Dezeen's social media editor Ross Bryant has been given the British Society of Magazine Editors Rising Stars award for Best Use of Social Media.

Bryant beat teams from major titles including Heat, Radio Times and Fabulous Magazine – the weekly glossy produced by The Sun newspaper.

The judges included Eye Magazine editor John Walters, Central Saint Martins lecturer Cath Caldwell and BSME chair Sally Eyden, who praised Bryant for his ability to turn Dezeen's news stories into a way to engage with readers on a wide range of social media platforms.

They particularly focused on his ongoing success in building a community of commenters, who generate a lively debate under stories on Dezeen's site.

"There was real personality, dialogue and engagement with readers and good clear editorial with great use of news generated content," said the panel.

Bryant, 25, has been Dezeen's social media editor since 2014 and is responsible for managing the magazine's content on platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He also manages reader comments and writes a weekly round up of the best conversations and debates that take place underneath Dezeen's stories, as well as a weekly newsletter.

Although his primary focus is on building the magazine's community of readers, Bryant is also Dezeen's unofficial car correspondent.

The BSME Rising Stars awards aim to recognise and reward talent in every area of magazine and digital publishing. Organisers said that the programme had received an unprecedented number of nominations this year.

The awards ceremony was held in London on Monday, and was hosted by TV presenter Stephen Mulhern. Other winners on the night included Newsweek, Elle, Radio Times, Cosmopolitan and BBC TopGear.

This is the fourth award for Dezeen this year, with other accolades including Commercial Campaign of the Year at the British Media Awards, Best Content Studio at the Digiday Publishing Awards 2015, as well as a Webby People's Voice award for technology video of the year.

Editor Anna Winston has also been shortlisted for Editor of the Year (business) at the upcoming 2015 PPA Awards, while design editor Dan Howarth is also in the running for PPA Writer of the Year (business).