Dr. Dave Chaffey is CEO and co-founder of Smart Insights, an online publisher who provide guides, templates and training to help businesses succeed online. Dave has worked with a number of companies including 3M, BP, HSBC.  He is author of 5 bestselling books on Ecommerce including Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice which was first published in 2000. Dave has been recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have shaped the future of Marketing. You can follow Dave on LinkedIn or Twitter.  Read the full story

Robin Fray Carey is CEO and Co-Founder of Social Media Today, one of the most popular social media news websites online. Social Media Today LCC also helps global organizations create purpose-built, B2B social communities designed to achieve specific, measurable corporate goals by engaging exactly the customers and prospects they most want to reach. Prior to Social Media Today, Robin founded and managed Custom Publishing Group. Since 2005, Robin has been working pro-bono as Board Chair of Advocacy and Communications for the Women’s Refugee Commission, a non-profit organization which has as its mission the promotion of the well-being of women and children, who comprise 80% of the world’s refugee population.You can follow Robin on Twitter,  Linkedin or Facebook.

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Tamara Littleton is CEO of eModeration, a moderation and community management company which works directly with worldwide advertising agencies, third sector clients and media brands including MTV, ITV, 02, Nokia and ESPN as well as leading agencies like Ogilvy, Saatchi & Saatchi, Euro RSCG, Wieden and Kennedy and Publicis. Tamara recently worked with UKCCIS to revise its guidelines on moderation of communities to help safeguard children. She regularly speaks at conferences and contributes white papers to aid learning and development within the social media industry. You can follow Tamara on Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook. Read the full story

Hristina Hristova is currently working for Acronis as a global social media manager for consumer products. Hristina’s background is in social media and publishing – Hristina was a founding member of Groupon UK, and worked for the social buying giant as a social media strategist. Hristina’s interests include all things digital, web and graphic design, as well as typography. You can follow Hristina on Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest . Read the full story

Gianfranco heads up eCRM at EHS 4D where his remit is to create first class eCRM programmes leveraging data, direct and digital expertise. He has a wealth of experience from both agency and client side with over 15 years in Direct Marketing focusing more recently on key email, social & mobile trends in a multi-channel eCRM Planning. Clients have included Barclays, Disney, BBC, HP, ASDA, The FA, PC World. He regularly speaks at conferences and can often be found on Twitter and on his own blog ’ It’s all about the Conversation’. Read the full story

Saul Colt is the founder of Saul! – The Idea Integration Company specializing in online and offline experiences, branding/communications and social media. Currently working with Ebay.com, Ziplocal.com, FreshBooks.com, Upstack.com and ChickAdvisor.com. Saul was named to the 2009 iMedia list of iMedia 25: Internet Marketing Leaders and Innovators. He is also a professional speaker  who has spoken at over 200 conferences, covering the topics of Entrepreneurship, Customer Service, Startups, Community Building and Word Of Mouth Marketing. You can follow Saul on Facebook,Twitter or Linkedin. Read the full story

Gemma Went is the Director of Red Cube Marketing, a communications agency integrating Marketing, PR and Social Media. With 10 years experience in Marketing and PR, Gemma is working collaboratively with businesses, large and small, to ensure their communications activities help them to achieve their business objectives, engage with their communities and build brand awareness. You can follow Gemma on Twitter or Linkedin.

G: How and why did you get into social media business?

G: I’ve been in the comms game for over 10 years. I started my career in-house, heading up the Marketing and PR at a number of businesses within the creative sector (an industry I simply love) and later as a consultant. My grand plans to set up Red Cube started in the summer of 2008, originally as traditional comms agency. That plan soon changed as I became immersed in social media. By the time I launched in January 2009, I had started to integrate social media into my offering. Being a bit of a social animal at heart, it seemed a natural extension to me, plus the opportunities it offered my clients excited me, particularly SME’s who get the chance to level the playing field. The transparency and ‘realness’ of social media appealed to me greatly, it works perfectly with my own values and Red Cube’s ‘no fluff, no jargon, just common sense’ focus

G: What is it like to be a real Social Media Citizen?

G: Well, being social is as easy as being ‘me’. However keeping up with social media as part of a daily routine can be tricky to manoeuvre when client work takes over. I start the day by browsing Google Reader, digesting posts that keep me abreast of news and developments. When I find great content, I schedule it to be published on Twitter throughout the day through Hootsuite. My primary goal for social media is to help people, so this content tends to be around Brand, Marketing, PR and of course, Social Media.

I tend to check in on Twitter throughout the day, responding to people, answering questions and retweeting anything I find interesting. I also pop in to LinkedIn and Facebook once or twice a day and engage there. As I run a blog, The Cube, I regularly work on my editorial calendar (which usually runs two months in advance) and know what posts I’ll be writing and publishing that week. I tend to publish 2 per week and book in 3 to 4 hours once a week to write and edit those and any other guest blogs I may be doing. Doing it this way is the only way to keep me consistent (otherwise I’ll just forget).

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