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List of Brand-Side Corporate Social Strategists: Twitter Edition

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Jeremiah Owyang recently published a fantastic List of Corporate Social Strategists for 2011 (Buyer/Brand Side), an impressive compilation of  individuals either holding the title or performing the role of corporate social strategist, defined by Jeremiah as “the business decision maker for social media programs – who provides leadership, roadmap definition, and governance; and directly influences the spending on technology vendors and service agencies.”

It’s an outstanding list, categorized by industry including Automotive, Chemicals, Electronics, Telecommunications, and a dozen other sectors, but all of the names were linked to the individuals’ LinkedIn profiles—no Twitter links! You can follow Marshall Kirkpatrick’s entire Social Strategists list, based on Jeremiah’s list, here, but what if you want to get a bit more granular and be a bit more selective in your following?

Here you go. This list is a tad shorter than Jeremiah’s original as some of these strategists appeared not to have Twitter accounts (an odd omission for a “Corporate Social Strategist,” or possibly just inadequate searching on my part) and includes only the Twitter accounts I could fairly confidently match up with these names, that tweeted in English, and that did not use “protected tweets.” (If your title includes “social media,” why on earth would you have a Twitter account but protect your tweets? Serious disconnect there.)

Followers range from less than 10 (no, that’s not a typo) to more than 10,000. It is somewhat surprising how many have only a few hundred followers, despite being social media managers, practitioners and strategists at large corporations. Not that number of followers means everything, of course, and those few hundred followers may be really highly engaged. It’s also possible there may be errors in my list; please let me know in the comments or through my Twitter if you find any, and I will correct them. Anyway, on to the list!

List of Corporate Social Strategists for 2011

Airline

• Morgan Johnston – Manager Corporate Communication at JetBlue Airways

• Bowen Payson – Manager of Online and Digital Marketing at Virgin America

Automotive

• Kim Snedaker – Social Media Manager at AAA Mid-Atlantic

• Christopher Barger – Director, Global Social Media at General Motors

• Scott Monty – Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager at Ford Motor Company

Business Services

• Matt Anchin – Senior Vice President, Digital Communications at The Nielsen Company

• Collin Douma – Vice President Social Media at Proximity Worldwide (CAN)

• Debbie Curtis-Magley – Public Relations Manager at UPS

• Aneta Hall – Social Media Marketer at Pitney Bowes

• Jaimee Clements – Senior Online Product Manager, eBusiness at AAA NCNU

• Kenny Lauer – Vice President, Digital Experience at George P Johnson

• Rick Mans – Social Media Strategist, Capgemini

• Jodi Gersh – Manager, Social Media, Gannett

• Stephanie Gaspary – Director, Social Strategy and Creative Services, CareerBuilder.com

• Niall Cook – Worldwide Director of Marketing Technology at Hill & Knowlton

• Yianni Garcia – Digital Marketing & Community Manager, The McGraw-Hill Companies

Chemicals

• Kristina Bobrowski – Social Media Manager, Dow Corning

• Alison Buckley – Social Media Manager, Dow Corning

Consumer Product Goods

• Matt Ceniceros – Director, Global Media Relations at Applied Materials

• Philippe Borremans – Chief Social Media Officer at Van Marcke Group

• Jordan Williams – Manager of Digital Engagement at REI

• Bonin Bough – Global Director of Digital and Social Media at PepsiCo

• Michael Donnelly – Group Director, Worldwide Interactive Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company

• Jennifer Cisney – Chief Blogger and Social Media Manager at Eastman Kodak

• Jim Deitzel Sr. eMarketing Manager at Newell Rubbermaid

• Bert DuMars – Vice President E-Business & Interactive Marketing at Newell Rubbermaid

• Marisa Thalberg – VP, Global Digital Marketing at The Estee Lauder

• Gareth Hornberger, Digital Marketing Manager at Levi Strauss & Co.

