Remember This is All Opt-In

This is an unprecedented time in communications and in business. Social media is forcing a collision between content and consumption that puts the value of quality of experience and power of personal choice in sharp relief.

It’s important to remember that one of the hallmarks of the social web is that you, as the audience, choose how – or if - you participate.

Blogs are not delivered to your doorstep with a rubberband; it’s up to you to go find and absorb the information that’s most relevant to you, and your sharing of that information, multiplied exponentially by others, is what makes it powerful.

The world of RSS (among other things) puts the power of consumption and syndication in everyone’s hands. Media of all kinds is accessible to anyone to make or consume. Or ignore. And it’s ubiquity means that the age-old but newly-polished notion of positive experience and valuable information is *the* criteria that matters.

You hold the key to your own kingdom. You choose who to follow or not follow on Twitter, and changing that option is a click away. You choose to let someone into your Facebook community, and you can keep that as rigid or as loose as you like, and change that criteria whenever you feel like it. You walk into the communities in which you wish to participate, and you can just as easily turn around and walk out.

The online community can vote, speak, and demonstrate their support or lack of it in a powerful and rare currency: their attention.

You can give your attention, you can take it away. Either one sends a message. And whether you’re a blogger or a professional something or a big company, your audience and communities hold that power in their hands, too. It’s up to you to decide how to interpret that message, and what to do about it.

How are you using your attention to build on ideas that matter to you? Are you using it to change something for the better? Are you withholding it for the same reasons? Are you shining spotlights on progress and innovation? And are you giving people constructive reasons to spend their attention on you?

I have my approach in hand, trying hard to make a difference with my voice, and how and where I choose to focus my attention. I’m focused on forward, and I want you with me, knowing full well you have a choice.

How about you?

Photo credit: eddiedangerous

Getting Your Colleagues in the Game

When you’re trying to make the case for social media inside your company, it’s not just your bosses you have to convince. Management matters, but often times, your colleagues and co-workers need some education, too.

Especially if you’re planning long term and expecting that social media will become part of your business model, not just a channel (and I sure hope you are), you’re going to need the help and involvement from the people around you, and outside of your department.

Getting their commitment and building their enthusiasm is key. It’s not just about a mandate. It’s about helping them understand what social media is, how it works, and why it can help them do their jobs better.

Communication

Good internal communication is really hard. But it’s critical for ANY larger scale initiative to succeed, but especially for something that may be as unfamiliar as social media.

Designate point people on your social media team to act as information stewards. They should be folks with good relationships throughout your organization, and they need to connect with point people in other departments that may be affected – now or later – by social media endeavors.

Ask them to keep these folks posted on a regular basis about your plans and initiatives – both the ones being implemented for sure, and the ones you’re tossing around. Ask for their feedback. Let them air their interest and concerns, and ask lots of questions. Put the responses somewhere for everyone to find and see. That can be a weekly email update, a Google Doc that all can access, your corporate intranet, a wiki, whatever works for you.

People are remarkably comforted by the availability of information, even if they don’t always use it.

Training

Please, please spend the time educating your teams as you go along. You don’t have to have it all perfect (and you probably never will). But be willing to SHARE how you do what you do, down to the details. It’s surprising how enlightening it can be for people to understand what you do by seeing it in action. And if you want people to adopt social media as part of their business practices, you need to make them comfortable with it.

Simple is okay, too. Some ideas:

• Setting up social media profiles
• Social media culture and philosophies (the fluffy stuff, yes, but still important)
• Engaging 101: What to say, when to say it, and what to avoid
• What to listen for and why, relative to their jobs
• Case studies on social media gone right (or wrong), and how that relates to your work
• Real examples of how they can be using social media in their focus area (customer service, business development/sales, HR, internal communications, product management, etc.)
• Measuring social media – what you track, why, and how

Spend an hour over lunch. Order pizza. Skip the PowerPoints. Have a practical discussion that’s open to lots of dialogue, questions, and airing of concerns or doubts. Ask them what THEY want to learn about (versus what you think you need to teach). Training is as much about asking and answering practical, real questions as it is about lecturing.

