E.B.O.N.Y. Women honored the popularity of social media at its Instagrammy Awards Thursday.

The Instagrammys began on Instagram to get students’ attention about upcoming awards. Students could nominate Instagram users in categories like Best Instagram Name, Best Dancer and Best NIU Model. Once the nominees were chosen, E.B.O.N.Y. Women held penny wars in DuSable Hall where students could vote using spare change. The organization raised about $500.

This was the first Instagrammy Awards and Lexus Jackson, junior pre-nursing major and co-host for the awards, said she hopes it won’t be the last.

“I hope that the Instagrammy awards will be a continuing thing because it’s not just going to be Instagram every year. It will be whatever social network is popular at that time,” Jackson said.

Tiffany Powell, junior community leadership and civic engagement major and secretary of E.B.O.N.Y. Women, said about 250 students attended the award show.

Instagram was chosen by E.B.O.N.Y. Women as it was seen as the most popular social media app. Powell said she goes on Instagram at least once a day.

“Basically our generation now revolves around social media, so we wanted to get out and get students’ attention,” Powell said. “And what better way to do that but to do it with Instagram because a lot of students use Instagram daily.”

E.B.O.N.Y. Women had been discussing ways to grab as many students as possible.

“E.B.O.N.Y. Women has been thinking about doing this program for a few years now, but we have never really got it started,” Powell said. “So this year was our first time really jumping into it and getting it started. And at first we were worried about the turnout, but it actually turned out great.”

Nailah Cartman, junior psychology major and co-host of the awards, said she hopes the awards will become an annual event that incorporates popular social media websites.

“I had a lovely time since this was our first annual Instagrammys,” Cartman said. “We were able to show how we wanted the show to flow, and it was great experience and it brought something different to the campus because this generation is bound together through social media.”