Robert Scoble blazed a big trail by blogging and producing video as a technical evangelist for Microsoft from 2003 through 2006. No longer at Microsoft, Scoble now produces media for media's sake at FastCompany.tv. Others have followed his lead, knowingly or not, and job titles like "social media evangelist" are no longer nearly as rare as they used to be.
Still, many companies wonder what kind of work an employee like that could do for them. We asked around and found seven shining stars engaging in online social media at work.
Two of the most striking things we learned by asking (on Twitter, in the middle of the work day, you'll note) were these.
There are now a whole lot of people doing this kind of work. An overwhelming number of people and companies were offered up as examples - we picked the following seven the best we could but there are many other people doing great work in this field that aren't mentioned here.
Second, there may be even more people doing this kind of work internally in large organizations. If we were to count the growing army of people evangelizing for social media use inside companies in an unofficial capacity, then there would be a far larger group still. We'd love to write another post later highlighting some of the people who've been most successful at getting their own co-workers excited about the benefits of using social media tools.
Without further ado, though, here are seven of our favorite examples of people doing public-facing social media work from inside companies today.
When we asked for examples of people doing this kind of work well on Twitter, the first name that flooded our replies inbox was Jive Software's Sam Lawrence. A veteran marketer for big technology firms, Sam is now the Chief Marketing Officer for Jive, a Sequoia-funded enterprise collaboration suite.
On Twitter, but more prominently on his blog Go Big Always, Sam has quickly mastered the art of providing interesting value to the work lives of his readers and drawing in established social media leaders in a dignified way.
He's gently but firmly combative with competitors, sometimes challenges his own PR representatives and calls out Analyst firms the company has subscribed to. Designed by consultant Justin Kistner, Lawrence's blog is striking in appearance and is filled with oversized graphics, charts and videos.
The blog has drawn competitors and potential partners into the company's sphere of engagement through a remarkable number of comments for an enterprise exec's blog. Though Go Big Always is only a handful of months old, Lawrence has used it to rocket to prominence among thought leaders in emerging the social media market.
Daniela Barbosa is the Business Development Manager, at Synaptica, a division of Dow Jones Client Solutions. Barbosa is one of the most prominent advocates of semantic technology and data portability inside of a legacy institution.
Her personal blog leverages almost every bleeding edge web technology you can think of.
She's a frequent conference speaker, makes regular appearances on blog aggregator Techmeme and is an active participant in the Data Portability Working Group. Talk about Business Development 2.0!
"Daniela is the kind of change agent that is saving big corps whether they like it or not," Chris Saad, chairman of the Data Portability Working Group, told us. "She is leading by example and making waves of change both inside and outside the company. Everyone's very glad she is, too."
Photo by Mario Sundar
Probably the first blogger ever to become an Analyst, Jeremiah Owyang now specializes in and produces extensive social media for the analyst firm Forrester. He's a widely loved Twitter user and a prolific blogger.
Owyang publishes blog posts with magnetic titles like "A List of Companies and Services That Provide Live Web Video Streaming," "Many Forms of Widget Monetization" and "Explaining OpenSocial to Your Executives."
Jeremiah is a great example of someone who offers to teach others as a way to draw them in. He's built a reputation as a generous contributor to social media conversations and thus has become a hub for business and tech professionals. That's a good place for an analyst to be.
Linda Skrocki manages the community venues at Sun Microsystems, including the many Sun blogs, forums, media and Planets (RSS aggregation).
Skrocki writes a highly engaging Sun blog herself, where for example she recently announced that Sun blogs had just received their reader 100,000th comment. That on 97k blog posts on 4143 blogs. That's pretty remarkable for an enterprise focused community.
Asked about her social media work at Sun, Skorcki described it as follows.
"Along with a colleague, we have sessions that we conduct inside and outside of Sun. The sessions typically cover the benefits of leveraging the venues, do's and don'ts, and how to get started. The sessions are usually small (groups of 25 or so) and conducive to informal discussion while hitting the key points. External organizations that we've shared our experiences with include the United Nations in preparation for their Youth Summit, the DoD, other tech companies, etc. I'll be presenting to a Reuters Women's Group soon -- the group consists of women at various levels in their career and in various sectors."
In addition to being an active Twitter user, Skrocki is also working on putting Twitter to use for Sun events like the forthcoming JavaOne conference.
Disclosure: Sun is a consulting client of mine, though I haven't had the pleasure to work with Linda directly.
Paul Miller is the community evangelist for UK informatics vendor Tails, one of the biggest library software companies in that country. Miller specifically evangelizes for the Tails semantic web platform.
Miller is one of the hosts of the often fascinating Talking With Tails podcast series, he has done one episode of what we hope will be a series of podcasts on the semantic web here at RWW and he recently started covering the semantic web in a ZDNet blog dedicated to the topic.
