NASA's Shorty Award

Shorty Awards Logo

Last week, the ceremony for the 4th Annual Shorty Awards was held in New York City. The Short Awards, nicknamed Shorties “… honor the best of social media, recognizing the people and organizations producing real-time short form content across Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Foursquare, and the rest of the social Web.”

Each year in January, the nomination period opens and people are urged to nominate social media accounts (people, agencies, groups, etc.) that they feel are particularly inspiring or important in a variety of different categories, such as Science, Travel, Art, Actresses, Government, and many more.

They’re like the Oscars or Emmy’s of the Social Media world.

I’m happy to report that in the category of Government, @NASA took this year’s Shorty.

“The Obama administration has placed a high priority on openness and on-line communications, and @NASA is honored to be recognized for its social media efforts with a Shorty Award,” said David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for communications. “We are inspired by the social media community and their passion for sharing our compelling story of reaching for new heights and keeping America the world leader in space exploration.”

While it is evident that the US Government has been making leaps and bounds in attempts to exist in an online world with the rest of us, I think NASA is being entirely too humble. And evidence of my claim comes from another Shorty Award:  Best Social Media Manager, awarded to Stephanie Schierholz, the social media manager for none other than NASA.

Not only has NASA set an example for how government can properly use social media, it has set an example for how the social media industry itself can properly use social media.

It is especially refreshing that, during a time in which the American political institution has relegated itself into a malignant mass of bemusement that is quickly making the case that its greatest efficiency is its ability to divide its populace, NASA still stands out as a bipartisan non-partisan example of what makes this country worth the effort one must muster to endure these very trying times. NASA continues to be one of the All-American beacons that inspires the world along with the nation that supports its existence.