Smartest People in Social Media – Part 1
Over the past month the entire Smarter Social Media team has been hard at work preparing our first annual list of the 100 Smartest People in Social Media. Today we are very excited to debut the first 25 people on our list. We have not ranked the 100 members of the list individually, as they represent different areas of industry. Some are celebrities, others are bloggers and a good portion is social media marketers like us. But the one thing all members of this list have in common is that they are very, very smart.
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 | Alfred Lin | As COO of one of Zappos - one of the smartest social media companies - Alfred Lin has demonstrated his social media smarts in 2009. In July, TechCrunch raved about Lin pointing out that every company he has been a part of has been acquired for more than a quarter billion dollars! Lin met Zappos CEO Tony Hseih in college and the two have gone on to found and invest in dozens of companies. |
 | Amber Mac | From podcasting to tweeting to developing a social network with personal development guru Tony Robbins, Amber Dawn MacArthur has accomplished more in her 33 years than most people do in an entire lifetime. In 2009 this social media goddess landed interviews with everyone from Jane Goodall to Gene Simmons. In August she debuted a video podcast called Girls Go Geek. |
 | Amber Nasland | As Director of Community for Radian6 Amber Nasland has had a great 2009. She gave great presentations at the National Main Streets Conference in March and Web 2.0 Expo in November. Amber keeps a professional and personal blog. As a social media marketer who also doubles as a mother, Amber sets a great example for young women in the new world of marketing. |
 | Beth Harte | From marketing to blogging, a speaker, communicator, thinker, connector, adjunct professor and Community Manager forMarketing Profs, Beth is one of the smartest people in social media today. Beth's street cred includes 15 years of marketing & communications experience, a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Chestnut Hill College and a Master of Science in International Marketing from Saint Josephs University. |
 | Bill Stoller | Bill got his first big break as a publicity insider in October of 1987, when Nancy Reagan was in the hospital recovering from mastectomy. Stoller created a giant get-well card for Mrs. Reagan. The photo of the President carrying the card, along with Stoller's name, was on the front page of every newspaper the next morning. A great early example of adding value to gain publicity. Bill has gone on to work for Coca-Cola, Hasbro and Colgate-Palmolive. |
 | Billy Cox | Billy Cox is a clear-cut communicator, a convincing motivator and a vigorous leader who uniquely connect with today's achievers through persuasive and imaginative teaching methods. A partial list of Billy Cox's clients include a huge range of global, national and regional leaders, including FedEx , Aflac, Delta Dental, Hertz, Hyatt, Konica Minolta, Nike Inc., Arvest Bank,Tyson Foods, North Texas State University, Allstate Insurance, Bertram Yachts, Manheim, Country Maid, Wilson, and Xerox Corporation. |
 | BL Ochman | Internet marketer, internationally known blogger, blog strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies including IBM and Cendant, B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She has taught marketing at FIT in New York City, lectured on blogging at Webster University and Columbia University, and is the author of "What Could Your Company Do With a Blog?" and "Press Releases From Hell and How to Fix Them." |
 | Brendan Cooper | One of the five-strong team to set up Sharepages.com and was publications manager for its parent company, Knowledge Technology Solutions. Brendan Cooper is a freelance copywriter and social media consultant who help clients win business, win awards, appear in national media and talk to people through compelling, direct, dynamic copy and social media strategy. He has been helping people to communicate online and offline for fifteen years. |
 | Brian Solis | Co-founder of the Social Media Club, founding member of the Member 2.0 Workgroup and the Principal of FutureWorks, an esteemed PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley, Solis blogs at PR2.0, bub.blicio.us, and regularly contributes marketing & tech insight to industry publications. He's a published author and an avid speaker on the topic of new marketing and engagement. Solis is among the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media. |
 | Casey McKinnon | Casey McKinnon is an actress, producer and pioneer in the new media field who was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. She has created and appeared on three popular internet TV shows: Galacticast; A Comicbook Orange and Kitkast. She graduated from McGill University in East Asian studies. She often shares her expertise of web video by speaking at various conferences and writing a column for The Guardian. |
 | Charlene Li | A veteran technology and business analyst and co-author of the bestselling business book, "Groundswell: Living In A World Transformed By Social Technologies." Casey founded Altimeter Group in June 2008 to provide thought leadership, research, and consulting on digital strategies, with a core focus on how companies can leverage disruptive technologies |
 | Charlie Fern | Charlie Fern started writing as soon as she could hold a pen. She started her career as a writer and Lifestyles editor at Galveston Daily News. She worked as a press officer and speechwriter for First Lady Laura Bush and in 2004 started her own company Charlie Fern Ink Consulting. She specializes on speechwriting, event planning, media training, corporate and government communications consulting, executive messaging, and general writing, |