• Brian Snyder – Senior Manager, Interactive Communications and Knowledge Management at Whirlpool Corporation

• Andrew D. Nystrom – Digital Marketing Manager – Social Media, Red Bull

• Debbie Weinstein – Senior Director, Global Media, Unilever

Educational Services

• Mike Rivera -New Media Strategist, University of Denver

Electronics, Devices, Mobile

• Jussi-Pekka Erkkola – Digital Marketing Manager at Nokia

• Marcy Cohen – Sr. Manager at Sony Electronics

• Ray Haddow – Senior Manager at Nokia

• Ian Kennedy – Head of Service Innovation at Nokia

• Esteban Contreras – Social Media Manager at Samsung

• Dan Anderson – Emerging Media Manager at T-Mobile

• Christopher Baccus – Executive Director of Digital and Social Media at AT&T

• Michelle Kostya – Social Media Support Program Manager, Research in Motion

• Baldev Solanki – Manager, Self Service, Research in Motion

• Angela Losasso – Director, Social Media, Research in Motion

• Felix Leander – Senior Social Media Marketing Manager, Research In Motion

• John Pope – Senior Communications Manager, Nokia

Energy

• Maria Amezaga, Global Social Media Advisor, Shell

• Lanie James – Social Media Specialist, Chesapeake Energy

Financial Services

• Ken Hittel – Vice President, Corporate Internet Dept. at New York Life Insurance Co.

• Allan Schoenberg – Director, Corporate Communications at CME Group

• Ed Terpening – VP Social Network Marketing at Wells Fargo

• Betsy Flanagan, Social Media Strategist, Wells Fargo Bank

• Christine Morrison Roszak – Social Media Marketing Manager at Intuit

• Annalie Killian – Director Innovation, Communication, & Collaboration at AMP Ltd

• Shawn Morton – Director of Mobile, Social and Emerging Media at Nationwide Insurance

• Zena Weist – Director of Social Media at H&R Block

• Stacy Gratz – Social Media Marketing Manager at American Express

• Steve Furman – Director, Design, Customer Experience and Social Media at Discover Financial Services

• David Meiselman, Director of Digital/Web Strategy, The Hanover Insurance Group

• Jennefer Meyer – VP Social Media Strategies at BBVA Compass

• Suzanne Stull – Social Media & Brand Manager, E-Business at Discover Financial Services

• Michael Rubin – Social Media Strategist at Fifth Third Bank

• Kimberly Mahan – Director of Emerging Technologies, Genworth Financial

• Ryon Harms – Director of Social Media, Farmers Insurance

• Jim Rosenberg– Head of Social Media, The World Bank

• April Hammons – Social Media Manager at Bank of Oklahoma

• Jason Diperstein – Online Channel Coordinator at Aetna

Health and Life Sciences

• Jessica Soulliere – Social Media Communications Coordinator at University of Michigan Health System

• Ryan Squire – Social Media Program Director at The Ohio State University Medical Center

• Bob Stanke – Community Manager, Interactive Community Manager | Social Marketing Strategist at Life Time Fitness

• Shwen Gwee, Lead New Media Communications, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

• Charlie Schick, Sr Media Producer, Children’s Hospital Boston

• Lee Aase – Syndication and Social Media Manager at Mayo Clinic

• Holly Potter – VP Public Relations at Kaiser Permanente

• Vince Golla – Director, Digital Media and Syndication at Kaiser Permanente

• Erin Macartney – Public Affairs Specialist/Social Media at Palo Alto Medical Foundation

• Nick Dawson – Director of Communications & Community Engagement at Bon Secours Health System

• Jamey Shiels – Director Social Media and Digital Communications at Aurora Health Care

Hospitality, Food Service

• Vanessa Sain-Dieguez – Social Media Strategists at Hilton

• Virginia Suliman -Vice President – Websites at Hilton

• Kara Imai – Senior Director, Online Marketing at Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau

• Shannon McDowell – Director, Website Management & Communication at Hilton Worldwide

• Diana Plazas – Director, Doubletree Online Marketing at Hilton Hotels Corporation

• Scott Gulbransen, Director of Social Media & Digital Marketing at Applebee’s

• Nick Ayres – Social Marketing Manager at IHG

• Rick Wion – Director of Social Media, McDonald’s Corporation

• Eric Schechter – Social Media Manager, Carnival Cruise Lines

• Joe Curry, Social Media Manager, Global Web Communications at McDonald’s Corporation

Government, Armed Services, Education

• Christina Whitlock – Social Media Management, Supervisor at Marine Corps Recruiting

