A few months ago, my friend Sam Lawrence (former CMO of Jive Software) and the lovely April Donato launched a velvet-roped social network called Black Box Republic. covered it here with a post and podcast with the two founders MORE >>

Here are just a few words I would use to describemy friend,  Ken Burbary , VP of digital at Big Communications. smart, thoughtful, sports enthusiast, late. Sorry Ken, I couldn't resist that last one]. Seriously though, Ken is one of those people that I've enjoyed following and chatting with on Twitter over the last couple of years. was also fortunate enough to meet Ken when he came to Boston last fall when we held a tweetup in his honor. help companies navigate an incredibly complex online world to improve their online marketing, advertising and communication efforts. Easy answer. Zappos. MORE >>

As I mentioned in this morning's  Experts in the Industry  post featuring friend, Jennifer Leggio , I am tickled to death to have two of the smartest AND funniest women in the socialsphere on Citizen Marketer in the same day. The The second of these two lovely ladies is none other than blogger and co-founder of social media for social change , Meg Fowler ! distinctly remember that when I first started following Meg, the first thing that caught my eye was her about me page. Most bloggers I know try and keep their bio's light and even funny but Meg took hers to a whole new level. That pun? MORE >>

Where do I start with Ann Handley , chief content officer of MarketingProfs ? met Ann for the first time at a blogger dinner held in Jeremiah Owyang's honor in Fall of 2007. was (and still am) a big fan of MarketingProfs and had started following Ann on Twitter. My conversation with Ann at the Rattlesnake Bar in Boston didn't last long that night but as I've talked about before, it was nice to make a personal connection with Ann. Since that time, Ann and I have done Webinars together, talked regularly via Twitter, e-mail and occasionally on the phone. invented blogging when I was a kid. MORE >>

Len Devanna, d irector Web strategy, EMC is one of the few people on this list I haven't actually met in person. There have been several times where we were supposed to be at the same event but one or the other of us ended up blowing it (mostly me I think). However, between Twitter and our mutual friend, Adam Cohen , I feel like I've gotten to know more about Len and the great work he's doing to bring "social" to a little old company called EMC. help drive online evolution at EMC Corporation, and am good at it because I am truly, truly passionate about the topic. Make the most of it. MORE >>