AIGA Houston
aigahouston.net
AIGA's Houston bloggers find the beauty in everything: QR codes, animal shelters, Houston's haphazard attempts at architectural preservation. The result is a blog that's as entertaining to read as it is pleasant to look at.
Best Politics Blog
Photo by Jeff Myers
From a downtown bank robbery to a beer fest bust, Kyle Nielsen is Houston's one-man muckraking machine.
Photo by Jeff Myers
Andrew Karnavas, a.k.a. AndyRoo, is using his social media contacts to launch a children's music career.
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Brewtiful
www.brewtiful.com
What started as a "whimsical discussion of craft beer" a mere year ago quickly morphed into an all-out information hub for brewers and suds lovers looking for accessible details on Texas House bills 602 and 660, also known as the small brewery bills, thanks to author Cathy Clark's legal knowledge.
Best Rush-Hour Traffic Twitterer
Houston TranStar
@houstontranstar
Houston TranStar's series of Twitter profiles for each of the 16 main arteries of Houston traffic is indispensable for anyone driving in our city, where rush hour seems to last twice as long as it does in other cities, and is even more maddening. The most frustrating thing about being stuck in your car is wasting precious, expensive gas; at least TranStar can tell you why you and your vehicle are at a standstill, which at least makes you feel better about waiting. Wait, shouldn't you be paying attention to the road and not looking at Twitter?
Best Use of Facebook to Promote a Personal Brand
BrandExtract
www.facebook.com/brandextract
Looking to use that special aura of "you" in the correct way without falling flat on your face for a social faux pas? You should probably enlist the services of BrandExtract. Their team uses updates on Facebook and to showcase ways that they can help your business or personal enterprise. We weren't all born with the gift of poise, and there is no such thing as a social media finishing school, but BrandExtract sure comes close.
Best Houston Music Blog
Houston Calling/David Cobb
houstoncalling.net
Now in its eighth year of operation, David Cobb's local music blog Houston Calling is one of the best and most intelligent journals chronicling the music scene in the Bayou City. He can count other Houston rock blogs like Space City Rock and Houston Press's own Rocks Off as fans and followers. Cobb covers artists, mostly local but never shying away from the national biggies, in a tone that's hard to find these days. He manages to get strong and in-depth interviews from musicians in town that get to the heart of their craft, and his subjects have grown to understand that his process isn't just to promote a show for a hungry band, but also to bring readers into their musical minds. His show previews and album reviews don't hinge on gimmicks, just his own musical knowledge, which he never feels the need to beat a site visitor over the head with.
Best Late Night Twitterer
Allison Matsu
@allisonhiromi
Allison Matsu is quite possibly our best version of a late-night radio therapist, the kind you see only in movies from the '90s, before you could just Google why you were sad, albeit she's not on air but on Twitter. She can be your cheerleader on a dark night, a partner in crime when you need it, but above all she is a (literally) tireless champion of Houston culture and people. No one is safe from her social media hugs and pokes, from just after sundown to minutes before dawn on some nights, depending on the direction her night takes her. She can also stir a fine shit storm when the mood strikes just by asking an unpopular question, and she isn't immune to people blocking her, but they always end up coming back around. In a climate full of people more than happy to self-congratulate and self-promote, Matsu helps spotlight Houston itself and all the people who make it one of the best social media cities in the world.
Best Rapper Twitterer
Slim Thug
@slimthugga
Slim Thug may be the first rapper on Earth to have Twitter implanted into his brain, or so it seems, considering the prodigious clip at which he sends out tweets almost 24 hours a day. When he's not in the studio working on his follow-up to last year's Tha Thug Show, recording verses on friends' tracks or sleeping, the veteran Houston rapper is tweeting most every inch and ounce of his day. With most oversharers on social media, the ones who will tell you what kind of bowel movement their newborn had, you get sick of them quick. But with Slim, you feel like you're getting privileged information even though he's moving ever closer to 200,000 followers. Stay tuned for the very NSFW Tittie Tuesdays, a weekly holiday of mammary proportions on Twitter, of which the rapper is an avid supporter.
Best Use of Twitter to Promote a Personal Brand
Andrew Karnavas
@andrewkarnavas
Whether he's transmitting info about his band Runaway Sun, his solo work, the oldies lounge project Bang Bang Boom or his burgeoning new children's music venture, AndyRoo, musician Andrew Karnavas has cultivated his brand better than most anyone else, in the music business or otherwise. His feed is a dizzying list of links to all of his endeavors, but he doesn't let it turn into a nonstop commercial, which is the problem with most self-promoting souls in Houston. He lets you into his world, not letting you forget that at heart he's a twentysomething guy in love with music and his city. Don't be surprised if you are humming AndyRoo's "Brush Your Teeth" along with your kids after one spin of the dentist-approved ode to oral hygiene.
Best Tweet of the Year
