Who are the most connected bloggers and socially networked people?
The ones who when a story is worthy of being promoted help it break out in Digg, StumbleUpon,etc.?
During a webinar I was giving today for NTEN a couple of nonprofits asked about it. Interestingly, it came up at SMX during mysesion today as well.
Has anyone put together a list of social media influentials?
Good Answers (14)
This list would be a start for overall, there are more specific lists based on industry -
http://twitterholic.com/
Example of industry specific list -
http://sagecircle.wordpress.com/directories/analyst-twitter-directory/
(you'll find me on this one! @samirb )
Let me know if this helps.
Kevin;
There isn't any official list but here is a solid start.
Perez Hilton
Om Malik- Giga Om
Kevin Rose- Diggnation
Veronica Belmont- Mahalo
Morgan Webb- WebbAlert
Marissa Mayer- Google
Michael Arrington- Tech Crunch
Brian Solis- PR 2.0
Natali Del Conte- Cnet
iJustine- iJustine.tv
Leo Laporte- Twit
Chris Brogan- ChrisBrogan.com
Violet Blue- Tiny Nibbles
Cali Lewis- Geek Brief TV
Jeremiah Owang- Web Strategy
Chris Pirillo- Ustream.tv
Robert Scoble
CC Chapman
Mitch Joel
Brian Solis http://www.future-works.com/
Cheryl Contee http://pdf2007.confabb.com/users/profile/Cheryl+Contee
Sarah Lacy http://www.sarahlacy.com/
Marissa Louie http://marissalouie.com/wordpress/
Rick Calvert http://www.blogworldexpo.com/blog/
Pete Cashmore http://www.mashable.com
Bambi Francisco http://www.vator.tv
Anthony Ha from VentureBeat
Francine Hardaway
Mark Bao
Merlin Mann
alex albrecht
Wil Wheaton
patrick norton
Dooce
Scott Beale
Gary Vaynerchuk
felicia day
Jake Marsh
Jim Long (newmediajim)
Wil Harris
Ed Dale (Ed_Dale)
Tim O'Reilly (timoreilly)
jeffcannata (jeffcannata)
Brian Shaler (brianshaler)
Ryan Block (ryanblock)
Jeff Pulver (jeffpulver)
tim ferriss (tferriss)
Seth Godin
Adam Curry (adamcurry)
Maggie Mason (Maggie)
Whether the influencer comments on his/her platform or favorites the story on Diggs, Stumble Upon or Kirtsy depends on relevance. The list is a good overall list, however it depends who you are ultimately looking to reach.
As an example a great story that would be perfect for the mommy bloggers and podcasters will probably not be picked up by a large subset of the influentials listed below. The "social media influentials" are inundated with requests and they are much more discerning now than they were a year or two ago. The list of influencers is generally determined based on the story that someone is looking to break, the audience you are looking to reach, and the media that audience consumes. It is a process and relationships with the influentials are important for success. Hope this helps.
Chuck B.
at Viking Machine & Tool
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Depends on the "society."
There was ONE person whose name I recognized in that list which Christopher posted... And that's mostly because I've become conditioned to reaching for the remote if I see/hear it...
You gotta focus. If you are flogging a niche product, go for the niche people. For instance, if I was going to flog an online service to sell target shooting training to law enforcement, I'd probably schmooze www.lawdogfiles.com, mad ogre, and oleg volk...
Why? Because I'll bet that most of their readers/potential customers won't notice a darn thing that most of the folks on that list have to say...
Gideon R.
Non-executive Director at Always on Message
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Hi Kevin
Looks like Christopher has answered your question on the social media influentials front.
Given your company's background in PPC, http://www.stumbleupon.com/ads/ may be of interest and on the Digg front the landscape has changed over the last month or so with many top Diggers being banned so any list that isn't bang up-to-date might be of little use.
Just to add;
I believe the list of influential online people and networks you target will be very much dependant on your industry/sector, so any lists given in the above are neither here or there to be quite frank. Taking the one at the top of the list for example, Perez Hilton - Unless it is Hollywood gossip related, I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.