Empowerment

If you’re opening lines of communication and training folks to get them immersed in social media, you have to let them do it. And they need to believe that you trust their judgment as professionals and colleagues to do it well.

Not everyone is going to do things the way YOU would do them personally. Mistakes will be made, and there will be plenty of learning opportunities for how to do something different or better.

Your feedback should be as much on the side of encouragement and positivity as it is about criticism or pointing out mistakes. Social media is still a BIG area of discomfort and misunderstanding for people, especially those who didn’t come up through their professional careers with digital media at the center. And it’s intimidating as all get out for some. Not everyone gets this naturally.

Being a good steward of social media internally means being coach, cheerleader, and psychologist as well as teacher and expert. It means speaking in plain English, not jargon and buzzwords and kumbaya, and putting things in business perspective for the people you’re talking to. Think practical.

Remember that this is a culture shift. It’s not just about the what and how. Be a resource to your teams as much as you can while they get acclimated.

Don’t Be A Perfectionist

Truth: I’m still working with all of my Radian6 colleagues to perfect this inside our own organization, so please don’t think you need to nail it out of the gate. We’re figuring out what questions people have. Finding ways to share information faster and better. Offering insights about what’s working and what’s not and where we’re hoping to head.

Just DO IT. Get started, somewhere. Waiting until you have all the details hammered out isn’t realistic, because they’ll always be shifting (and that’s not unique to this, either). Move past the “wow, nifty” part of social media, and get started talking about how it really matters to your work.

So how about you? What challenges are you facing getting your colleagues to understand and embrace social media? Are they on board with the idea, but lost about how to apply it? Have you considered your internal implications?

The comments belong to you.

The Ultimate Community Management FAQ

Fair warning: this post is long. Really long.

But I have LOTS of questions I get asked on a regular basis around my job, and it didn’t seem right to split them up somehow. I wanted to keep it as one solid reference, hopefully that you can show your boss or just chew on to write your job description or whatever (this one might help too). It’s okay if you tune out. Better yet, bookmark it and come back later.

But for those of you who are in it for the long haul, grab a bevvy and let’s go. Either way, I hope it’s really useful.

1. How many hours do you work?

I don’t have a particular schedule I stick to, because things move fast and I need to adapt to shifting priorities. I usually work about 10-12 hours per day on average, but that’s broken up in chunks and sometimes during non-traditional hours, like in the evenings or weekends.

Evening and weekend hours are mostly because that’s when I get some of my best and most uninterrupted thinking done, but Twitter and blogs are still active outside of business hours, so I try to be responsive there when it’s reasonable and I’m able.  I probably spend 2-4 hours working and managing stuff on each weekend day. Much of that is self-imposed, because it’s how I work best. Your mileage will and should vary.

2. How do you prioritize your tasks?

I use a rather simple but effective triage system for most of what I do.

Engagement

• negative/support/concern posts first, no matter the medium. ASAP.
• specific company/brand inquiries that indicate a lead or customer service opportunity. Twitter first, because of it’s short lifespan (within 15 minutes if possible). Blogs next (within a few hours).
• compliments and kudos, including review blog posts (as immediate as possible)
• industry discussions (social media monitoring, social CRM, community management, etc)

Do I respond to every mention? No. I can’t. I respond mostly to things that are catalysts for discussion, or invitations for connection. You’ll know the difference, and it will evolve over time. Nothing here is ever static or set in stone.

Priorities

Engagement with the community is always first. Then comes internal, longer-term priorities and projects that further our community needs. For example, we’re building a resource library on our website, and modeling a listening grid for our organization that can hopefully help other companies build theirs. We’re also doing a lot of work on the subject of articulating social media ROI. I’m involved in all these projects, because our community has asked for them, and our whole team is involved.

