Shorty Awards Go To NASA, @PeggyOlson

  • February 12, 2009
NASA, Peggy Olson-wannabe Carri Bugbee and an international breaking news service based in the Netherlands were among the 26 winners of the first Shorty Awards, awarded to the best Twitter bloggers.

Bugbee, a Portland, Ore. PR exec, created a following while blogging anonymously as the character Peggy Olson, a junior copywriter on the AMC TV series Mad Men. NASA's @MarsPhoenix posted 600 updates during the 152 days the Mars Phoenix Lander was on its mission last year. The account has more than 41,000 followers. And @BreakingNewsOn, one of Twitter's most popular news services, was created by Michael van Poppel, a 20-year-old from the Netherlands

The winners in total received more than 50,000 nominations and votes for the awards, created in December by Sawhorse Media. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation co-sponsored the event, awarding travel money to the winners to attend the ceremony. Special guests included event host and CNN Anchor Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn) and performer MC Hammer (@MCHammer.) NBA star Shaquille O'Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) appeared via video.

All acceptance speeches were delivered in 140 characters or less, the maximum allowed for a Twitter post. For a full list of winners, visit www.shortyawards.com.

Award category sponsors, all of whom have a heavy Twitter presence, include Rocketboom, Porter Novelli, PepsiCo, PR Newswire, Epicurious, KlickableTV and DanceJam.--Tanya Irwin

1 comment about "Shorty Awards Go To NASA, @PeggyOlson".
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  1. Adam Leidhecker from Paw Luxury, February 12, 2009 at 10:39 p.m.

    We won the shorty awards for #business.
    We are honored and humbled we won. We are on twitter to connect open, honestly & transparently to help and grow relationships.
    Being nominated by our followers is prize enough to know we are making a difference.
    We mainly tweet pet lovers, but also bloggers, tech ppl, business ppl, and all ppl. We’ve met the best ppl on twitter and value our relationships.
    Twitter is about community, and it’s fun.
    -Adam, Wendy & Lola (woof woof)
    twitter.com/pawluxury

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