Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Shorty: I hardly knew you

How a brief flirtation with fame ruined my Twitter world forever

I have a confession to make:
The Shorty Awards and I have had a brief (10-day) flirtation. Now it looks as though I was dumped for a couple of Brazilian singers.

I can’t say I blame Shorty. They’re both pretty … and can sing. How can I compete with the likes of them? But there will always be my brief, sweet dethroning of
American Idol’s David Archuletta. Ah, the sweet smell of victory.
But I get ahead of myself.

It all began about 10 days ago when Twitter users @ProROC and AnaRC were kind enough to nominate me for a Shorty Award in the category of customerservice.

I didn’t know what the Shortys were but I learned that they “honor the best people and organizations on Twitter. These unique awards are for the Twitter community, by the Twitter community.”

I was flattered, honored and, well, surprised.

It was time to check this thing out. After a bit of poking around I found that Archuletta, the 2008 American Idol runner-up, was in the same category as me! It turns out he had nominations across many of the Shorty’s 26 official categories.

Two days later I was in sixth place and David was in fourth. I could catch him!

I discreetly asked a couple of close Twitter friends if they would consider nominating me. They did and others spontaneously followed. Others were kind enough to retweet a nomination and cast their vote that way.

Within four days I was in third! David was behind me and we all know what the view from behind looks like.

Shorty and I were really getting along. But I somehow knew that I was destined to always play third fiddle to the two top dogs in my category at the time Neil Gaman and Team McLaren. But then along come Ivete Sangalo and Claudia Leitte - two Brazilian singers who, as of this writing are holding down positions 2 and 4 respectively. I was on my way down.

Just like Archuletta they are nominated across multiple categories. Leaving me to draw an obvious conclusion about you Shorty: You are easily swayed by a singer – especially an attractive female one.

I wish you well Shorty whoever you end up with, but we’ll always have 10 days in January. And … if you ever want me back you know where to find me and nominate me!

Update: Shorty Does the Right Thing

6 comments:

  1. Mike,

    I'm glad you have a sense of humor about it -- because as any of us know who have used Twitter for any length of time, a sense of humor is essential there. As we say in the Athena program "It's an honor just to be nominated" - and it is! So consider that you have won a Shorty from those who know and follow you. Your customer service is superb. Congratulations!

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  2. I agree with Marci's comments - a great honor to be nominated. It's important to focus on those in each category that actually fit the bill (like you in customer service) rather than those that just assume the role of pop star. Well done Mike!

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  3. Marci and Gavin,
    Thank you for your kind words (blush!). It is a privilege to be complimented by people I respect and admire on Twitter. (Sheesh, this is starting to sound like one of those syrupy acceptance speech!). But seriously - thank you!

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  4. Great sense of humour, love the way you express yourself.
    Thank you for making me smile.
    LorenaHeletea

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  5. Thanks for the positive feedback. And the outcome turned out to be a good thing. See my new blog post from today about how "Shorty Does the Right Thing."

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