• Kevin Jones – Social Media Manager at NASA / SAIC

• Scott McIlnay – Director, Emerging Media Integration, Dept. of the Navy, Office of Information at U.S. Navy

• Paul Bove – Social Media Strategist/Web Developer at Air Force Public Affairs Agency

• Mike Boehmer – Senior Public Relations Specialist at Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services

• Sonny Gill – Online Marketing and Social Media Strategist at DeVry University

Media and Entertainment

• Brett Rudy – Director, Strategic Consulting at Epsilon

• Charles Miller Director – Digital Care/Social Media Strategy at DIRECTV, Inc.

• Michael Hall – Director of NESN.com at New England Sports Network

• Amy Worley – Vice President of Marketing at Andrews McMeel Publishing

• Robert Michael Murray – Vice President, Social Media at National Geographic Society

• Kelly Owen – Social Media Manager and Strategist at SPEED Channel, Inc., Fox Entertainment Group

• Tom Fishman – Manager, Social Media & Community at MTV Networks

• Kate Farber Gold – Social Media Director at Scripps Networks

• Ryan Osborn – Director of Social Media at NBC News

• Matthew Milner – VP, Social Media, Hearst Magazines Digital Media

• Gayle Weiswasser -Vice President, Social Media Communications, Discovery

Retail

• Winnie Hsia – Social Media Specialist at Whole Foods Market

• Tracy Benson – Digital / Interactive & Emerging Technologies at Best Buy

• Gary Koelling – Director Emerging Media Technology at Best Buy

• Vanina Delobelle – Manager, eCommerce Product Management at Sears Holdings Corporation

• Alexandra Wheeler – Digital Strategy at Starbucks Coffee Company

• Sarah Molinari – Senior Manager, Social Media, The Home Depot

• Dan Beranek – Social Business Strategy Leader, Target

• Daniel B. Honigman – Social Media Manager at Sears Holdings Corporation

Technology: Hardware, Networking, Component, Computer, Devices

• Bill Johnston, Head of Global Community at Dell

• Todd Shimizu – Director of Communities at Juniper Networks

• Len Devanna – Director Web Strategy & Operations at EMC

• Gunjan Rawal – Developer Marketing Manager, Intel AppUp dev program at Intel Corporation

• John Earnhardt – Senior Manager, Global Media Operations at Cisco Systems

• LaSandra Brill – Senior Manager, Global Social Media Marketing

• Richard Binhammer – Senior Manager at Dell

• Bill Pearson – Manager, Intel Software Network at Intel Corp

• Aaron Tersteeg – Communities Team Manager at Intel Corporation

• Bryan Rhoads – Sr. Digital Marketing Strategist at Intel Corporation

• Amy Barton – New Media Communications Manager at Intel Corporation

• Bob Duffy – Social Media Strategist at Intel Corporation

• Ken Kaplan – Broadcast and New Media Manager, Global Communications at Intel Corporation

• Adam Christensen – Social Media – IBM Corporate Headquarters at IBM

• Jeanette Gibson – Director, New Media at Cisco Systems

• Deirdre Walsh – Community and Social Media Manager at National Instruments

• Annie Rodkins, Program Manager at Intel Corporation

• Kelly Ripley Feller – Social Media Strategist, Sales & Marketing Group at Intel Corporation

• Adam Gartenberg – Program Director, Information Management Marketing and Strategy at IBM

• Todd Watson – Social Media and Search Marketing Manager, IBM Software Group at IBM

• Jamie Pappas – Manager, Social Media Strategy at EMC Corporation

• Colleen Swanger – Director, Graphics and Digital Marketing at NCR

• Tony “Frosty” Welch – Lead Social Media Strategist and Community Manager : Personal Systems Group at HP

• Amy Paquette – Sr. Manager, New Media Communications at Cisco

• Zoya Fallah – Social Media Expert, Consumer Marketing at Cisco

• Frank Days – Director, New and Social Media at Novell

• Stephanie Marx – Social Media Marketing at Cisco Systems

• Steven Lazarus, Lead Strategist, Social Media & Interactive Marketing for SOA and WebSphere Software at IBM

