50 Most Powerful and Influential Men in Social Media

by Ron Hudson

Posted on | October 21, 2008 |

Last week, as you probably know, I published a list of the 50 Most Powerful & Influential Women in Social Media. It caused quite a stir on the internet. In fact, this blog was visited by over 2,000 unique visitors the day the list was published. I truly appreciate each of you who visited that day and the following days.

One of the amazing but unforeseen results was the nearly 200 or more visitors who left comments. Most of the comments were about one or more people that they felt should’ve been included on that list. That was fantastic.

However, all the comments were not approved for various reasons. e.g., not nice, not constructive or spam. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but please be polite, courteous, and professional to ensure that your comment will be approved. Thank you!

With that in mind, here’s the list of the 50 Most Powerful & Influential Men in Social Media:

1. Michael Arrington | www.techcrunch.com

Rank: 4076 | Linking in: 26,705

2. Pete Cashmore | www.mashable.com

Rank: 6,977 | Linking in: 15,105

3. Darren Rowse | www.problogger.net

Rank: 45,859 | Linking in: 8,734

4. John Dvorak | dvorak.org/blog

Rank: 46,169 | Linking in: 2,009

5. Frank Kern | www.masscontrolsite.com

Rank: 69,096 | Linking in: 180

6. Aaron Brazell | technosailor.com


Rank: 78,019 | Linking in: 1,123

7. Jason Calacanis | calacanis.com

Rank: 87,831 | Linking in: 2,813

8. Steve Rubel | www.micropersuasion.com

Rank: 87,428 | Linking in: 4,232

9. Willie Crawford | williecrawford.com/blog2/

Rank: 90,848 | Linking in: 387

10. Jeremy Schoemaker | www.shoemoney.com

Rank: 101,291 | Linking in: 3,153

11. Leo Laporte | leoville.com/

Rank: 103,445 | Linking in: 824

12. Brian Solis | www.briansolis.com

Rank: 103,873 | Linking in: 941

13. Dr. Mani | ezinemarketingcenter.com/


Rank: 111,254 | Linking in: 178

14. Joel Comm | joelcomm.com

Rank: 116,064 | Linking in: 455

15. Kevin Rose | kevinrose.com

Rank: 117,490 | Linking in: 372

16. Peter Shankman | www.shankman.com

Rank: 118,363 | Linking in: 147

17. Fred Wilson | avc.com

Rank: 119,697 | Linking in: 212

18. Alejandro Reyes | www.successfool.com

Rank: 123,815 | Linking in: 138

19. Gary Vaynerchuk | garyvaynerchuk.com

Rank: 126,983 | Linking in: 408

20. Loren Feldman | www.1938media.com


Rank: 130,510 | Linking in: 587

21. John-Paul Micek | tribalseduction.com/blog/

Rank: 131,223 | Linking in: 109

22. Bob Jenkins | askbobtheteacher.com/blog/

Rank: 133,414 | Linking in: 46

23. Charles Heflin | charlesheflin.com

Rank: 137,361 | Linking in: 51

24. Jeremiah Owyang | web-strategist.com/blog/

Rank: 140,943 | Linking in: 2,544

25. Guy Kawasaki | alltop.com

Rank: 141,299 | Linking in: 1,745

26. Brian Campbell | www.socialmediamarketingsystem.com

Rank: 145,783 | Linking in: 26

27. Brian Clark | www.copyblogger.com


Rank: 160,034 | Linking in: 5,541

28. Robert Scoble | scobleizer.com

Rank: 172,114 | Linking in: 6,446

29. David Bullock | www.davidbullock.com

Rank: 177,325 | Linking in: 98

30. Evan Williams | evhead.com

Rank: 179,093 | Linking in: 1,292

31. Alex Albrecht | www.totallyradshow.com

Rank: 207,687 | Linking in: 104

32. Doug Firebaugh | www.passionfire.com

Rank: 209,503 | Linking in: 299

33. John Reese | income.com

Rank: 223,014 | Linking in: 481

34. Ron Capps | www.nicheprof.com


Rank: 249,536 | Linking in: 53

35. Timothy Carter | theresidualincomelifestyle.com

Rank: 281,062 | Linking in: 42

36. Chris Brogan | www.chrisbrogan.com

Rank: 282,439 | Linking in: 1932

37. Jack Humphrey | www.jackhumphrey.com

Rank: 289,758 | Linking in: 668

38. Mark Davidson | twitterstars.com

Rank: 316,034 | Linking in: 8

39. Vincent Wright | mylinkingpowerforum.ning.com

Rank: 324,857 | Linking in: 38

40. Jim Turner | jimturnersmm.ning.com

