I woke up this morning to an email from Invesp letting me know that I made their list of the Top 100 Most Influential Marketers again this year. Last year’s list (also the first) was pretty impressive. There were tons of great people on there and I felt honored to be included in the list. But I can’t say the same for this year’s.
In addition to the obvious haste in publishing the final results (at the time of this writing there are numerous typos in the bios of multiple marketers), Invesp decided to taint both the nomination and selection process, left out some of the most obvious and influential marketers in the industry, while including some folks that you’d have a hard time even having heard of, much less name anything influential they did for the community at large in 2009.
A lot of the marketer bios sound as if they were scraped from conference bio pages and it was obvious no real research was done into deciding or explaining why some of the marketers on the list were considered influential enough to make the list.
Tainting the process
One of the things that made last year’s list awesome was that no one knew they were doing it. They picked the most obvious marketers that would definitely (and hands down deserved to) make the list (like Aaron Wall and Chris Brogan) to start their nomination process. They started with the top influencers, found out who influenced them and then found out who influenced those until they come up with a final list. It made sense and it made for a great list.
This year, they did an open call for nominations. And not from the top 100 on last year’s list – no, that would have made sense. Instead, they made it possible for anyone to nominate anyone. If you didn’t publicize Invesp in the nomination stages, then you were shit out of luck. That’s not how you make a quality list.
Yes, the list is meant to generate links and publicity for Invesp. I get that and they deserve it for taking the time to put it together. But this year they seemed greedy for the links and publicity and, in my honest opinion, sacrificed the quality to get more attention in the early stages by making the list open to a public vote. A point they basically admit by claiming the voting process was absolutely pointless:
“The voting process was important to see what the online marketing community felt. We did not affect our process with the voting results because they are two entirely different points of view.” – The Invesp blog
Four missing people that made me go hmmm
Invesp claims making the list (or not) was based on the following criteria:
- specific achievements
- reach
- whether they contributed “new” ideas
- how much they help their communities
I’m not going to get into the multiple people on the list who I don’t feel deserve to be there. But I am going to get into what I feel are four absolutely glaring omissions. Folks that, by being left off the list, make me wonder what online marketing community the Invesp “committee” was living in during 2009.
#4 – David Binkowski
David Binkowski is a Senior Vice President at MS&L Worldwide and has been too busy revolutionizing the role of blogging in online marketing initiatives for “traditional” corporate media to ask you to nominate him. Not only is he waking big brands up to the power of WOM marketing but he also is empowering bloggers to use the voice and personal brand they’ve built to enrich their financial and personal lives.
- Specific achievements: In addition to heading up the word of mouth marketing initiatives for some of the largest companies in the world, David also serves on the Board of Directors for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).
- Reach: Works for one of the world’s leading global public relations firms with the ability to influence online marketing initiatives for numerous powerful brands and corporations like P&G, Wells Fargo and Brother and Intuit.
- New ideas: Helping to identify the need for, and create, a Word of Mouth Marketing division within one of the world’s largest PR firms and as a result, helping some of the largest and most influential corporations see the use and value of social media and WOM in their marketing campaigns.
- Helping the community: David has taken a special interest in the “mommy blogging” sub-sector to educate and empower their community by speaking at numerous industry conferences and events.
#3 – Lisa Barone
Yes, Lisa Barone is my partner in Outspoken Media, but that doesn’t change the fact that her absence from this list is simply ignorant. An influencer of influencers, Lisa is not only one of the top journalists in the space, but she is widely regarded as the best liveblogger in the industry and brings the best coverage of industry events to the community. Her ability to be controversial while also managing to create “change” has been proven time and time again.
- Specific achievements: Lisa Barone co-founded Outspoken Media in 2009 and was one of the driving forces behind multiple national media mentions for the company and a personal profile on herself in Hudson Valley Magazine in less than one year. She routinely catches the attention of marketing icons like John Jantsch, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble and Seth Godin.
- Reach: When Lisa Barone speaks, some of the top minds in Internet marketing listen, whether it be in the form of posting on the Outspoken Blog, through her column that is distributed to over 118,000 people at Small Business Trends or through her personal Twitter account.
- New ideas: Forcing thought throughout the Internet community and exposes on things like Brandjacking which have helped bring about policy change in major online companies.
- Helping the community: If someone can’t make it to an online conference, they can trust that Lisa will provide them with free play-by-play coverage of the sessions unmatched by anyone else in the industry.
#2 – Michael Streko
The fact that Michael Streko is missing from this list is made even more insane by the fact that he was actually nominated and didn’t make the final cut. In less than one year, Michael Streko (and his behind the scenes partner, Barry Wise) has founded Knowem.com and turned it into a household name with online marketers, made it the go-to resource for the national media when it comes to online brand protection and has some of the largest brands in the world secured as clients.
