My new List of Social Media Pros

A couple of days ago, I started a Twitter list of social media professionals. I’ve entered nearly 150 names so far and I imagine this list will continue to grow for some time.

I define a social media pro, quite simply, as someone making a living–or trying to–through social media. It can be a developer a corporate communicator a consultant, writer, college professor or whatever.

To be on the list, you need to show some evidence that social media is central to your work. You can tweet me a recommendation or ask to be put on the list. The best way is for someone I already know and trust to recommend you.

The list does not rank people, nor does it mean that I endorse everyone on it. It doesn’t even mean that you are any good at what you do.

It simply means that through personal knowledge or a few minutes of checking you out online, it appears to me that social media is essential to your work.

I’ve been asked, somewhat suspiciously, what I’m up to. I must have some secret plan for what I will do with the list. Not really. I was looking for a list like this one on Twitter. I found rankings of influence and power. I found “top” which seems to be about followers, but I just couldn’t find an objective, inclusive resource, so I started one.

That being said, I’m starting to see lots of uses for this list:

• Conference promoters have a quick resource for finding talent. They can visit this list and find people addressing almost any topic related to social media.
• Recruiters and people needing consultants or contract talent have a place that offers many options.
• For people very interested in the topic of social media, this list rocks.  Members are prolific and stay mostly n topic. They post informative links. For the past two days, I’ve spent more time following the list stream than my own, and am enjoying and learning a good deal. The list seems to be popular. With less than 150 names, it already has over 40 followers.

There have been some surprises–not with the list itself, but with my compiling it. Some folk though it was elitist to compile a list of social media pros. I think not. We have lists of lawyers and plumbers, why not people who practice in the conversational media?

There have been more than a few “me, ME, ME!!!” folk who just wanted to be on a list. Some made claims that just were not backed up by online evidence of any great social media involvement. For example, one person had 46 followers and had posted 18 times. I could be wrong, but I assumed that person was not really a social media pro.

I can easily be fooled. But if I see someone in the stream who consistently seems unprofessional or unfocused on social media, I will quietly delete them.

But mostly, I’ve had people thank me. They find it to be a useful list. It could end up causing me more distraction from other projects than I wish, so I really don’t know how long or well I can keep it current.

Right now, it has my attention. If you think you should be on the list or if you know someone else, please let me know. Come to think of it, the way I meander all over the board, I may have to delete me.

We’ll see where this list takes itself.