From Twitter to Blog – #FollowFriday Vol. 4

Recently I wrote about why I was moving my #followfriday recommendations from Twitter to this blog. So, without further ado, here are my recommendations for this week.

I hope you check them out – they’re all worth getting to know.

1. Community. Seth Simonds (@SethSimonds). Seth’s an interesting guy. This is someone that shed 45,000 Twitter followers so he could concentrate on a lesser number and connect better. He tries video experiments to show his community the horror of waterboarding. He consistently has amazing conversations via the comments on his blog. He’s what I call a good egg.
2. Ladies of Twitter. Susan Murphy (@SuzeMuse). Sue is a bona-fide all-round megastar when it comes to multi-tasking. She’s a creative genius; video editor extraordinaire; voice of non-profits; geek; and one of Ottawa’s finest beer drinkers. She’s also writer of one of the best social media blogs period, without even being tagged as social media.
3. Gentlemen of Twitter. Iggy Pintado (@iggypintado). Iggy is one of these cool people that doesn’t only talk about stuff, he does it. He’s one of Australia’s most connected people; he’s written a book called “Connection Generation”; he’s an incredibly savvy businessman; and he still makes time for his family. One of life’s good guys.
4. Non-Profits. James Topham (@Topsatwarchild). I first met James when 12for12k supported War Child in January. Not only is he passionate about non-profits, he’s as unassuming as they come, which makes him great company. He’s also a fellow Brit, has a dry sense of humour and follows Toronto FC soccer club. What’s not to like?
5. Marketing. Sonny Gill (@sonnygill). Sonny is one of the smartest marketers I know. And what I like about him is that he doesn’t shout it from the rooftops. He shares great reads in his blog; he’s as sharp as a card on Twitter; and he and fellow marketer Scott Hepburn helped pay to fly a friend out to a networking event. Awesome.
6. Public Relations. Arik Hanson (@arikhanson). Speaking of flying out to a networking event, it was Arik who was that very person. Yet it was well deserved – Arik used his PR skills and networking to help land Sonny and Scott new jobs with communication firms. He’s also one of the most understated and underrated PR pro’s out there, and the founder of the Reader’s Choice PR Blogger Awards.
7. Social Media. Mark Horvarth (@hardlynormal). Mark could easily have sat in the non-profit choice, but I really like the way he’s using social media. He’s telling the story of homeless people through video, blogging and Twitter. He’s offering them a voice and allowing you to speak to them through him. THAT, my friends, is creative social media at its finest.
8. The “Everyone Should Know” Wildcard Entry. Michael Schechter (@mschechter). This guy is a star. He makes me laugh like a pig in mud whenever he starts ripping into my character. He’s a devoted dad and husband, is uber-friendly, and simply put one of these people that anyone would be better off for having him as a friend.

Cheers, guys, for being who you are every day of the week.

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