It’s been a long journey since I started in the search marketing industry and over the years I have had the chance to meet and interact with a number of great search and social marketers. Many of whom I have come to look up to in one way or another.  Each of them bring upon their own talents and expertise. However, when I think of all of the different people I interact with on Twitter, or Facebook, or LinkedIn I realize that there are a handful of folks that I am constantly looking towards for new inspiration and information. And with that I developed a list of the top 5 search and social geeks I wish I could spend just one day with to see their processes and how they work.

David Harry
Twitter: @theGypsy
www.huomah.com

David Harry, AKA ‘The Gypsy’ is one of the first search marketers who really got me to think outside the box.  He helped me to understand patents better and the importance of understanding information retrieval as a means to bettering my SEO. When we first started chatting it up a year or so ago I would spend hours scouring the net for new knowledge, patents, and information.  Unfortunately as time has passed and my kids have gotten older a lot of that free time has gone by the wayside, but his inspiration is still there and he is still someone I greatly admire and look to for new ideas.  If that weren’t enough, he also writes the SEO Dojo SEO Newsletter to keep me abreast on any geekiness I missed.

Tamar Weinberg
Twitter: @tamar
www.techipedia.com

Tamar is probably one of the first social savvy internet marketers I began following in my early days on Twitter and even Plurk (remember Plurk??). I’ve always loved how well she can cross over between the search and social realms and still display a balanced level of expertise.  Many marketers you come across are strong in one more so than the other, but I have always found Tamar to be a knowledgeable source on both ends of the spectrum.

Melanie Nathan
Twitter: @melanienathan
www.canadianseo.com

A friendly face and a sweet personality aren’t the only things that put Melanie on my list.  In fact the one thing about Melanie that I admire most is her passion for link building, of all tasks.  It’s not rare to find Melanie spouting off on Twitter about the latest sweet link she got hold of, nor is it uncommon for her to share some juicy link building tidbits on various blogs.  But what I admire is that SHE LIKES IT! As a search marketer one of the tasks I have always loathed is link building. Part of that may stem from the limitations I have to seek out quality links at my workplace, but I would love to know what it is she does that makes her link building efforts so fun.

Samir Balwani
Twitter: @samirbalwani
www.samirbalwani.com

I’ll call him social marketing’s rising star, because in my eyes he is.  I have seen Samir take leaps and bounds in his blogging and his marketing career over the last year and I don’t see any signs of him stopping either.  Another great mind whose posts have often forced me to think, Samir does a great job at giving folks some rhyme and reason to their social media marketing efforts and also gives some great insight on how easily it is to mess it all up. Samir’s knack for understanding social media, tracking social metrics, and interest in social media education are just some of the many things I have come to appreciate in Samir’s writing and in our interactions.

Audrey Seiberling
Twitter: @shirleytipsy
www.missshirleytipsy.com

The funny thing about having Audrey on my list is that 1) she is the one who started my search marketing career, and 2) I have worked under her not once, but twice.  In fact for almost a year we worked within 5 feet of one another.  But during that time I have never really seen her process as a search marketer. With taking over a lot of her duties upon her leaving my current company I have gotten a little bit more insight into how she worked, but haven’t really pieced together the whole process.  With a strong background in PPC and SEO and the fact that this whole thing started because of her, I would love to just have a day to see how it all comes together.

So there you have it, a handful, but by no means all of the search and social geeks I look up to on a regular basis. Who are some of the search and social marketers you admire?

In ramping up to do a post in regards to recent gag orders on celebrities when it comes to social networks and their work on new projects I am trying to get a feel for how fans and consumers interact with celebrities on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. Do you follow a specific actor, musician, director, author, or the like? If so has it has it impacted your experience as a fan? Have you gotten more excited about one of their projects due to their sharing and insight? Have you opted to buy a product or see/do something because of their endorsement? Let me know by filling out the poll below or leaving a comment.

Tomorrow one of the largest earthquake drills in California history will take place. An estimated 6.6 million people statewide will participate, with roughly 675,000 of them hailing from Orange County. While the bulk of the participants will simply be doing a typical drop, cover, hold drill, the Orange County Register reported that many O.C. organizations will be doing more. But if that weren’t enough OCReggie, the Orange County Register’s twitter account, asked its followers what they thought about posting simulated tweets during the drill.

Two things came to mind the second I heard the idea. First what a brilliant new use of Twitter, second “oh my god it’ll be the War of the Worlds radio broadcast all over again”. Now I get that most people following the Orange County Register probably live in Orange County, and probably would most likely know whether or not they had a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. However, if they work out of town, or they follow the Register, but don’t live in Orange County they may not be as keen to what is actually going on.

At the time of this writing I had not gotten word back from OCReggie in regards to their plans for the event tomorrow, but will update you as soon as I know. What are your thoughts on a simulated disaster on Twitter? Is it a social media disaster waiting to happen, or is it an innovative new way to prepare us for a disaster? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this since it’s something I have never seen done before or even considered.

UPDATE: Orange County Register staff member Jit Fong Chin got back to me this morning and advised that they would have several reporters covering todays events, but nothing about the actual simulation tweets.  The drill started 21 minutes ago and no simulation tweets have gone out from OCReggie, instead retweets from various OC residents participating in the drill have gone out.

I want to give props to the Orange County Register again for being a newspaper that seems to actually get how to use Twitter effectively.  They are quick to respond and engage their followers and even retweet on ocassion.  Hats off to the OCReggie twitter staff, let’s hope more newspapers can learn from your example.