General insights, industry discussions, and ongoing relationship management tuck in for the rest of the time. That includes all channels, including email, social networks, and phone calls. Everything from helping someone out with a monitoring question via email to vetting event and speaking opportunities, participating in a chat on Twitter, or being part of a professional network like the Community Roundtable. Does it scale well? No. But I do the best I can to get to everyone.

3. How do you decide where to spend your time on social networks?

Professionally, I base that purely on where our customers and potential customers are. Because we monitor these conversations closely – about our brand specifically, our competitors, and our industry as a whole – I know that most of our active discussions take place on Twitter, blogs, and forums (in descending order).

Twitter is like the phone to me. It’s up constantly, and it’s a key channel for us, so I use that the most. I spend several hours on Twitter every day, some of it passive (listening) and about 2-4 hours interacting. I spend about 2 hours a day commenting on blogs, and woven in to all of this is routing posts that need others attention, that are sales leads that require follow up, and the like.

All in all, I spent 3-5 hours engaging online, and another hour or two routing things and analyzing our work. But remember, this is my JOB. If you’re doing this as part of your role it’s going to be a lot different. And your customers might not be where mine are. That’s where the listening bit comes in at the start.

4. What else do you do besides social network stuff?

I manage our company’s event presence (sponsorships, speaking opportunities, and the like). I probably put about 30 min. to an hour into logistics each day, and I have help on that front with our awesome coordinator, Dave Clark. During heavy event season (March-June and September-November), I spend about 50% of my time on the road at or face time with our community and doing speaking engagements on listening and engagement and community management. When I’m traveling, I have members of our kick-ass team that help me respond to timely needs on Twitter or blogs when I can’t be as immediately responsive, and assign stuff to me that I can engage with later on.

I also create tons of content, including writing for our blog, podcasting, website content, case studies, and other resource material for our community. This typically comes in waves, and probably totals 1-3 hours a day on average. I write. A lot.

Lastly but not least-ly, I do strategy work, including considering what’s next to support our community, continuing to broaden our social media presence as an organization, helping frame out community and engagement best practices for us and our clients, measurement and tracking of our community outreach efforts. That’s a few hours of solid work each week, and several nights scribbling in the notebook beside my bed.

5. Where does your job live within the organization, and how big is your team?

In our company, our marketing/PR/community team is kind of all one thing. We don’t draw lines, because we think it all blends together. In many other organizations, this type of role reports into a communications department, like marketing or PR, and sometimes even customer service. Depends a lot on the goals of the organization (as do all things). For us, it makes sense as a unified group.

My role reports to David Alston, our VP of Marketing and Community. We also have Mike Huggard, our Community Analyst who does a lot of biz dev support as well, and Warren Sukernek our Director of Content Marketing, who drives the creation and promotion of our content. Also on the content creative side, we have Bob Beaton, our awesome design and UI dude, and Andrew Embury, our video rockstar.

We’ll be adding more people as our engagment and content development model evolves, and several  members of our executive, support, and business development teams participate and engage on a regular basis as part of their overall responsibilities. And because they get it.

6. What metrics do you use to justify your position?

This could be a long answer. But for ease of conversation, let’s say that we look at:

• Our ratio of posts/mentions/discussions engaged vs. not, and how much time it takes to respond. In essence, how engaged and converstaional we are as a brand.
• The trending number of posts about and around our brand over a 30 day period (awareness and reach)
• Our share of conversation in social media, both within our industry and as compared to our competitors, and tracked over time
• The overall sentiment of posts about us, and the ratio of positive/negative/neutral (brand affinity)
• The volume of leads generated through social channels, and their conversion rate
• How many customer support issues are initiated (and resolved) through social networks
• The breakdown of types of posts about us: support, reviews, passing mentions, compliments, complaints, etc.
• Discussions, referrals, and mentions that come from different segments of our community: customers, prospects, specific events, etc.
• How our website traffic from social content converts and behaves

There are tons more things I want to be tracking, and we’re working hard on lots of best practices in this arena. Community positions impact all these areas and more, because the relationships they forge affect every bit of the business. Stay tuned for more as we learn and evolve, and as I get more relentless about justifying the existence of folks like me to the c-suite.