While this list of social media power users could be described as Scoble 2.0, Miller insisted that he is actually Scoble 3.0 (a joke about how the semantic web is referred to as web 3.0 - Miller is a very humble man).
Miller is part of a whole crew at Talis that uses social media to bring value to the lives of their audiences - including Talking co-host Richard Wallis and Danny Ayers who writes the excellent This Week's Semantic Web series of blog posts.
Kristie Wells does social media for app development and hosting service Joyent. She administers the company's well followed Twitter account, in addition to her own. She runs the company's Facebook group for customers, is a contributor to the user blog and is preparing to launch a How-to podcast series.
Is there any work being done over there with all this media socializing? There sure is; Joyent provides app hosting for thousands of companies, including some big ones like MLB.com, Oprah's Ambassador program and the LATimes. That history of success made good ammunition when Joyent recently faced criticism for former-customer Twitter's scaling issues. That break-up got talked about on blogs around the web, but social media savvy and the company's own blog came in very handy in response.
MindTouch, the makers of the DekiWiki platform, is a social media company that eats its own dog food very publicly. Every member of the team contributes to the company blog, discussing not just product developments but also general interest industry news.
The company's active developer forums are filled with media that users are able to repurpose for their own evangelism. The company integrates with a substantial number of other developer-level social media technologies.
They also use the sophisticated Viddler video platform so their videos can be tagged and commented on. See the down-home 4 minute example demo video below, the only thing missing is audio quality.
As a result of all this material being made available and the company's high degree of visibility in several social media fora, the marketability of the widely appreciated wiki software is further amplified. Mindtouch says their enterprise wiki software is downloaded 3,000 times every day.
These are just a few of the most successful recent examples of companies employing social media evangelists in order to communicate with existing users and bring new attention to their services. While many, many companies today know they ought to "have a blog," most are still unsure how to use them and are not sure why they would employ a specialist in making putting these new media to use.
This isn't entirely new ground, though. Many companies are finding the ROI of social media engagement to be essential to their momentum. We've highlighted just seven here, though, who are your favorite social media evangelists?
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Being mentioned in the same post with the likes of _any_ of these people is very very flattering. Thanks MK.
Posted by: Aaron Fulkerson | April 11, 2008 3:42 PMThanks Marshall this is awesome and some of my biggest social media heroes/gurus including the person that i have learned the most from over the last two years, Jeremiah Owyang is also on the list so it is an honor!
Congrats to everyone!
Posted by: daniela barbosa | April 11, 2008 3:53 PM
Posted by: gaeyia | April 11, 2008 4:02 PMGreat post MarshallK!
You've set my thoughts on fire...
Jim Stroud gets my vote!! http://www.therecruiterslounge.com/about/
Posted by: Suzy T | April 11, 2008 4:02 PM::smiles:: as Marshall found a way to mention 'that thing' again. Seriously, thank you for including me within this fine group of folks, who I too, believe are doing great things within their respective roles...and beyond.
A common denominator between folks in our role is having a real love of connecting people - whether that is with one another or with a product that fills a specific need. The Social Media tools available today have enabled us make those connections easier, participate in more conversations and act quicker to resolve issues when needed. The exciting part about all of this is the tools continue to be refined so I can't wait to see what comes down the pipe next.
Posted by: Kristie Wells | April 11, 2008 4:19 PMThrilled to see Daniela on this list!
Posted by: Sameer | April 11, 2008 4:20 PMDamn, it's an honor.
I can't encourage people enough to fearlessly engage in their markets - everyone should be doing this.
It's now possible for value to be shared selflessly in porous ways. I hope that this post gets the head nod from more companies to reach out and join the important conversations.
Posted by: Sam Lawrence | April 11, 2008 4:35 PMDaniela is a colleague and wonderful advocate for social media; she represents the forward thinking enthusiasm that Dow Jones colleagues needs! We both support sales efforts and Daniela has been instrumental in developing the type of knowledge and passion around why social media matter and how Dow Jones offers compelling reasons to monitor and measure social media.
Daniela has lead so many iniatives to drive sales with social media measurement, she is constantly ahead of curve.
Congratulations to Daniela and thank you for always being so innovative in your thinking.
Sally
PS. Jeremiah - congratulations to you too!
Posted by: Sally Hmamond | April 11, 2008 4:36 PMThis is an excellent list, Marshall. Best about it is the diversity of spheres it represents.
Posted by: Clay Newton | April 11, 2008 4:40 PMGreat list - knew OF many of these evangelists, and know some of them, reminded me to get in touch with Daniela (been a while!), and otherwise to round out my awareness with some of these new (to me) peeps.
Aaron - you must've put the bots to work for you again, to get on this list. ;)
Sam - of course, I expected to see you on this list, you've hit your stride. Your noodly appendages are working.
Jeremiah - well, you're on vacation, but I'm sure you're getting the news.
Linda, Paul, and Kristie - good to hear about, looking forward to hearing more about what you're up to.