 | Chris Brogan | President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency, and home of the Inbound Marketing Summit conferences and Inbound Marketing Bootcamp educational events. He works with large and mid-sized companies to improve online business communications like marketing and PR through the use of social software, community platforms, and other emerging web and mobile technologies |
 | Chris Cham Cl | Blogger from Malaysia that shares a lot of interesting content on Twitter. Cham frequently responds to his followers and does a lot of retweets. Cham has over 55,000 followers and sent over 2,100 tweets. He is like the source of the New Trends & Happenings Around the Globe from twitter. |
 | Chris Heuer | Chris Heuer is an experienced Internet entrepreneur and an excellent marketer. He was a teacher in Miami Ad School in Web design, multimedia and convergence marketing. Some of his specialties are in consulting on holistic business strategy and social media for big brands, non-profits and emerging technology companies, helping them leverage the power of Internet and Web 2.0 technologies. |
 | Chris Hughes | A mathematician, risk assessor, and a technology adict. He worked for a wide variety of industries operating in both domestic and international environments. Some of his great works have been featured on Slashdot.com, engadget.com, digg.com, gizmodo.com, the Washington Post, and the The Wall Street Journal. |
 | Chris Pirillo | Geek, Internet Entrepreneur, Hardware Addict, Software Junkie, Book Author, Tech Conference Coordinator, Early Adopter, Idea Evangelist, Tech Support Blogger. These are just some of the words to describe this young man. He launched Lockergnome as a content publishing network and building Gnomedex to be one of the blogosphere's highly regarded conferences. Chris also produces weekly video segments for CNN.com Live, where he offers tech advice to a savvy audience. |
 | Chris Rauschnot | Chris Rauschnot is a Macintosh fan for over 10 years. He is also certified as an Apple Technician and that makes him uniquely qualified to meet the needs of clients large and small. He is a web 2.0 and social media expert and an Internet Entrepreneur. |
 | Chris Sacca | A venture investor, private equity principal, company advisor, and entrepreneur managing a portfolio of over two dozen consumer web, mobile, and wireless technology start-ups as well as an array of mature enterprises through his holding company, Lowercase Capital. Among his current holdings is Twitter Inc., where Chris was among the first investors and works with the company every week as a strategic advisor. |
 | Chris Voss | Chris Voss has been a CEO, built, managed and invested in over 22 Corporations in various fields of industry for over 20 years. With a mere $2000, he started his first Multi-Million Dollar producing company. A year later, with $4000, he started his second Multi-Million Dollar company that still operates today. He is listed as 32 in the top 100 grader elite, have over 36,000 followers, rank #1 top twitter in Las Vegas and rank in the top twitter 1200 out of millions of twitterers. |
 | Christina Kerley | CK is marketing specialist who marketed a host of brands, both B2B and B2C, ranging technology, media, biotech, broadcast television, and more. She focuses on identifying and developing growth opportunities, clever strategies, and unique programs to increase clients' revenue and improve customer relationships. She also offers Social Media Trainings as a marketing tool. She is a proud awardee of the Hive Awards - For the Unsung Heroes of the Internet. |
 | Christopher Carfi | Co-founder of Cerado, Inc. An organization who help other companies to understand what their customers are thinking and understand what their competitors are doing, so they can thwart them at every turn. He spend hist last few years working with organizations to help them better connect with their customers at a real, non-synthetic level. Hence the interests in things like blogs, wikis, and social networks. |
 | Christopher Penn | Christopher S. Penn has been called upon for expert information by researchers for the Congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Aid, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Health and Human Services, as well as having been sought after for conferences and private intensive seminars. He is the Chief Media Officer of Edvisors, Inc., and the Student Loan Network, founder and producer of the multi-award winning Financial Aid Podcast internet radio show, co-founder of the groundbreaking PodCamp New Media Community unConference, and co-host of the Marketing Over Coffee marketing podcast. |
 | Connie Crosby | Law librarian, consultant, writer, blogger, speaker and instructor specializing in social networking tools. She served as President of the Toronto Association of Law Libraries and on the Executive Board of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries. Connie Crosby founded Crosby Group in January 2008 to help organizations and individuals visualize and start their social networking and knowledge management project. |
 | Conrad Swailes | Founded Weboptimiser in 1996 as an SEO company which specialises in search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) services. Weboptimiser has become one of the Internet marketing sector's best-known and most respected optimisation companies. |
Great list. I’m looking forward seeing the next batch.
That was a good mix of experts in various niches within the social media field. Great to see rising stars like Chris Voss in this list.
There’s no doubt big names like Pete Cashmore and Mark Zuckerberg will be included here. Nice post anyways! Now that’s what I call a research.
Some of them i have never heard of, but yeah they’re pretty smart. Can’t wait to see the rest of the list.
Nice list, tiny little point but that’s not actually a photo of me. Doesn’t really matter but I tried to find your email address on your site to send you my photo, but could not. Contact me if you want the real thing (it’s not pretty believe me).
Thanks so much! Some seriously awesome company on that list up there. Appreciate the shoutout and inclusion very much.
Great list, look forward to the rest.