Get shorty

The Shorty Awards are with us again. The strapline on the official website declares that the awards are there to honour 'the best producers of short content on social media'. The Shorty Awards are an annual bash, and each year there are bazillions of categories, some bizarre, some unrepeatable. But if you wish to vote for your favourite tweeter, categories you may be interested in include blogger, science, video blogger and social media. There is even an education category - one that has been 'community created'. Everyone who is nominated for an award gets the chance to answer some questions in a 140 character Twitter interview. It's all good fun, and it's worth checking out some of the nominations and categories, even if you are not directly involved. Below is my Twitter interview from last year, and with the exception of one minor adjustment from 2011 to 2012, there's not a lot else I would change.

What's your best tweet?
Help!

What are six things you could never do without?
My wife, three children and two laptops, Nigel and Keith

How do you use Twitter in your professional life?
To learn, connect, share, converse and learn

What's your favorite Twitter app?
Tweetdeck (when it works)

Twitter or Facebook?
Oh, Twitter, of course

What was the funniest trend you've seen?
#hobbitpop - Dark Riders in the Sky - by Elvish Presley

What feature should Twitter add?
8 additional characters (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)

Who do you wish had a Twitter feed but doesn't?
My Grandmother (she's dead)

What are some words or phrases you refuse to shorten for brevity?
abbreviation, contraction and elipsis

Is there someone you want to follow you who doesn't already? If so, who?
Gwyneth Paltrow, Lady Ga Ga, Pink, Lily Allen and Christopher Biggins

Have you ever unfollowed someone? Who and why?
I unfollowed 'Elvis Presley' when I discovered he was an imposter

Why should we vote for you?
Vote for me because you want to

Terms you wish would start trending on Twitter right now?
@timbuckteeth and Saskatchewan (not together though)

What's the most interesting connection you've made through Twitter?
They are all interesting connections. I couldn't possibly, er...

Hashtag you created that you wish everyone used?
#timforbed

How do you make your tweets unique?
I use coloured or patterned backgrounds

What inspires you to tweet?
Great ideas, interesting news items, inspiring people and ketchup

Ever get called out for tweeting too much?
No never

140 characters of advice for a new user?
Don't listen to anyone - do it your way (please feel free to ignore this advice)

How long can you go without a tweet?
Until the echo of my previous tweet is no longer reverberating

Who do you admire most for his or her use of Twitter?
@CosmoCat (Chahira Nouira)

Why'd you start tweeting?
It was a part of my community service order

Has Twitter changed your life? If yes, how?
Yes, as much as a tool can change you - it has given me a larger PLN (I'm not boasting, really, I'm not)

What do you wish people would do more of on Twitter?
Retweet my tweets

How will the world change in the next year?
Everyone will get rid of their 2011 calendars

What are some big Twitter faux pas?
Spelling French words wrong nest pas?

What will the world be like 10 years from now?
emotional

Image by Photoverulam


Get shorty by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.