- Specific achievements: Taking a simple idea for a username checking application and turning it into a 18+ person company widely known in the online marketing community. All in less than one year.
- Reach: Knowem is the largest online username registration service and not only boasts household names as clients, but also is used by multiple marketing agencies and individual marketers to protect online brands, both personally and for clients. Knowem has also been featured in CNET, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and many more national media outlets.
- New ideas: Finding a way to streamline brand protection across social media sites and creating a way to actually monetize it.
- Helping the community: Knowem’s services have made username protection easier, less time consuming and more cost effective for online marketers.
#1 – Chris Pearson
For me, the most shocking, almost reckless, omission from this list was hands down Chris Pearson who is the creator of the Thesis theme for WordPress. There is absolutely no denial that Chris has single-handedly revolutionized the WordPress community, the way WordPress is used in online marketing and created a subset community of Thesis users that has had explosive growth, reach and WOM marketing in 2009.
- Specific achievements: Creating and guerrilla marketing the Thesis Theme and making it the number one premium paid WordPress theme in existence.
- Reach: Top influencers in the online marketing world like Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, Matt Cutts, Bryan Esienberg and tons more (can we say over 17,000) are avid Thesis users and enthusiasts.
- New ideas: Deciding there was a superior way to build a WordPress theme that hadn’t been done before. And being right.
- Helping the community: Chris hasn’t stopped improving the theme, which comes with free lifetime updates. He takes all feedback he gets and continually improves the product, with more than six upgrades to the theme in 2009 alone, and provides support to the Thesis community.
List FAIL
This is merely a sampling of the talent that was forgotten from the list but serves as strong examples of the flaws in the way the selection process was handled and implemented. Not only were shining stars of the industry omitted, but Invesp would be hard pressed to be able to meaningfully fill out those four bullet points for many of the folks that were included, and some high up, in the 2009 list.
I hope they go back to their original methodology of last year when the list felt more like an honor than a cheap and thrown together ploy for links.
However, I won’t be surprised after this post if I’m not included in next year’s list. ;-)
About the Author
Rae Hoffman is the CEO and Co-Founder of Outspoken Media as well as the author of the often controversial Sugarrae Blog.
Get social with Rae at Sphinn | Twitter | WebmasterWorld
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{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
Seconded.
For me, the lack of Michael Streko and Chris Pearson on that list was really just embarrassing. Knowem and Thesis were THE Internet marketing revolutions of 2009 and failing to pay respect to that was a huge credibility loss.
I blame the government, this is just cronyism transferred into industry. They’re only doing what they’ve been taught by their “examples.”
Lisa, there was no criteria. The whole process was wrong. Rae is absolutely correct that no research was done. No performance metrics were discussed. When I had complained on my blog, there was no effort to correct any of the things I mentioned then.
Yup, total failure. How do you leave off Streko and Pearsonified? And Lisa?
They threw this open to public voting, turned it into a popularity contest and then had some issues, I think, that they couldn’t quite get around.
Oh, and Andy Beal? Nowhere in the top 20? Seriously?
Thirded. And why does Matt Cutts always make “influential marketers” lists anyway. I’m missing the relevance other than kissing his ass.
Matt Cutts is amazing. I don’t know if he should make all the lists though. I think the list was rigged!
Lisa Barone’s absence is moronic. She alone has taken the concept of LiveBlogging and raised it to an artform. Subscription based Liveblogging could be a lucrative business, and that’s all I’ll say about that. I was left off, but I was left off last year, so what’s new. Maybe next year I’ll buy billboards. What’s so comical is that of the 100 people listed, 16 have paid me for consults at one time or another. That’s my favorite kind of influence. It pays mortgages.
-Eric
[slips Eric 5 bucks]
I think, rightly or wrongly, that the reason Pearson is not on the top *online marketers* list is that of the principals of DIY Themes, I’m in charge of marketing, while Chris is in charge of creating and improving Thesis.
Not to say Chris doesn’t do any Thesis marketing… he definitely has his own unique style and he shows it on Twitter and in his videos. And as we all know, great product development is in integral part of all marketing. I wouldn’t be involved with Thesis in the first place if it wasn’t a bad ass product and a perfect match for my audience.
I’m just saying that the Invesp guys are likely giving me the bulk of the credit for the marketing of Thesis, which is why I have the undeserved third spot on their list. So you should really write a post about how much Brian Clark is completely overrated. ;)
That’s scheduled for tomorrow. I’m just looking for the images now…
I’m gonna need copies of those images… for… uh… just send me copies :P
No problem. And, uh, thanks for that pic of Pearson. I’m putting it to very good use.
