The Social Media Vanguard

‘cow catcher’ by psdEach person approaches social media and community building from her own unique perspective. I bring my background in technology and my interest in efficiency. Others bring their skills as marketers or business owners, hoping to personally connect with customers. After looking at some of the different social media jobs people are performing out there I’ve started to wonder what specific education and training prepares a professional to deliver good community building solutions.

Let’s take a look at some of the different career paths that lead people into social media. So far I’ve noticed a few recurring trends in the types of careers leading people to an interest in social media. Below are links to some professionals focused on communications, technology, marketing, knowledge management, entrepreneurship, or industry analysis. These people write some great blogs! I’m sure you’ve got some other ideas about the different backgrounds that lead us into social media, so please share some examples in the comments at the bottom of the page.

Communications
Sanya Weathers at Eating Bees has long been the gold standard in community management for online gaming. You won’t find a specific focus on social media coming from Sanya, but her visionary acceptance of the reality of multi-faceted communications with a customer base has rapidly advanced her field. Sanya’s warmth and wit have done wonders for her employers’ customer engagement and approval. She’s probably best known for her past work with Mythic Entertainment, makers of Warcraft precursor Dark age of Camelot.

Connie Bensen has shown up on this page before. She offers some great resources for community managers to connect and improve their craft, including a wiki full of informative links and lists. Connie bills herself as a “community strategist” and offers consulting services in the arena. A notable employer of Connie’s was ACDSee, makers of a handy image viewing program.

Technology
Robert Scoble runs a hugely popular blog at Scobleizer.com. Robert made his name while working and blogging at Microsoft. Nowadays he spends his time travelling, blogging, and doing a lot of video interviews for his new site FastCompany.tv. Robert’s most endearing trait is his enthusiasm. He’s been a big fan of FriendFeed this year.

Knowledge management
Knowledge managers are drawn to social media as the new frontier. From small-scale knowledge transfer strategies to company wide knowledge-management initiatives, this field is full of lawyers and librarians. Above and Beyond Knowledge Management by Mary Abraham puts out consistently good insights and analysis from Mary’s perspecitve as a knowledge manager for a law firm.

You might remember John Tropea’s Library Clips from last week. John’s a community manager in Australia who is a voracious reader and enjoyable long-form blogger.

Marketing
Conversation Agent by Valeria Maltoni is a great blog that focuses on connecting people and ideas. Valeria’s background is in marketing and communications.

Louis Gray is officially a marketer but his blog reads more like that of a social media analyst. He’s very prolific with regular news and analysis on each day’s issues. Louis is another highly visible FriendFeeder who demonstrates a lot of enthusiasm for trying out each new Web 2.0 tool he can get his hands on.

Entrepreneurship
Social Median founder Jason Goldberg is very active on Twitter and his own site. A lot of his activity centers around promoting the social|median brand but given its lofty goals of collaborative news discovery and community building you’ll see Jason in the middle of some interesting stuff on a regular basis.

The Memphis Social Media Breakfast is full of local entrepreneurs. Many of these are small business owners looking for personalized ways to connect with their customers and to expand their businesses. Joe Spake and Eric Mathews are two such entrepreneurs who are active on Twitter.

Analysts
Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategist blog is a bustling site written from the perspective of a senior analyst at Forrester Research. Read Jeremiah for regular updates on major corporate moves in social media, a regular social media job report, and a good community of readers and commenters happy to weigh in on each trend Jeremiah highlights.

List your own
There are certainly other careers and situations that lead people of all ages into social media and community building. What’s the source of your interest? Who are your favorite reads? Share a comment with us so your favorite blogger can pick up a few new readers.

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