Christ Tompkins is the founder of Go! Media International, an online marketing company, who’s team focuses on building successful social media marketing strategies for its clients. Chris has spoken at many national and international events recently sharing the dais with heads of Google and YouTube. You can follow Chris on Twitter or Facebook

G: Describe yourself in five words?

C: Me in five words? I would say energetic, focused, creative, honest and driven.

G: What’s your favourite hobby?

C: My favourite thing to do when not online is to be cooking gourmet meals in my kitchen. It is a bit of an addiction and I tend to have a least two dinner parties per month for groups of twenty. When I am not doing that, I am reading and learning everything I can about techniques. I am so passionate about it that I brought both of my passions (cooking and social media marketing) together on my blog. You can check it out here: http://www.servedfreshmedia.com – social media tips and recipes combined!

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

C: I have been doing social media for quite a few years, actually starting with Myspace promotions when I worked as the Marketing Director for a private music college in London, UK. From that point, the social media world intrigued me and I began to learn how to harness the power of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and all the rest. As for the why? I have always had an intense love for the art of marketing as well as a great love of people and culture. The social media sphere is a perfect fit for my passions and talent. Also, by finding out the best way to market using social media, I was able to create and launch my own social media marketing firm, Go! Media International – and since then I have helped my clients reach their full potential online. It is amazingly rewarding.

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Johan Ronnestam is a former snowboard professional turned out to be a digital marketing genius. He was a co-founder of Foreign, the digital marketing agency which won multiple awards in the Cannes Lions, D&AD, New York Festivals, London International Advertising Awards, and many other award shows around the world. In September 2008 Johan started Ronnestam Innovative Communication, with the blog Ronnestam.com which was voted Sweden’s first blog on innovation, future trends and digital communication. You can follow Johan on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.

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

J: I wouldn’t say I’m in the social media business. I’m more into business development, advertising and communication with an extended knowledge how social media effects those areas. Social media is not important in itself. It’s extremely important though to know how it affects your business.

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Laurent Blondeau is the Founder and CEO of Buzzed-In, the business development and strategy consultancy in Paris. With 13 years experience in media business, previously managing the Business Development unit at Canal+,  he has become an expert in all kind of media activities in all kind of TV’s: Pay, Free, VOD and Web TV. Laurent blogs on Evidencesx’s World and BuzzedInlog, he also often takes positions on several top blogs like Social Media Today.You can follow Laurent on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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

L: I was definitely very curious and just wanted to “try” it. Some things happened to be interesting and weird: change was going on, I was a part of it, but I was not sure if I was there to “stay”. Then the magic happened: through fields and topics, I discovered “things” and “people” (we call them “friends”!), and I started to stare and listen: the whole social guide was rolling in front of me…I was always web oriented, but social web was expanding frontiers and capabilities. Finally, I was in, without any forecasted plan, and still continue to like social media, as it starts to improve people, relations and knowledge. Just think how Wikipedia changed the world…How could we live without it now?

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

L: I start the day by checking all the messages on my LinkedIn Groups publications, then browse through Twitter, Facebook requests and news; stare at interesting pictures on Flickr and ongoing mails and at the evening to I’m quite used to have a quite time to read, comment and share all my favourites on digital sites: All Things Digital, Wired, Mashable.
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I bet that you have already seen a few versions of these social media maps. Well I find them quite fun and I think it’s going to be interesting to watch how they are going to change with the time, so I decided to start collecting them and share it with you guys on this site. You can find the commercial copy of this particular map at xkcd.com.

Adam Broitman is a recognized wizard in all aspects of the ever-changing digital media + marketing landscape and Co-founder of Circ.us, award wining communication agency in New York.  A thought leader in the industry, Adam is known for devising cutting edge, attention-grabbing marketing strategies for Kraft, The New York Times and Panasonic to LVMH.You can follow Adam on Twitter or Linkedin.

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

A: I have always been in media and marketing—social media is a natural progression. You cannot be in the media+marketing and not be in the social media business—that is not possible.

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

A: As far as consistency goes, I am not doing so well with that these days. Prior to starting Circ.us I had a daily regiment—my blog was A Media Circ.us and my day always started with scouring wires and talking to friends about new advances in social technology. Today, I am doing my best to run a business and keep my social head above water. Seesmic Desktop helps a lot with that.

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Barry Furby is the Co-Founder of techMAP, the online and offline community for Marketing, Advertising and PR professionals which derived from one of the biggest social media meet-up’s in UK. He is also  the Founder of Fresh Resources, the digital recruitment agency which  provides a specialist service that is truly passionate about social media and digital marketing. You can follow Barry on Twitter and Linkedin.

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

B: My background is in recruitment so I’ve always been in the business of connecting people in the digital space. The recruitment business is typically a great training ground for entrepreneurial folk, where sales is the focus but customer service and relationship management is equally important. I’ve always loved technology and right now I love the way this industry is shaping up. My particular interest is to leverage online tools and community to create valuable offline connections. I’d love techMAP to connect great people and shape the way we do business – big statement, but I’m up for the challenge.

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

B: I treat each platform differently in terms of messages and conversation that take place but across all of them I treat mentions and direct messages like my inbox, responding as soon as possible – although it’s easy with all these things to get side tracked. I try to manage short bursts of work to get things done (30-45mins at a time). It’s important to find a balance of being social AND getting the day job(s) done! iTunes is my saviour, it allows me to sink into my own little work hard world one song at a time!

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Social media is maturing. As many companies have successfully integrated social media in their communication/business strategies and as many more are planning to do so in very near future, it is no longer perceived as the risky investment but more as a necessity in order to keep a competitive edge in the market and maintain the dialogue with consumers. It actually seems that social media adoption is becoming a quality standard of a transparent, customer centric and accessible company. Actually, just like adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies has been representing very similar values for over 30 years now. It is quite interesting to compare these two trends and possibly build on the existing knowledge of CSR management when planning social media strategies as they ultimately both are driven by very similar ideas of building competitive advantage through transparency, advocacy, stakeholder’s engagement, adding value to the communities and the empowerment of communities.

A lot of large corporations have been enjoying the benefits of CSR strategy, but that’s the problem of CSR as it is often perceived as concept suitable only for larger organizations, because of the extra costs attached to these activities. Social media is changing this situation. It has reduced the cost of communication and provided an opportunity to every company to manage/address its stakeholders more efficiently. Read the full story

The world of social media is maturing. People have adopted the new means of communication, companies are experimenting with the new business tools, but how the heart of the media industry is adopting to a new social landscape? Well it is quite strange, but not so well. I will try briefly to overview what I found in my research analysing social media adoption in 10 Top Media Agencies and some of the best practises.

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Sources: Campaign “Top 50 Media agencies” + Netprospex “Top 50 Brands in Social Media”

The key points from research: Read the full story