7. What tools do you use?

Radian6: Yes, surprisingly, I do all of my monitoring, measurement, tracking and engagement, and reporting through our own platform. It works. For a list of how I might do it manually, look here.

Twitter: for ongoing conversation with friends and colleagues, inquiries about our platform, customer service inquiries, and industry discussion. I use TweetDeck and our own Twitter engagement capability through the Radian6 platform (which helps me track and capture responses). I use Tweetie when I’m on the go on my iPhone.

Adium: for IM. I use this more internally than not, and rarely at that. IM tends to get overwhelming.

Yammer: We use this as our internal Twitter/chat stream, to share news about ongoing company activities and goings-on and talk amongst ourselves.

Google Docs: We use collaborative calendars, spreadsheets, and word processing docs. Especially important because I work remotely.

Google Reader: My RSS reader of choice. I subscribe to about 75 blogs, and I’ve pared that down. I click “Mark All As Read” probably once a week. I scan liberally, read about a dozen or so posts in depth every day, share what I can, and have to skip the rest. There are only so many hours, and information overload is mine to control.

Entourage: my email client, which is the lesser of many evils. I get about 100-150 emails a day across two main accounts, and they’re about 60% internal. Twitter has dramatically reduced my email volume in day to day work, probably by half at least.

Facebook and LinkedIn: We’re just starting to really build a foundation for our community in these outposts, but I have accounts there. I don’t keep separate personal and corproate accounts. It’s all one and the same to me. I’m part of my company and vice versa. Argue with me on this later.

WordPress: My blogging platform, both at Altitude and for Radian6.

Books: I read. Voraciously. Analog isn’t dead. I have about three books going right now, two of which are business-related.

8. How did you get your job?

I started my professional career as a fundraiser for non-profit organizations, beginning in performing arts (symphony orchestras and music conservatories. I was a music performance major in college). I did that for about seven years and was recruited into corporate marketing/communications, and did that for four-plus years, including branding, PR, and corp communications.

I’ve always maintained an interest in the online world, blogging (journaling) when it was nerdy and even trying my hand at programming (I don’t have the attention span). I was a chat room nerd, too. My nonprofit days lent well to community building with donors and volunteers, both online and off. And I always tried to infuse this stuff into my corporate job, whether I was successful or not.

When I decided to go it alone in 2008 and leave my corporate gig for solo work, Radian6 was one of the first companies I worked with. Lucky for me, when it came time to hire someone full time to do community and social media work, they trusted me with the gig. So here I am. It was much less about some elusive “skill set”and more about understanding the role of online social stuff inside a business environment. Maybe David Alston will tell us in better detail in the comments why I was the right fit.

9. What do you love about your job?

The people. I meet and talk to the most amazing people, every day. And I am so very lucky to work with a company that lives and breathes social media as a business model, not a “channel”. Yes, I realize how fortunate that makes me. Is it always roses? No. It’s hard work, but nothing worth having was ever worth less. And it’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.

My job is to connect with people, and make them as passionate as I am about the potential of this universe. Does that suck? Heck no. Do I wish that kind of job for everyone? Yes. And I’m going to keep stumping on my soapbox for their benefit, and for the establishment of more jobs like it, until you all tell me to shut up.

10. What would you change?

The barriers to understanding, and the blinders we’ve managed to put on the corporate world for the last several decades. The focus on the tactics and tools instead of the underlying (and rather basic) tenets of relationship-based business.

I’m much less frustrated by a temporarily disgruntled person on a blog than I am by a business person who still isn’t seeing how important and revolutionary this stuff is, and not because Oprah is on Twitter. I’d like to elevate the discussion from “how do I monetize Facebook” to “how do I change my culture to return to the basics of good business and tie this to my overall goals” (which is really all this is, in techie clothing).