Follow this basic criteria when finding a likely candidate to publicise something for you online:
- Have you chosen the correct network? For example, Bebo.com is made up mostly of young teens, would you want to target these?
- Choose the correct influencer: Are they in your niche are. Can you see examples of earlier work that is similar?
Lastly, but not least;
- Understand the difference between the influencers in that some will be more than willing to help you, where as others find their own news and prefer companies/organisations to steer clear.
Bests,
John
Gillian B.
Senior Consultant at Bank of Canada
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I agree with the answers you've had from John and Chuck... While the list you got from Christopher answers the question at a high level, and might provide a starting point for further research, it is important to develop a (smaller) list of influencers who are (much more) influential among your target "market." If you are wanting to sell product directly, then you want to look at those that influence the buying decisions; if you are looking for press coverage, then you should hone in on those influencers that (targeted) editors pay attention to. So, if I was running an non-profit focused on providing healthcare for children in the developing world, and I was concerned with generating support among donors, my list of influencers is going to be very different from if I was selling database software to the Fortune 500.
Basically, my advice would always be to reach out to those whose opinions matter to you... You read/follow them BECAUSE they are covering the issues that matter to you/your organization. Your peers share links from their blogs, etc. Bonus: Because you follow them, you are more likely to understand the issues they care about, and craft a message they can relate to.
Become part of the circle you want to promote yourself to!
Good luck!
Steven S.
Virtualize your Network and provide the data and storage IO your applications actually need!
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I think it depends on Industry. I'm very connected in the Enterprise Storage Industry, but have few connections in retail. I don't think many people use Digg, Technorati, or StumbleUpon to do searches of the blog space, mainly because the posts that come up aren't traditional blogs, but paid advertisements by Analysts and Online Magazines. (which is a good place to start to get exposure, as they typically have very high hit rates)
Just my .02$
Links:
I think David Peck is an amazing talent and seems to know a lot of people in the social media space.
Links:
Hooman K. also suggests this expert on this topic:
Nathan K.
Editor in Chief at Compassion in Politics
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Top Stumblers as determined by Stumbleupon:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/topstumblers.php
Here is a fairly objective list of top Diggers from 2007:
http://www.chrisfinke.com/files/2007/09/digg_top_1000_20070926.csv
Muhammed Salem is one of the more influential diggers + stumblers. He runs a podcast called the "Drilldown" http://thedrilldown.com/
His digg URL is:
http://digg.com/users/msaleem
Maki who runs the blog Dosh Dosh is pretty influential too:
http://digg.com/users/MakiMaki
He also blogs here http://www.doshdosh.com/
Mr. Babyman is pretty influential:
http://digg.com/users/MrBabyMan
First Digg is pretty influential. I think he does it for fun:
http://digg.com/users/FirstDigg
Feel free to email me for more info on social media influentials.
Marie-Claire D.
Lead XD consultant at ThoughtWorks
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What about those who blog on particular topics, attracting people from that kind of community, like gardening for example or cheese making or something?
They might be considered influential in their niche,even if in the entire blogosphere they are little. Maybe in that sense these guys have a greater impact.
Hi Kevin
I think Christopher has put together a very decent list. Also, go to technorati.com to see the top 100 blogs - most of these bloggers are highly connected and influential.
One other name I would add to the list is Chris Brogan - prolific social media blogger at www.chrisbrogan.com for some excellent and frequent advice on social media and marketing.
Regards
Kevin
Clarification added October 9, 2008:
Apologies, I see Chris Brogan was also on Christopher's list - QED!
It is different on every network. It sounds like you are asking about Social Linking sites specifically, where you submit news or links and it gets "promoted" by other users. All of these sites have power users and while there are a couple that hold influence in more than one network, every social linking site has its own set of power users.
For many of these you can find links to them on those sites.
I have included links below for StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Mixx.
Links:
I agree industry specificity is important, since social media has become so big.
