This is a weekly series that I’m hoping to help add some more relevance to the #FollowFriday (what’s this?) Twitter activity that originally started through Lijit’s own Micah Baldwin to help connect Twitterers with one another.For this week’s selection, I’m revisiting some of the people that I follow to recommend some of the individuals that have really been awesome over the past year since I’ve been here and have some value to add.
It’s been about a year since I’ve moved to the San Francisco area and one of the first few people I made real friendships with are this dynamic tag-team duo, Chris Heuer & Kristie Wells. If you don’t know them, they do some awesome work with the Social Media Club – and why not? They’re the founder & president! But they also have some great social media strategy insights and knowledge. Kristie is the social media strategist at Ribbit & Chris is doing some unbelievable work consulting and working with a group he founded called Ad Hocnium, along with other work with Help A Community Organizer Out & gathering resources and lists for SMC-EDU. Plus they’re exceptional entrepreneurs with big hearts and I’m very lucky to consider them my friends.
Everywhere I’ve been, I practically see Claire Chang. It’s really bizarre…we met at last year’s Twestival and then at South by Southwest and it just seemed to be that we were at the same conferences, events & tweetups. I’m very happy that over the past year I’ve gotten to know Claire. We’ve joked that she’s forever known as “stealth mode” for all the work she’s putting in with whatever company she’s been with, but I know that the work has been above and beyond what a normal person would do. Her recent stint was with RSS feed aggregator LazyFeed (read my review here) and has managed to put herself as a trusted source of information and has earned herself a good deal of credibility with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Claire understands what’s going on in the tech space and has some great insights into communities and how to properly market and create a product. She’s also the president of the Asian Business League here in San Francisco.
This guy knows people. That’s right. Brian Solis knows how to read people. And he’s smart as well!
As the co-author of TWO really business-helpful books (now is gone & Putting the Public Back in Public Relations), Brian Solis is really up-to-date on how to use the web and social media to help businesses understand how to really reach people and have a conversation. He’s the founder of one of the most successful public relations firms in the San Francisco Bay Area, not to mention one helluva photographer to boot. I’m very fortunate to be following Brian because when he blogs, it’s such incredible insights that will truly make you think about what you’re doing and how you can reshape your existing marketing and PR strategy.
Brian has spoke to perhaps thousands of people at various conference around the world and is probably also famously known as the creator of the Conversation Prism and, even more recently, the Twitterverse. I’m recommending him as this week’s #FollowFriday simply because he’s really been a good friend to me over the past few months since I first met him and I consider him to be a great resource – always something new to learn and it comes from him.
Oh, and when I said he knows people, I meant it. He took a chance on me by letting me write for him – and as a result, I’m now a contributing blogger for one heck of a website: Bub.blicio.us.
Thanks Brian.
Adam’s been a great supporter and friend of mine since I’ve been here. We’ve followed each other on Twitter and then one day, through the power of a tweetup, we met up with each other and now hang out at most events happening around town (mostly along the South Bay). He’s the owner of a great boutique agency called Secret Sushi – yes, he loves sushi, hence the name.
Adam is also finely in tune with what’s going on in the social media space as well.He’s one that you call when you don’t want the big wigs from your ad agency trying to push their thoughts about social media down your throat (no offense to big agencies). Adam is an accomplished speaker and has given presentations on what businesses should do with the web and has created some phenomenal work. On top of that, he wants to meet people, which is why he’s also thrown several excellent events known as the Secret Sushi Social where it gives people a totally casual atmosphere to mingle and talk about what they’re doing and meet others.
What’s there to say about Krystyl? She’s unbelievable. You want a hard worker and someone who knows how to get things done, then you can talk to her. Krystyl is one of those freelance consultants that knows how to generate buzz and publicity. I would call her an evangelist, but I’m not really sure that she wants to be called one!
In case you didn’t know, Krystyl is one of the main organizers behind the local San Francisco edition of this year’s Twestival. She’s done a great job organizing and through her hard work, this is shaping up to be one helluva event. But then again, everything that Krystyl does is awesome anyways.
I’m not sure what else I can say about Wm Marc Salsberry that I haven’t said already in my last #FollowFriday post. Basically this is what I said about him & why you should follow him…I still hold it true:
… I really do admire his skills. He knows how to get that perfect shot. Whether it’s to get on a stage or walk around in a crowd or wherever his camera takes him, he’ll always get that “WOW” shot. It’s crazy and when you see him posting his photos, you’re in shock that they’re extremely awesome…I wouldn’t miss out on an opportunity to meet him. There’s a reason why the tech rock stars want him to take their photo. I would too! Just check out this article.
Just recently I’ve had the unforgettable opportunity to shot an event with him down in Los Angeles at the Twiistup conference. While we have our different styles, I noticed that his shots were absolutely crisp & he took his time to get the “money shot” that would leave everyone talking. Talk about real photography talent and I’m going to tell you to talk to this guy. Next time you want a photographer, you should see Marc in action…then you’ll know how good he is. Events, conferences, parties or whatever…Marc’s your man!
When I think of the word “awesome”, Liza Sperling comes to mind. I met Liza while at a tweetup celebrating Twitter’s 3rd birthday and since then, we’ve kept in touch. Liza brings an incredible portfolio of experience and business know-how into any challenge and has continued to make considerable in-roads into being a rockstar (she was always one, but she just working on being a bigger one). She tweets about business, finance and even her thoughts about startups. It’s not your typical review of a startup, but rather she lays out some well thought-out and exceptional ideas that these startups NEED to pay attention to.
Liza has been one of the driving forces that helped put together what became known as Whuffaoke to celebrate Tara Hunt’s voyage from San Francisco on her journey back to Canada. This multi-city karaoke-on-wheels tour was produced by Liza and in doing so, a lot of logistics and ingenuity was spent making this voyage a success. Now imagine if she was working for your company…you know you’d have a rockstar, but now you know how good of one she is. She’s just…in one word…awesome.
You want to know more about #FollowFriday and who other people are recommending? Then check out this great site created by Micah Baldwin.
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