NASA’s activities in social media were recognized on Monday in New York when the agency’s official Twitter feed, @NASA, received a Shorty Award for the best government use of social media.

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media across sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Foursquare and others. NASA’s nomination cited multiple aspects of the agency’s social-media efforts, including the popular Angry Birds in Space game and encouragement of science among young people.

“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.”

The award is NASA’s third for social media. The agency won the Shorty Award in 2009 for its use of Twitter for the Mars Phoenix Lander mission, and astronaut Doug Wheelock was awarded the Real Time Photo of the Year in 2011 for his “Moon from Space” picture.

NASA uses many social media sites to communicate its mission to a wide range of followers. The @NASA twitter account has more than 2 million followers, and NASA maintains presences on Facebook , Google+, Flickr, and other popular platforms. NASA Socials, formerly known as NASA Tweetups, allow social media followers to attend functions and interact with NASA’s engineers and scientists.

You can view all of NASA’s social media sites here. And for more info on the Shorty awards, go here.