• Carolina Velis – Social Media Strategist at Intel

• Ekaterina Walter, Social Media Strategist at Intel

• Petra Neiger – Senior Manager, Global Social Media at Cisco

• Becky Brown – Director, Social Media Strategy at Intel Corporation

• Deanna Govoni – Social Media Marketing Manager, Cisco

• Allison Johnson, Social Media Manager, Cisco Systems

• Sharon Crost – Global Online Marketing/ Social Media Manager, Hitachi Data Systems

• Shanee Ben-Zur, Social Media Manager, NVIDIA

• Kerry Bridge Social Media Communications Manager, EMEA

• Chris Byrd – Social Media Strategist – Dell Corporate Reputation & Relations, Dell

• Cory Edwards – Director, Social Media & Corporate Reputation at Dell

Technology: Software, Internet

• Diane Davidson – Sr. Manager of Customer Success and Community Program at Cisco WebEx Technology group

• Steven Tedjamulia – Head of Social Commerce Innovation at Dell

• Alison Bolen – Editor, blogs and social content at SAS Institute

• Marty Collins – Director of Emerging Media at Microsoft

• Mark Yolton – Senior Vice President – SAP Community Network at SAP

• Brian Ellefritz – Sr. Director, Social Media Marketing at SAP

• Maria Poveromo – Director, Social Media at Adobe Systems

• Shashi Bellamkonda – Director Social Media, Network Solution

• Natalie Hanson – Senior Director, Strategic Programs & User Experience Consulting at SAP

• Lorna Li – SEO & Social Media Marketing Manager at Salesforce.com

• David Kim – Group Manager, Consumer Content Strategy at Symantec Corporation

• Fred “Fritz” Alberti – Director of Social Media at Salem Web Network

• Vishal Ganeriwala – Sr. Manager Citrix Ready Program at Citrix Systems

• Peter Parkes – Social Media Communications Lead at Skype

• Betsy Aoki – Sr. Program/Product Manager, Social Media at Microsoft Bing

• Marcus Nelson – Director of Social Media, Corporate Communications Salesforce.com

• Michael Procopio – Social Media Strategist at HP Software

• Karen Wickre – Senior Manager, Global Communications & Public Affairs at Google

• Gurmeet Dhaliwal – VP, Internet Marketing at CA Technologies (formerly Computer Associates)

• Justin Kistner – Sr. Manager Social Media Marketing at Webtrends

• Winton “Sonny” Adcock – Program Manager, Social Media & Customer Channel for Technical Support at Intel Corp

• Jamie Grenney – Sr. Director of Social Media at Salesforce.com

• Brian Kling – Social Media Manager, eService at Autodesk

• Kirsten Watson – Director, Marketing at Kinaxis

• Gail Lyon – Global Internet & Social Media Manager at Siemens Enterprise Communications (UK)

• Venson Kuchipudi – Senior Director of Social Computing Strategy, Infor

• Benjamin Gauthey – Digital Marketing Manager/Marketing Technopologist at Microsoft

• Chip Rodgers, Vice President and COO, SAP Community Network

• Diane Beaudet – Vice President, Marketing Programs and Communications, Webroot Software

• Kris Kozamchak, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications, NEC Corporation of America

• Doug Kern – Director, Corporate Communications at GXS

• Rawn Shah – Social Software Practices and Business Transformation Consultant at IBM

• Laurie G Buczek – Social Media Strategist & Platform Vision Team Manager at Intel

• Kirsten Hamstra – Social Media Manager at SAS Institute

• Rob La Gesse – Director of Customer Development, Rackspace

• Mario Sundar, Social Media Manager, LinkedIn

• Alan Belniak – Director of Social Media Marketing at PTC

• Dora Smith – Director of Global Social Media, Industry Automation, Siemens

• Robert Dell’Immagine – Director of Community at Qualys

• Adam Kranitz – Social Strategy, Segment & Product Marketing, Avid, Inc.

• Atom McCree– Digital Marketing Manager, ASG Software Solutions

• Charl Pearce -Sr. Marketing Manager, Emerging Media, US Integrated Marketing Programs, Microsoft Corp.

