Greening Twitter At The Shorty Awards

I’ve just returned to Southern California from The Shorty Awards, held Wednesday night in New York to honor “The best producers of short content in 2008”, in other words, the best of Twitter. A combination of lost luggage, including my computer power cord, (I know, I know) and a nasty cold has both delayed my writing this post and given me some time to collect my thoughts.

My expectations attending this, the first annual awards show were low, but I was surprised how professional and well attended the awards turned out to be. Though, my account @greenmoms was the winner in the #green category, we weren’t the only green company at the awards. @pawluxury, an entrepreneurial, organic dog food and accessories company won in the #business category. I wrote about how they successfully use social media at A Green Social Media Story – Paw Luxury.

I first started using Twitter, as @mcmilker, in 2007, slowly at first and then, as I discovered the power of this short messaging service, with more frequency. I’ve added feeds from blogs for which I write and wrote about the Top 10 in Green You Should follow on Twitter. This list, of course tends to be a bit fluid, so I suppose I’ll be writing about it again.

As Twitter grew, so did my interaction with it. I set up several of my clients on it, including @rightstart and @greenmoms and helped fellow Green Options Writer, @ProformaGreen get his account started. Twitter, I believe is an integral part of any social media marketing plan. Emphasis on, “as a part of” because as a stand alone application, Twitter has limitations. The robustness comes from tying into blogs, Facebook, Youtube and other apps designed to create a total social media experience.

Unfortunately, not too many brands are yet aware of exactly how or why to harness the power of Twitter, as was obvious at the Shorty Awards, where not one major brand name received an award. So, it was with a bit of wonder as I milled about at the winners dinner and in the mezzanine of the Galapagos Art Space where the awards ceremony was held. (The mezzanine was, supposedly limited to winners and press…but I wonder a bit about that.) I spoke with geeky apps writers who won in several categories and Veronica from JPL who tweets at @marsphoenix about the goings on at NASA.

I spent time with Adam and Wendy from Paw Luxury and rode back the hotel with MC Hammer. We discussed ways that he and his family could be more green. With a TV series in the works, wouldn’t it be great if he could promote the message of green?

Harnessing the power of Twitter will be big news over the next year. The success of what started as a small tribute and turned into a major event speaks to that inevitability. That #green was a category in the first event speaks to the opportunities that we as eco friendly business have to influence large swathes of people using social media.