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The second annual Shorty Awards winners demonstrated the diverse ways Twitter can be used to create the best real-time short form content. Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who won a Shorty Award in the government category, used his account to help constituents with timely snow removal. Brazilian pop superstar Ivete Sangalo, a winner in the music category, stays connected to her fans through Twitter. Writer Arjun Basu won in literature for his self-contained stories on Twitter, and travel category winner Paul Miller was able to make his way around the world through his followers’ generosity.

CNN’s Rick Sanchez hosted the ceremony at TheTimesCenter in the New York Times Tower on the evening of March 3, which featured a live performance by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, acceptance speeches by winners such as Cory Booker, Suze Orman and Rachel Maddow, and an appearance by Sesame Street’s Grover.

William Shatner congratulated the winners via video and read some of his own favorite tweets from @shitmydadsays, which is being turned into a TV pilot by CBS with Shatner in the lead role. In all, 34 awards were given across 28 categories, including several new ones. Haitian TV presenter Carel Pedre received a special humanitarian Shorty Award for tweets that shed light on the devastating earthquake in his country. Janis Krums received a Real-Time Photo Shorty Award for his camera phone shot of U.S. Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River.

Acceptance speeches were limited to 140 characters.

The awards are created by Sawhorse Media and made possible with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. This year, voting opened in early January, quickly making “Shorty Awards” a consistent top trending topic on Twitter. Voters publicly nominated the best people and organizations on Twitter across official and crowd-sourced categories.

“Twitter is part of the new frontier of communication,” said Gary Kebbel, Knight Foundation’s journalism program director. “This year’s Shorty Award winners share the ability to spread news and information, and to engage people individually and globally, in innovative ways. They’re doing the kind of creative communicating that Knight Foundation seeks to support and advance.”

“The Shorty Award winners show that you can make a big impact with few characters,” said Gregory Galant, the CEO of Sawhorse Media, which created the Shorty Awards. “We’re thrilled to see so many concise communicators fly in from around the world to accept their awards.”

Finalists were narrowed down in February and then, for the first time, the winners were chosen from the finalists by a combination of the popular Twitter vote and judging by the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences. Academy members include Kurt Andersen, Alyssa Milano, MC Hammer, Joi Ito, Craig Newmark, David Pogue, and Jimmy Wales.

This year’s Shorty Award winners are:

Advertising
Frank Adman, @FrankAdman

Application
TweetDeck, @TweetDeck

Art
deviantART, @deviantART

Brand (two-way tie)

Whole Foods Market, @WholeFoods
Sesame Street, @SesameStreet

Celebrity
Nathan Fillion, @NathanFillion

Cultural Institution (three-way tie)
Jonah Holland of the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, @lewisginter
Reduced Shakespeare Company, @reduced
Poetry Society of America, @Poetry_Society

Customer Service
Bonnie Smalley, @ComcastBonnie

Design
Smashing Magazine, @smashingmag

Entertainment
TrueBlood HBO, @TrueBloodHBO

Finance
Suze Orman, @SuzeOrmanShow

Food
Foodimentary, @Foodimentary

Government
Cory Booker, @CoryBooker

Health
Rachael Dunlop, @DrRachie

Humor (two-way tie)
David Thorne, @27bslash6
Mrs. Stephen Fry, @MrsStephenFry

Innovation
Helen Klein Ross’s Betty Draper, @Betty Draper

Journalist (two-way tie)
William Bonner, @realwbonner
Rachel Maddow, @maddow

Literature
Arjun Basu, @arjunbasu

Music (two-way tie)
Ivete Sangalo, @ivetesangalo
Ted Leo, @tedleo

News
The Diane Rehm Show, @drshow

Nonprofit
To Write Love On Her Arms, @TWLOHA

Politics
The Nation, @thenation

Science
Jen Scheer, @flyingjenny

Sports
Bill Simmons, @sportsguy33

Tech
Mark Watson, @soldierknowsbest

Travel
Paul Smith, @twitchhiker

Weird
The Llama, @DoWhatITellYou

Special Humanitarian Award
Carel Pedre, @carelpedre

Real-Time Photo
“Plane in the Hudson” by Janis Krums

Celebrity
Nathan Fillion, @NathanFillion

Cultural Institution (three-way tie)
Jonah Holland of the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, @lewisginter
Reduced Shakespeare Company, @reduced
Poetry Society of America, @Poetry_Society

Customer Service
Bonnie Smalley, @ComcastBonnie

Design
Smashing Magazine, @smashingmag

Entertainment
TrueBlood HBO, @TrueBloodHBO

Finance
Suze Orman, @SuzeOrmanShow

Food
Foodimentary, @Foodimentary

Government
Cory Booker, @CoryBooker

Health
Rachael Dunlop, @DrRachie

Humor (two-way tie)
David Thorne, @27bslash6
Mrs. Stephen Fry, @MrsStephenFry

Innovation
Helen Klein Ross’s Betty Draper, @Betty Draper

Journalist (two-way tie)
William Bonner, @realwbonner
Rachel Maddow, @maddow

Literature
Arjun Basu, @arjunbasu

Music (two-way tie)
Ivete Sangalo, @ivetesangalo
Ted Leo, @tedleo

News
The Diane Rehm Show, @drshow

Nonprofit
To Write Love On Her Arms, @TWLOHA

Politics
The Nation, @thenation

Science
Jen Scheer, @flyingjenny

Sports
Bill Simmons, @sportsguy33

Tech
Mark Watson, @soldierknowsbest

Travel
Paul Smith, @twitchhiker

Weird
The Llama, @DoWhatITellYou

Special Humanitarian Award
Carel Pedre, @carelpedre

Real-Time Photo
“Plane in the Hudson” by Janis Krums