• Jacob Mullins – Sr. Marketing Manager, @BizSpark & Windows Phone 7, Microsoft Corp

• Claire Flanagan -Director, Social Collaboration Strategy, CSC

• Justin Levy – Senior Social Communications Manager, Citrix Online

• Tony Dunn – Social Media, Community & Web Marketing Manager, VMWare

• Nicholas Polt, Manager of Online Marketing and Social Media, MicroStrategy

Telecommunications

• Sherri Maxson – Director Interactive at US Cellular

• Keith McArthur – Senior Director of Social Media and Digital Communications at Rogers

• Bill Strawderman – Digital Marketing Lead, AT&T Business Marketing

• Trish Nettleship – Social Media Lead, AT&T Business Marketing

• Heather Thoms – Senior Communications Specialist, Tellabs

• Ronan Keane – Social Media Marketing Manager, XO Communications

http://twitter.com/#!/amypaq

Avoiding Stupid SEO Tricks

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I’ve written before about how to spot and avoid SEO sleazebags—the type who give an honorable and critically important profession a bad name—in Just Say No to Bad SEO and The Wrong Way to Build External Links for SEO (which seems somewhat quaint and naive now only due to the recent rapid growth of link spamming).

The hucksters and snake oil salesmen continue to expand their bag of “tricks” designed to dupe business owners into buying magic SEO pixie dust instead of investing in real and time-tested but somewhat less sexy SEO tactics. If you want your website to perform well in search over the long term, steer clear of these gimmicks:

“Submit Your Site to 350 Search Engines!”

Good grief, why? First, Google and Yahoo+Bing account for more than 98% of all search traffic in the western world. Quick—name the fourth-largest search engine. Can’t do it without looking it up (probably on Google)? If you can’t name #4, why would anyone care about #200, or #250, or #350?

Second, direct submission of a site to search engines hasn’t been a crucial SEO tactic since the last century. Today, as long as a website is linked from pretty much anywhere on the web, the search engines will find it. Linking a site from social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon is now among the fastest ways to get it crawled.

“Get 1,000 Backlinks for $140!”

Sure, you can buy cheap links. You can buy cheap health insurance too, but do you really want to? The same warnings apply; any offer that seems “too good to be true” almost always is. Quality links take time, effort, and therefore yes, money, to obtain. Super-cheap links are at best from a bunch of PR 0 or 1 sites that provide marginal if any SEO value, and at worst are from link farms which risk getting your site banned from the search engines.

“Get a Free SEO Evaluation!” (spam emails)

Few if any reputable SEO firms promote their services through email offers of a “free site evaluation.” This type of offer is usually questionable. Often, it’s little more than a repackaged WebsiteGrader report, which anyone can run for free in less than five minutes.

Quality SEO firms tend to generate business through tactics like blogging, social media, referrals, and speaking at business events, not through unsolicited emails. As evidence of how unsophisticated some of these SEO spammers are, I’ve heard of instances where such emails have been sent to real SEO firms—which is like trying to sell a Whopper to the manager of a McDonalds, or a Chevy to Scott Monty. Trust these spammers with website optimization? As Forrest Gump noted, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

Effective SEO is a blend of art and science. A reputable SEO firm will be able to explain their tactics, provide a realistic timeframe for results, and have a track record of success. They won’t offer guarantees or “secret” formulas for success. And they won’t be found using the tactics above.

Don’t They Know Who You Are? Why Reputation Management is Crucial

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In the old days—like, six or seven years ago—if someone had a bad experience with a company, he or she generally vented about it to a few friends and that was the end of it. The emergence of social media changed all that of course, so now that person can vent online to, essentially, the entire world. And search engines love social media, which helps expose that rant to anyone searching for the company’s name.

Lee Odden recently framed this topic effectively in a post about digital reputation management, noting “There are plenty of CEOs, executives, brand and business managers that are facing the dilemma of what to do about their company and brand reputation online…Companies like Kryptonite Locks, Comcast, Dell, Walmart and Sony have all experienced what it’s like to ignore the influence of the social web and the subsequent effect on how their brands are reflected, both in the search results and within social media channels.”

