Cheryl Burgess (@ckburgess) Wins 2013 Twitter Shorty Award for Marketing

Cheryl Burgess Winner of Shorty Awards 2013

In just its fifth year of existence, the Shorty Awards has quickly risen to prominence in the social media community.  Recognizing social media influencers in a variety of categories, the Shorty Awards are often referred to as the “Academy Awards of the Internet.” According to The New York Times,

“Hollywood has the Oscars. Broadway has the Tonys. Now Twitter has the… Shorty Awards.”

This year, on April 8th, the Shorty Awards held its annual ceremony at the Times Center in the New York Times Tower.  Influential tweeters from George Takei (Distinguished Achievement in Internet Culture) to Pepsi (Best Fortune 500 Brand on Social Media) took home awards celebrating their achievements in the digital bazaar.

Commenting on the Shorty’s impressive pedigree, famed comedian Ricky Gervais playfully remarked, “It’s an award like an Oscar, or a Nobel Peace Prize … better, probably.”  With more and more big names from all walks of business, entertainment, and news media—just to name a few of the many categories—the Shorty’s have become “kind of a big deal.”  For a brief overview of the Shorty’s broad reach and popularity among the social media elite, check out the video below:

The Award for Best Marketing in Social Media

I am pleased to announce that I have been selected as the 2013 recipient of the 2013 Twitter Shorty Award for Best Marketing in Social Media.  This is my fourth consecutive year winning the award, a distinction that makes me both incredibly proud and tremendously humbled.

As my many peers in the Twittersphere can attest, social media can be hard work—though of course it can also provide incredible payoffs.  New developments in best practices for engagement and sharing are always just around the corner, and sometimes it can feel like a full-time job just keeping up with the learning curve—let alone trying to get ahead of it.

I am constantly reminded that you can’t take anything for granted in social media, especially in a platform as fast-paced and capricious as Twitter can be.  I suppose that this fact highlights the truism that the best experiences in life are about the journey rather than the destination.  It is with this outlook that I hope to continue to reinvest in myself in the spirit of discovery and community that is essential for succeeding in the competitive world of social media.

One of the ways I hope to achieve this is by expanding the conversation to a wider audience.  In August 2013, McGraw-Hill will release The Social Employee: How Great Companies Make Social Media Work.  The book, co-authored by my Blue Focus Marketing partner-in-arms Mark Burgess and myself, explores the way leading companies such as Dell, Adobe, Southwest Airlines, Cisco, IBM, and AT&T have made social media work for their organizations both internally and externally.  With these success stories, we hope to present different blueprints for going social that any brand can follow, from small startups to multinational corporations.  We are very excited about sharing this book with the world, and are counting down the days to its release!

Thanks for voting!

I am especially grateful to my fellow peers for voting for me in this category and propelling me to a four-peat in this category!  Thank you to Judy Bellem (@JudyBellem), Kevin Randall (@kevinbrandall), Eric Fletcher (@ericfletcher), Gary Schirr (@ProfessorGary), Esta H. Singer (@sheconsulting), Terry Brock (@TerryBrock), John Nosta (@JohnNosta), Caroline Susan Di Diego (@CASUDI), Aaron Kilby (@kilby76), Monica Liming-Hu (@MonicaLimingHu), Margaret Molloy (@MargaretMolloy), Wendy Marx (@wendymarx), Deborah Weinstein (@DebWeinstein), Steve Olenski (@steveolenski), Roc Thisplace (@ProROC), Mike Johansson (@mikejny), Michele Johansson (@lovejackpearl), Tom Pick (@TomPick), and (last but not least) Mark Burgess (@mnburgess).

Awards such as these show the power of community, and I am grateful for being part of such an enthusiastic community of marketing innovators.  Thank you so very much to everyone I’ve interacted with over these past few years.

Let’s keep this party rolling!

 

Good things come to those who sign up for our newsletter.
Join our email list to get the latest insights straight to your inbox.
SUBSCRIBE
Give it a try, you can unsubscribe anytime.
close-link