I know I’m an idealist. But dammit. Revolutions were never started because someone decided something was “close enough”. ROI doesn’t have to be that complicated. I’m here to change the status quo.

11. How do I convince our company we need a community position?

If you have to do too much convincing, they’re probably not ready. But, that being said, there are a few discussion points.

This job is the evolution and marriage of customer/client service, PR, marketing, and business development. It’s a bridge builder between your internal and external communities, and a liaison. A relationship builder, message deliverer, content creator, hand holder, educator, rain maker, and brand steward, both internally and externally. It’s the hybrid of online and off in all these areas, but without the trappings of outdated tactics that are likely not relevant to your customers anymore.

If your company doesn’t see the value in that and can’t tie some specific deliverables and metrics to the performance of that person, then the discussion is probably too soon. And if you or they can’t imagine that a person like that exists, you’re definitely not ready to have one.

Bonus Round

12. What music do you listen to while you work?

I have crazy eclectic music tastes. Faves right now include Nonpoint, Shinedown, Eminem, Nine Inch Nails, Nickel Creek, Sick Puppies, Shiny Toy Guns, Massive Attack, Josh Kelley, John Legend, Flyleaf, Emilie Autumn, Breaking Benjamin, and some Shostakovich thrown in for good measure.

What Did I Miss?

My (sort of) plan is to keep updating this post as new questions arise, because I know my position and those like it will keep evolving. I know I haven’t answered everything, and I’m happy to keep trying. Just leave your questions in the comments, but remember that there’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all. And your answers and insights are just as valuable as mine.

Does this help? Share, won’t you?

7 Sensible Strides Toward A Stronger Community

It’s no surprise that I have community on the brain lately. Mostly because it’s my job, but I’m reflecting a lot on how much this role is starting to shift organizational mindset toward social media. In fact, the idea of “building community” is often many companies’ first thoughts when embarking on all this stuff.

So here’s a list of a few thoughts on community building you might approach today to get you started down the right path.

1. Cultivate Your Existing Network

People aren’t bottlecaps. Just collecting a pile of them for more eyeballs isn’t the foundation for a strong community. Instead, what fosters long-term growth is the fierce loyalty of a connected, tight knit few. Is your community small to start with? That’s okay. The quality and impact of a community has nothing to do with its size. EVER. Focus on them, and on bringing them what they need from you. Growth will happen.

If a community is what you really want, take the time to lay the proper foundation.

2. Tend The Outposts

If you’re going to have a presence on Twitter or Facebook, it needs tending, participation and presence from you. It’s not like a “set it and forget it” kind of thing where you just expect people to show up and do you the favor of paying attention. You need to invest in each of the sites where you maintain a presence, which means less is likely more. If you don’t have the resources to blog AND be on Twitter AND Facebook and make it a valuable experience for your community (which often isn’t the same definition you might have for value, at least at first), forget it. Stick with the gardens you can tend. Really, it’s okay.

One or two engaged networks will always be more valuable than trying to be everywhere, and doing it poorly.

3. Understand The Definitions: Measurement, Impact, and ROI.

Community metrics aren’t always valuable in and of themselves. How many followers or commenters or members or whatever you have isn’t where the gold is. Those are just statistics, and on their own, they mean little.

What matters is how the nature of your community impacts the work that you do. That means that you can have 25 members of your user group but if ALL of them refer 5 new customers every year because they love you (even if they don’t buy from you themselves), your community is *highly* impactful. Impact is about more than just revenue. It’s about what influences – for better or worse – all of the qualitative AND quantitative areas of your business, across the spectrum (not just PR or marketing or whatever).

When it comes to measurement, understand that in order to measure something, you must understand a) where you’re starting from and b) which business goal you wish to drive with your results. Until you have the two of those well articulated, measurement will always elude you. Measurement is about determining the impact of your efforts on business goals. Determine your starting line and where you want to end up. Then you’ll know what you need to measure.