I disagree to an extent Brian.
First, I completely disagree that your third place spot is undeserved. Not only are you extremely influential to the online marketing community, you’re involved in so many business dealings that you touch tons of nooks and crannies of the Internet. You’re also consistent. Your business dealings are also lucrative. You’re no bullshit. And that’s rare. ;-)
Second, I get that your technical job is marketing Thesis, but the same could be said that Lisa’s technical job is branding and marketing for Outspoken. I’m just the CEO, but you can’t deny I’ve had an active role in promoting, branding and marketing Outspoken. Just like Chris’s role in the marketing and popularity of Thesis shouldn’t be diminished either.
Totally agree, and Chris knows I feel that way.
I think the biggest fail of the list was the exclusion of The Lisa. Plus, Streko will get his props soon, but my boy has his head straight… he’s just counting money and smiling.
Oh for sure… my point wasn’t that any of these folks “cared” about being on this kind of list… more at how failed the list was in general and them being overlooked were simply the most glaring examples to me as to why.
They did a good job of baiting you into giving them attention. Seriously, who cares that being an attention whore means making a list like this. Hard workers like Streko, Pearson, Lisa, etc. don’t need the list. Their work speaks for itself. At some point, people need to get over these lists, stop making them, and just do good shit instead of leeching off of others’ reputation (which is what a list like this does). I’m of the opinion that if you make lists that just reference other peoples’ ideas, you suck.
as far as influence is concerned which i think is the main point of their list.. I would say leaving out a voice that is heard throughout the industry as if blared thru a megaphone attached to the top of a florescent pink shagwagon like Lisa’s is definitely a shame.
I don’t know about the other three you list. I like Streko and Chris but I don’t know how much influence they really have when they speak (about the industry as a whole). Yes I would take Chris’ advice on Wordpress and there is no one better at registering username’s than Streko but their influence doesn’t reach that of Lisa’s – not close IMO. :)
This comes from the thought process that top influencers of online marketing are usually those that can drum up discussion (and controversy) at the drop of a hat which I feel Lisa does nearly every post she writes.
Who really cares about lists anyway. :) People that have been in the industry for any real length of time already know who is who in the industry and know which ones to acknowledge and listen to and not. :) //g
So…you don’t think that making it easier to register your brand on tons of networks or roll out a high quality site on wordpress with the best framework around are influential? Wouldn’t the people behind those automatically be the influences, regardless of how loud they are..?
brian- i hear what you are saying and i don’t want it to sound as if the things that Streko and Chris have done in 2009 were not big because they both are doing amazing things… //g
Their products have influence on the online marketing community Griffin and since they created them, they get the credit for that influence. As for David… if being able to teach some of the world’s largest corporations that online marketing is valuable in more than simply straight shot forms isn’t influential, then I don’t know what is.
Exactly. My bitch was largely ignored – http://cre8pc.com/2009/12/04/contest-illustrates-disconnect-marketing-user-experience/ It was not designed for teams, so of course Lisa would not make the list, let alone many other companies who throw a team of pros on projects.
There is one name on the list who is not a marketer and was fired from their last job in the industry.
I was not nominated but am on the list or something like that. There are 2 separate lists – one they picked and one with nominations and votes. (I emailed to ask them what the heck.)
There was no credible criteria. It is a love fest link bait ego injection. I’m happy to support people who kick ass and work hard. In today’s blend of IM, UX, SM, the very label itself no longer makes any sense to me. Many of the best folks are hybrids made up of a blend of expertise and execution of services based on YEARS of working experience.
I’d back these folks if I had understood the point of this exercise.
That list should be on a milk carton with some of the people listed on it.
Probably a better list is those NOT on it – although many I agree should be there the ordering was bizarre (Rae out of the top 50?!?)
Lisa & Streko should have absolutely been on it – Brett Tabke, Rebecca Kelley, & Michael Gray are also odd omissions to name a few.
,Michael Martin
omg, that was awesome.
To Rae and Kim’s points what stood out to me were the scraped conference bios rather than WHY someone was chosen. They took some initiative with the top ten, a little less through twenty and none from 21 to 100. If there were four criteria to make the list, it should be simple enough to explain how each person met that criteria. The fact that they didn’t do that makes it glaringly obvious that they don’t know why certain names are there (or they’re lazy). Either way, there were so many insanely sharp, influential and talented names left off of the list that I respect and turn to daily, that it’s difficult for me to even give it much more thought.
I’m new to this industry, although I’m an old crow in manufacturing, but even to an outsider like me such a suicidal decision seems crazy.
Why would you go to all that trouble to create a veritable quality product only a year prior, on which you build a business case and then a year later go and fundamentally evaporate that product’s credibility?
