Maggie Fox is the Founder and CEO of Social Media Group, one of the largest independent social media agencies in the world. While working at SMG, Maggie has helped to create and execute social media strategies for the  likes of Ford Motors, SAP, Thomson Reuters, 3M and CNN. Maggie is a regular  speaker at the top social media events and has been interviewed by The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, CBC Radio and CTV News. She was named one of the Top 100 Marketers in the 100th anniversary edition of Marketing Magazine. Maggie also sits on the Advisory Board for Social Media Today and My Venture Pad sites.You can follow Maggie on Twitter , Facebook or LinkedIn. Read the full story

J-P De Clerck  is Managing partner at Conversionation Consulting, a cross-channel interactive marketing consultancy without geographical borders. J-P is basically everywhere interactive media is discussed and you can find his posts and thoughts on over a dozen of blogs, online and offline media and publications about interactive marketing, mainly in Europe and the US. The list is really too long to publish. He is also a founder of Social Marketing Forum and Social Email Marketing blog. You can follow J-P on Twitter or Facebook. Read the full story

Joe Pulizzi is the Founder of Z Squared Media, a content marketing firm specializing in best practices, strategy, and execution planning. Joe’s blog, the Junta42 blog: Content Marketing Revolution, is recognized as one of the leading blogs on business content creation, marketing and distribution. Joe currently serves as a board member of the Custom Publishing Council and was voted as the “Custom Media Innovator of the Year” by American Business Media. Joe is also co-author of the book “Get Content. Get Customers”. You can follow Joe on Twitter or Linkedin. Read the full story

Warren Whitlock is the Founder of BestSellerAuthors.com, online training programme which helps authors and businesses improve the results of their marketing programs.  Warren is also the Co-author of  the first book on Twitter  – “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online”. You can follow Warren on Twitter , Facebook  or Linkedin.

G: How and why did you get into social media?

W: I don’t think of social media as a thing to get into. The term is an attempt to describe how technology, some being what is also described as “new media” is affecting business. To say that I was “in social media” would be like a business saying the are getting into phones or automobiles when they use those tools. Yes, some people are in the social media business, just as some businesses sell phones or cars. I hold that the revolution is business and life will come from this enhanced communications capability, regardless of what business you are in. We can choose whether to use it, just as we can choose whether to use a phone or automobile.

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Jim Kukral is a serial web-entrepreneur, professional speaker and consultant,  who at the moment spends most of his time helping entrepreneurs and small business owners learn how to find success online. For over 15-years, Jim has advised small businesses and large companies like Fedex, Sherwin Williams, Ernst & Young and is credited with building some of the first major Fortune 500 websites and blogs in America. Jim is the author of  “Attention! This Book Will Make You Money” and “The Ultimate Pitch”  and has been featured in Top online and offline print publications such as Forbes, Brandweek, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BusinessWeek, Inc …to name just a few.You can follow Jim on Twitter, Facebook  or Linkedin.

G: How and why did you get into social media?

J: Like everyone else I saw it as a way to communicate more easily with my friends, and later on, potential customers.

G: What is it like to be a real Social Media Citizen?

J: I monitor Twitter and Facebook and Linkedin all day. It’s always there, but not a huge part of my day. I find it a distraction actually and I’ve been trying to spend less time worrying about it. When I do, I get more real work done.

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I’ve been conducting interviews with Social Media Citizens for a last couple months in order to understand better what social media means for different people working in different parts of the world in different sides of the industry and before moving on to the new series with updated question I want to take some time off to analyse a few answers. So this week there are no interviews – just plain analysis.

Who Are the Social Media Citizens?

I thought that there is no greater way to define this term than to hear the opinion of the top social media influencers about it. And that’s what they had to say:

• “We are all citizens of the world of social media. Whether implicitly or explicitly, our mediated lives have changed and whether or not you are an active participant in social media channels, you are in fact, a participant. – Adam Broitman
• A Social Media Citizen is an open minded individual looking to engage and collaborate across the digital sphere. They will give more than they take and always look to develop themselves and their relationships. – Chris Hall
• ‘Someone who contributes to the value of the Social Media space.’ This is really more to do with the nature of the social objects they share in the space rather than the connections they have. – Richard Sedley

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