 25 more from the cities where they have offices (Nashville, Portland, Denver and Austin). I literally spent 2 minutes filling out an online nomination form recommending one of my favorite local non-profits: Leadership Austin.

Last week the winners were announced and there's Leadership Austin on the list. What's super cool about this 2 minutes of effort is that it will save Leadership Austin hundreds of dollars a year on their e-mail marketing services AND they get to work with a service that's significantly better than their current provider.

So the next time you see some type of nomination request. Think for a few minutes about who you know who deserves that type of an honor. Then spend the few minutes it'll take to make the nomination. Win or lose they'll thank you for it!

Happy Networking!