As to ROI, the purest definitions are about the ratio of dollars invested in an effort to the dollars brought in through that effort. The social web also argues (and I think rightfully so) that “return” and “investment” can be articulated in terms of things like human resources, time, volunteer hours, loyalty, etc. It’s a bit of a new take, but then again, I’ve never been one to say that the old rules should never be changed. But make no mistake. Measuring “ROI” always needs to have a return relative to an investment.

4. Give Up On “Scaling”

Quality, fruitful and long-term valuable human interactions do not scale. If you want more human relationships, you need more humans on your team to create them. The end.

I’d give up a community of 10,000 sheep to have a community of 10 empassioned advocates any day of the week. And I promise you my balance sheet will reflect it, too.

5. Be Real and Human, Always. And Put It First.

I can feel your eyeballs rolling, but hear me out. Many people confuse this point.

Being human doesn’t just mean being friendly about your crappy sales pitch. I know plenty of super nice people that still try and sell me junk at every turn. What happens? I don’t trust them, because I’m always wondering what their new angle, is, no matter how outgoing and friendly they may be.

Being truly human and authentic requires two things rarely discussed in business: patience and faith. Faith that being good to people reaps its own rewards, even if the growth cycle is longer. And the patience to wait that cycle out, knowing how valuable and fragile trust is, and  how much stronger your business will be tomorrow as a result of nurturing it. We don’t like leaving things to chance. But relationships, when well built, aren’t chance. They’re insurance. They just take investment.

6. Listen Carefully. And Deliver.

Your community will tell you what it needs and wants from you. Some voices will make sense, others will be shrill and ranty. You know the difference.

But do listen. Pay attention. Consider carefully the ideas and thoughts and suggestions you’re handed, and decide which of them can bridge the gap between your wants as a business and your community’s needs as your support network (and, incidentally, your revenue stream). It’s about symbiosis and mutual benefit. You’re not always right. Neither are they. But a little dialogue and attentiveness can go a long way to finding common ground, and building something of greater collective value.

7. Stand Aside.

Some of the strongest communities are the most interconnected and vibrant among their members. You don’t always need a leader, but you often need a connector. Ways and means for people to find one another to have a relationship outside of (and often in spite of) you. Your value isn’t always in connecting people to your thing or your stuff. It’s often in connecting them to each other based in mutual interest, and discovering that their affection for you is because of that bridge, not because of the thing you have.

You want things that engender loyalty? Often, they have nothing to do with you being the center of attention, and everything to do with your creating something of importance that’s a bit more broad than your business or brand. Put yourself in your customers shoes and ask what you’d look for.

But How?

I chose the word “sensible” for a reason. These are some fundamental building blocks for community longevity, but they’re not easy. They’re not small nor even simple sometimes, and I know there’s a whole pile of you that are going to say “yeah, but my company doesn’t get why that’s important”.

Then here’s the truth: your company isn’t ready for this. Community is not an entitlement, it’s earned. If you want me to tell you how to justify the need for community to your boss, I’m going to ask you first to tell me why they need convincing. Then I’m going to ask you why YOU think they’re missing the mark. Then I’m going to tell you that all the tools you need to make the case are right here on the vast interwebs in places like here and here and here and here and here.

Not everyone will have a successful community, nor should they. Communities are formed out of curiosity, but survive because of purpose and affinity.

If your company isn’t ready, that’s okay. Be a bricklayer instead. Form the foundations and be a mindset leader, not a tactics leader. Revolutions have been started with less.

Photo credit: madnzany

Who I’m Reading, Vol. 1

I find blogrolls too static. They’re really too easy to post and forget about, and they don’t lend much insight into why you’re recommending that particular blog, or whether they’re just a friend or connection you’re wanting to give a little link-love too. (The latter is okay. It’s just not how I’m choosing to do things).

So I’ve dispensed with mine, for good. Instead, I’m going to try and post once in a while  on who I’ve been reading lately and why. Some will be obvious. Some may not be. Most will be about my industry – social media and community – but there will be off-topic or more personal recommendations from time to time because I think we all need multiple dimensions, don’t you?

