By KATIE McDOWELL / Lifestyles Editor

Everyone plays favorites.

That’s exactly what we want you to do in our second annual Best of the Best Shelby County contest, which kicks off this week.

In last year’s inaugural contest, thousands of Shelby County residents voted for their favorite business, restaurant, local festival and many other categories.

This year, we’ve honed the competition, changing some categories and adding others.

Here are a few of the new categories: boutique, dry cleaner, car dealer, fitness center and local artist.

The contest is a chance for local residents to reward the people they do business with in the county. Shelby County is full of businesses that provide wonderful goods and services, even in the shaky economic climate.

If you’re proud of your hometown dentist, we hope you’ll let him or her know by voting in this contest. We also hope you’ll spread the word of the contest through Facebook, Twitter or your website. The biggest vote-getters in our 2011 contest definitely used technology to their advantage.

The first round of voting, which begins this week and ends June 29, allows readers to submit businesses, people or organizations for each category. Once the first round ends, we’ll tally the votes and post the top three vote-getters online.

Readers are then allowed the vote for their favorite of the three in the second round of voting, which will take place July 9-Aug. 10.

The winners will be announced in the October issue of Shelby Living. They’ll receive a Best of the Best Shelby County 2012 sticker and trophy.

The best thing about winning is knowing their customers think they are doing a good job.

There are 37 categories, so make sure you take the time to check out the contest online at Shelbyliving.com.

So go ahead, play favorites.

Katie McDowell is the lifestyles editor for the Shelby County Reporter. She can be reached at 669.3131 ext. 19 or by email at katie.mcdowell@shelbycountyreporter.com.