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Last week to vote for the Shorty Awards, the internet’s top social media users

Some may think that they're so witty on Twitter or creative on YouTube that they deserve an award for it, but you can't prove it unless you've got the hardware to back it up.

There's one week of voting left for the 4th annual Shorty Awards, the internet's way of honouring those who tweet, share, stumble, vlog, and check-in better than anyone else.

The very first Shorty Awards, held in 2009, were started by Sawhorse Media and were limited to recognizing the best of Twitter. Since then, dozens of categories across multiple platforms have been added, with social media users from Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, YouTube , Foursquare and Quora up for nomination.

Most nominations for the Shorty Awards are done the same way the Shortys have always done them: you tweet "I nominate [@TwitterUser] for a Shorty award in [#category] because…" All entries must have a reason why that person should be nominated after 'because' and the hashtag should be one of the Featured Categories that the Shorty Awards are recognizing this year (or you can create your own).

Unlike traditional awards, there's also the added bonus of being able to see exactly where your favourite nominee is currently ranked in the voting, encouraging the public to get others to vote.

Special Awards will also be handed out to the Mayor of the Year on Foursquare, the Real-Time Photo of the Year on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or other social photo site, and Microblog of the Year on Tumblr.

As the Shorty Awards continue to expand, so do the social media platforms that they recognize. For the second year, the Shorty Awards will be recognizing excellence in professional social media use with Industry Awards. Unlike the free nomination process for the regular categories, you need to pay an entry fee for Industry Award nominations. Categories range from the best Facebook Brand Presence to the best Viral Campaign.

The awards ceremony will take place in New York City in late March.

You can check out the videos from last year in the Shorty Awards YouTube channel, or hear the latest updates via the Shorty Awards Twitter account.

Voting for the Shorty Awards closes on February 17.

(Shorty Awards logo from shortyawards.com)