I’m in an awards mood today, and it’s almost time to reflect on 2008 as we head barreling into 2009. The New York Times blogged about a company’s quest (great PR move by Sawhorse Media) to find the best tweeters of the year. The awards are called the Shorty Awards, and it’s a hot topic on Twitter. Over 12,000 entries have come in already.
I thought it was for top tweets, but it’s really for the top people on Twitter in different categories. This means it serves as a great way to see who’s popular on different subjects (just in case you need to reach or follow one of them).
To me the most impactful tweet of this year came from James Karl Buck. He used his cell phone to tweet one impactful word from an Egyptian jail: arrested. Then another message: Free. I don’t know if they found him since then though.
The tweets that stood out to me were from people I don’t follow or know but who were in some sort of crisis. But I’m sure there were funny, important, or endearing tweets too.
Nominate someone as a Twitterer of the year at www.shortyawards.com. Oh, I hope they’ll have a giant TweetUp to celebrate. They are actually having an awards ceremony and are looking for sponsors for it. Otherwise there aren’t any details about what they’re planning.
Do you have a favorite tweet? Leave it in the comments – let us know who wrote it, their Twitter username, when they wrote it, and why it’s notable.