I'll second Clay on this too - nice diversity, this is certainly not the "me too" list!
Cheers,
Posted by: Dan Keldsen | April 11, 2008 5:01 PMDan
Sam's enthusiasm for social media is infectious - he's certainly opened my eyes to new communities and resources and I know his efforts have direct and positive impact on Jive's success. Great post.
Posted by: rachel petersen | April 11, 2008 5:19 PMI vote for the octopus guy. Which one was that? That was amazing...
Posted by: Dennis | April 11, 2008 5:19 PMDennis - that was Sam Lawrence's post http://gobigalways.com/the-enterprise-octopus/
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick@Dan,
LOL, that's awesome! I heard this recently too. :-) 3-4 TB a week, 100 forums posts a day, and they pay too!!
Posted by: Aaron Fulkerson | April 11, 2008 7:29 PMThis is officially the first comment I'm making as a newbie social media champion - at an advertising agency.
It would be great to see a list like this of people who are working to educate their colleagues in 'traditional' ad agencies that social media is not an option but an incredible opportunity.
In the months I've been researching and learning, my personal passion for social media lies in its potential to have people and companies (there are people in them too after all) to just talk to each other without a whole lot of jargon.
That can only lead to better service and higher quality products.
I look forward to learning more from all the evangelists - it's great that we all want to get the word out!
Posted by: Lynn Crymble | April 11, 2008 7:39 PMWhat a strong list -- congratulations -- especially to Daniela, one of the movers in dataportability.org.
Posted by: Mary Trigiani | April 11, 2008 8:27 PMSam Lawrence is great one for me, i've started 2 successful project working by his methods and applying his great ideas.
Posted by: Holy | April 11, 2008 9:07 PMImpressive personas...
Posted by: 113.com | April 12, 2008 5:09 AMGreat article Marshall.
Thanks to Twitter, I've had the opportunity to participate in 3 different workshops where Jeremiah Owyang was the speaker or moderator, plus I had a great call and demo with Sam Lawrence a couple of weeks ago.
Both of them true corporate media evangelists. I look forward to meeting the other five on your list and learn from all of them.
@OracleJulio
Posted by: Julio Fernandez | April 12, 2008 12:13 PMSo Scoble, when are you going to arrange to gather and video the 7 mini-Scobles? Web 2.0? ;)
Posted by: Sam Lawrence | April 12, 2008 2:48 PMFabulous list!
I was already aware of several of these folks thanks to Twitter and their blogs - but you added a few that I have now put on my "to watch" list... or perhaps it would be better to call it "to listen to" list.
Thanks!
Posted by: GeekMommy | April 12, 2008 2:56 PMWonderful post, I already follow @scobleizer and @jowyang on Twitter, but have added the other profiles mentioned here as I think Twitter is such a wonderful medium for tracking and interacting with some of the top minds - especially in the technology and social media fields.
Thanks for highlighting more great people to keep an eye out for.
@martyj
Posted by: Martin Jamieson | April 12, 2008 6:17 PMGreat post and list of talented folks.
I'd like to toss into the mix that Open Innovation 'Idea Portals' are one of the best ways for companies to engage and learn from consumers (and employees). There's no more revealing thing (good and bad) than to open the door, put out the welcome mat, and tell people "your ideas and thoughts are welcome here". It's folly for the executive suite to think it has all the great ideas. Who knows what's socked away in the mind of an employee or customer (who probably know the products and services better than anyone).
Check out http://www.mystarbucksidea.com for a great example. Starbucks has been blown away by the response from consumers, who've flooded the site by the thousands over the past three weeks. I'm guessing thousands of ideas have been submitted so far, and the top idea has received votes from more than 5,000 people, and more than 600 comments in the thread.
I've spent hours on the site - I love this stuff - pitching ideas and offering feedback. And no reward is offered. Just a chance to 'let your voice be heard'. And isn't that the heart of Social Media and Web 2.0? It's a two way conversation, and it's empowering both the individual and the business who embrace its various forms and platforms.
Posted by: Jeff Crites | April 13, 2008 10:16 AMConspicuous by their absence is Lionel Menchaca, Dell's chief blogger and, of course, Richard Binhammer, also at Dell. Maybe they've received enough press it was time to shine the light on others though.
Posted by: Paul Chaney | April 14, 2008 1:33 PMyou totally called it on Linda Skrocki!!
Posted by: MayrMary | April 14, 2008 7:53 PMI just returned from vacation, wow, this is really an honor, thanks Marshall. I've worked closely with many of these people here on the the list, they are doing great work, and deserve to be recognized more than me.
I think you should add yourself to this list, you're doing a great job with all of your tremendous analysis.
Posted by: Jeremiah Owyang | April 16, 2008 6:24 AMWhat a great list. Inspiring! I learned about a few new stars and my face hurts from smilin' about those I know and learn so much from. Bravo! Kudos!
Posted by: kenekaplan | April 21, 2008 8:09 PM