Rank: 393,091 | Linking in: 0

41. Blair Warren | www.blairwarren.com


Rank: 384,204 | Linking in: 66

42. Mike O’Neil | www.integratedalliances.com

Rank: 465,698 | Linking in: 36

43. Wayne Sutton | wayne-sutton.com

Rank: 497,921 | Linking in: 131

44. Dave Lahkani | www.subliminalpersuasionbook.com/blog/

Rank: 581,749 | Linking in: 22

45. Ross Goldberg | www.mastersseminar.com

Rank: 642,790 | Linking in: 43

46. Alex Mandossian | www.alexmandossiantoday.com

Rank: 712,815 | Linking in: 25

47. Doug Haslam | doughaslam.com

Rank: 963,976 | Linking in: 198

48. Ben Mack | benmack.com


Rank: 1,271, 846 | Linking in: 7

49. Warren Whitlock | www.zerocostpromotions.com

Rank: 1,313,652 | Linking in: 27

50. G. Wayne Clayton | socialmarketingexpert.org/

Rank: 1,671,769 | Linking in: 2

Congratulations, gentleman! I’m grateful to have discovered you on twitter. I wish you greater success in both your personal and professional lives.

Warmly,


Ron

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Social Networking: If You Let Them Build It, They Will Come—The Story of Best Buy's BlueShirt Nation<

Social Networking: If You Let Them Build It, They Will Come—The Story of Best Buy's BlueShirt Nation
by Albert Maruggi

Published on March 11, 2008

Gary Koelling and Steve Bendt were about to become popular guys in the 140,000-employee Best Buy corporation. They led the effort to build an internal social-networking site.

Their objective was to obtain more information about customer likes and dislikes through the blue-shirt-wearing sales associates on the floor of the sprawling entertainment and appliance retail giant. This information would help Best Buy create more effective advertising. "If you get a decent problem to solve, you can make decent advertising," Koelling said.

Bendt conducted in-person interviews with sales associates, a process that produced great information but was time-consuming and not very scalable.

The mission: replicate the real-world experience online, make it scalable, and dig up more good information.

Koelling, a self-described journalist with little technology development knowledge, started working with an open-source content management tool called Drupal (www.drupal.org).

Little did they know that their internal social network (not too long ago, these were called intranets) for communication and collaboration was about to give them a whole lot more than they originally desired. One of the lessons learned: When you provide a forum for conversation, be ready for anything.

Listen, Provide, Learn

Getting contributions from your community and encouraging interaction are critical elements of an internal corporate Web site. If people don't use the site, you have a corporate platform that, according to Bendt, "sucks."

After the first version of the BlueShirt Nation social platform, as it was called, Bendt and Koelling were told by a handful of beta users that it needed some work. Koelling was a bit more descriptive: "They said it was ugly, dry, and it's boring."

Bendt said they learned that if you want people to use a "social" site, you need to be open to their participation in building the site. You see, social sites are not about the people or company that builds the site; they are completely about the people who are intended to use them.

Those users represented the Best Buy "blue shirts," usually "early twenty-somethings" who were candid about what they wanted and how the site should act. This is a generation that is cynical of marketing gimmicks and corporate "feel-good" programs and quick to share opinions with you—or with the world via YouTube.

The retail industry has a huge employee turnover rate: 40-60 percent. By incorporating user input in developing BlueShirt Nation, Best Buy was able to create a meaningful experience that is helping to reduce employee turnover: The rate for employees who use BlueShirt Nation is 8 percent.