That’s like reinventing the donut and trying to make people believe they’re better without sugar and jam! (…or jelly depending where you live..)
Donna Fontenont (Dazzlin Donna) and Wil Reynolds are not on the list!
Li Evans…the company she works for has some FAMOUS clients they do marketing for.
Simon Heselstine has a long time marketing history and is a well known speaker on the topic as well as he does SEO training for corp’s.
Site Logic’s Matt Bailey is missing. Jen Laycock …my god, did her pork industry attack not garner her fame for more than one year?
Christine Churchill…what? Karon Thackston…nobody writes marketing copy as well as she does.
Too many missing pro’s who I know personally were out there on the road, working, traveling, making a difference for their clients 2009.
I might be slightly biased but was surprised that Dave Naylor didn’t feature in the Top 100 … I’m sure he still has a great deal of influence in the industry. I agree in the fact that there were lots of names on the list who I’d never heard of and certainly couldn’t name any of their influential achievements.
A very mixed list indeed … obviously just an attempt to get links!
Dave should have been there no doubt.
I agree on Dave Naylor… but a lot like John Andrews, his influence tends to be more behind the scenes (influencer of influencers)… they both should have been on the list… I just chose the four that were the most obvious Fails.
@Rae , i like your description of “influencer of influencers”
It’s just the same ass kissing, coattail riding bullshit that goes on time after time when it comes to who’s the greatest or most influential marketer, or the best SEO/SEM/SM, or who wrote the greatest ever social media book (that one really makes me want to vomit). And although many of the people mentioned above deserve to be mentioned I also know a handful of marketers who have influenced me beyond anyone mentioned above but would never be considered because they simply don’t have time to toot their own horns or kiss every pimply ass cheek that thinks it deserves a good kissing.
I’m very irritated today so I thought I’d comment!
Silly rabbits lists are for kids
The open call for entries seemed flawed. When I was asked like everyone to nominate. I passed. Same for when I was asked to be a judge and to write the bio for someone in the top 10. When I received the email about being included somewhere, I tweeted congrats to the top 5 and went back to work.
Seeing people complain about linkbait not being equitable or properly representative is like listening to someone complain about how unfair a carnival game of ring toss is.
I guess a person can look at something they don’t like and let it affect them and bitch about it. Or they could ignore it. Or they could make a better version themselves. Strong opinions can be so motivating to create new and better things. It seems like a waste when they don’t.
haha, Outspoken Media list. That’d be interesting. ;)
There you go. “Outspoken Media (keyword here) List”. I have no doubt you’d make something excellent. Just be ready for the inevitable begging and bitching.
I just visualized Rae with a whip….for those that bitch :)
The concept was good Lee… come on, we’re marketers, everything we do is for promotion, I’m surprised to hear you down them for the motive behind it (publicity) or for my motive behind bitching (wanting to see a better end product).
That’s kind of the rub, isn’t it?
All you can do is try your best and learn to identify constructive criticism from people with bad motives who are ‘bitching’.
Where’s the favorite comment button? Well said Lisa.
Rae, I’m not down on linkbait or criticising it. I just see the opportunity for the talent & energy you put into this post to make something better.
@Lee,
“Strong opinions can be so motivating to create new and better things. It seems like a waste when they don’t.”
Indeed. I wrote over 10 things that would help improve lists like these in my blog yesterday. I also emailed the owners of this list with my concerns, twice. While I dislike mismanaged lists and awards contests, I absolutely support those which are run professionally and whose staff are responsive. Short of doing it all myself….got a forums though. :)
Kim, that’s a lot more than I did. Now I feel bad for not offering constructive feedback. So selfish of me :) I have no doubt they listened. Hopefully next year will be better.
Geez Lee…it’s not like everyone has the time or desire to give feedback. I have 2 monitors and a laptop going, and caffeine for heavens sake. That’s how I can squish in a rant/create my list of demands here and there :):)
Kim,
Don’t forget you can also use your Android phone ;)
,Michael Martin
you’re gonna get banned from here one day :)
You know how I feel about my Droid. It can’t keep up with me :) ( ie battery)
When I saw the shortlist, there were an overwhelming number of big names and undoubted influencers to choose from and vote for. However, I thought about it for a second and immediately started scrolling down to look for Lisa Barone. She was the one person that stands out for me amongst the rest. When I realised she wasn’t on the shortlist I decided I’d rather not vote. No idea how they could have missed her off!
Get over it, by tomorrow everyone will have forgotten and by next year these people will be made to look like fools by someone else.
Any awards group that makes you jump through that many hoops to see a complete listing, is just trying to drive page views.
Major FAIL