This Time, It’s Personal

What these CEOs and other executives also need to appreciate is the importance of their personal brand. These individuals are often the “face” of their organizations; as they get quoted in press releases and news articles, pen bylined articles, speak at conferences, and talk to industry influencers and prospective customers, their names can become almost as well known as their brands. That makes it crucial for business leaders even at smaller companies who may not in the past have considered themselves “public figures” to manage not only their firms’ online reputations, but also their own.

A few examples. One executive I know, the president of a software company, shares the first page of Google with a biomedical researcher, a diplomat, a (not exactly best-selling) author, and the Facebook page of a college student from North Dakota. While that isn’t a terrible group to potentially be confused with, this executive has a sufficiently unique name that he should be able to own more of the real estate on this page, including the top spot (he’s currently #5), thereby making himself—and his company—easier to find.

Another executive acquaintance has things a bit worse. He shows up on the first page alright, but several of the links are to dot-com-meltdown era news articles about a company he worked with that had some of the typical problems of tech companies at the time (collapsing stock price, low on cash, disgruntled shareholders etc.). The full story is that he wasn’t the cause of these problems at all; he was hired to fix them, which he did, successfully taking the company prviate and turning it around. But a casual Googler wouldn’t get that story from the page one results without really digging.

On the other side of the ledger are individuals such as Jon Rognerud and Guy Kawasaki. Jon has a somewhat unusual name obviously (and the “Jon” spelling helps), but he isn’t the only person on the planet with that moniker. Yet he owns the first five pages of Google for his identity. Guy owns at least the first ten pages of Google (being a best-selling author helps) and none of the references are disparaging.

How To Be Seen

Granted, it may not be realistic for executives with more common surnames and less fame to achieve quite those levels, but most could nevertheless dramatically improve their personal online reputation management using the following techniques.

  • Buy yourname.com if it is available. Use the domain to build a professional website (e.g., GuyKawasaki.com) or redirect it to a suitable page, such as the Management Team page on your corporate site.
  • While you’re at it, spend the $95 to own your personal LookupPage.
  • Make sure the Management Team page on your company website is optimized for your name.
  • If you can make the time commitment, start your own blog. At the very least, look for opportunities to write guest-posts and/or get interviewed for blogs related to your industry.
  • Write an article (or articles) for Google Knol on topics pertaining to your product or service. As an example, here’s one I wrote about records management. You can link to other blog posts, published articles, white papers or other informational content your company has produced about the topic.
  • Record a short video introducing yourself and your company to potential customers and anyone else who may be interested. For examples, see the Pitches section on TechCrunch. Use your name in the title of the video (e.g. firstname-lastname-of-companyname.mp4). Upload the video to YouTube and Vimeo so it’s easy to share on blogs and other sites.
  • Upload company-related photos—you, other executives on your team, your building, your products, screenshots (if there is any software component to your product), your logo, etc.—to photo-sharing sites like Flickr.
  • Start Twittering. Use your real name in your profile.
  • Create accounts on social bookmarking sites like Wikio, Mixx, Digg and/or StumbleUpon. Any time there is an online news story or blog post published about your company or product, submit it. Also submit other items that may be of interest to your customers and prospects.
  • Hire a social media-savvy PR person to help you get interviewed by prominent bloggers and writers in your industry.
  • Consider writing a Wikipedia page about yourself. Keep in mind, however, that you have to be considered a public figure (or at least be able to make the argument that you should be) or the Wikipedia cabal will reject the article and take it down. That means you’ll need to have links to third-party sources who have written about you, and the, er, idiosyncratic folks at Wikipedia will have to agree. For example, Tim Young the relief pitcher for the Expos and Red Sox has a Wikipedia page, but Tim Young, CEO of on-demand social networking platform Socialcast doesn’t.
  • Create and maintain profile pages on social networking and directory sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Naymz, Jigsaw, Plaxo, ZoomInfo, CrunchBase (for technology executives), and VisualCV.

Professional corporate “evangelists” like Scott Monty and Christopher Barger, not surprisingly, tend to show up pretty well on search. But shouldn’t the CEO—particularly at smaller firms—be one of a company’s biggest evangelists? Stakeholders may very well think so. As a top executive, you are a public figure, and people will search for your name on the web. Online reputation management gives you at least some control over what they’ll find.

Note: this post was originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in January 2009.

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