Here’s a few I’ve been reading lately and why. And please feel free to add your recommendations in the comments.

Dave Fleet

Dave is an account director with Thornley Fallis (and for full disclosure, they’re a client of my employer, Radian6). Dave’s insights into the new and complex world of PR and social communications are deep, and often leave me chewing on things for days. His writing style is succinct and clear, and he brings a mix of content from both ends of the spectrum: social media 101 to the really advanced “what’s next” type discussions. I’m never disappointed by sifting through his posts in my reader.

Conversation Agent

Valeria Maltoni is a consistently killer read. The depth of her thought leadership and experience in branding, marketing, customer experience, and community makes her one of my absolute “must reads”. Not only does she inspire me to think more deeply about how I approach my business, but she challenges me to think about where I’m going next. I can’t get through a post of hers without saying “damn, I really wish I’d written that”. She comes at the social media world from a fresh, deeply thought out perspective and I appreciate how much insight she manages to pack into every post.

Christopher S. Penn’s Awaken Your Superhero

Chris Penn is the only person I know that could successfully and artfully draw a parallel between the World of Warcraft and marketing, and have it make complete and utter sense. Chris is a groundbreaking marketer, podcaster and leader in the financial aid industry, and he’s more relentless about finding business value in everything he does than almost anyone I know. Chris’ posts range from basic to advanced in terms of content, but there is always an actionable takeaway from everything he does (that includes in his speaking engagements, too).  Plus, he’s a super geek. How can I not love that?

Convince and Convert

Jason Baer is one of those guys that’s scary smart. I mean that in the best way possible. You have a conversation with him and not only do you always walk away laughing hysterically (Jay is super funny), but you can almost feel your brain expanding. Jay is a veteran of the online marketing industry and has solid perspectives on email, marketing, and social media. And they’re all based in common sense, without the fluff and BS you can manage to find elsewhere. He’s one of my favorites, bar none.

Annarchy

Most of you probably know Ann Handley from her work as the Chief Content Rockstar of MarketingProfs. She’s awesome in that professional sense, and I’ve immensely enjoyed getting to know her both as a colleague and a friend. But her personal blog is a MUST. I mean honestly, she posts, and I will drop everything to go and read it. She’s intensely human and often incredibly funny. I’ve cried multiple times reading her posts. Why this woman doesn’t yet have a gig with The New Yorker is beyond me.

in over your head

Julien Smith isn’t just “that guy who’s writing the book with Chris Brogan”. Julien is an accomplished media creator, and he’s one of the most articulate communicators I know. Conversations with Julien over coffee or breakfast (or hot tubs) are entertaining, enlightening, and thought provoking. He has a sharp sense of humor and a relentless curiosity about the world around him. Posts on his blog are simple, straightforward, and arresting. Please do yourself a favor and pay attention to what he’s doing.

Servant of Chaos

Gavin Heaton is an Aussie with an insightful, deliberate perspective on marketing and social media. I love that he artfully blends social causes with his commentary on the new media age, and has a level-headed perspective that often makes me feel like an irrational hothead. Gavin has a wicked sense of humor but don’t let that deter you from his pointed and nail-on-the-head perspective about how the marketing industry is shifting under our feet. I’m still waiting for him to get his ass to Chicago.

Suze Muse

I’m utterly convinced that Sue Murphy and I share some part of our DNA. We share an edgy sense of humor that comes complete with laughing at straw sounds (#fwoopfweep). She’s gregarious and fun and exceedingly smart. Sitting down to read her blog posts always feels like a dialogue to me, a comfy conversation I’m having around a cafe table somewhere. And much like the wolf in sheep’s clothing, Sue’s approachable style belies her fierce intelligence and new media savvy. I’m a fan.

So that’s this episode. I’ll keep adding more as I go along, and highlighting others on my radar. But you know more than I do, anyway. Won’t you share your favorite reads here in the comments for others to find?