Amy Vernon
[dropcap style=”style1″]A[/dropcap]my Vernon specializes in viral content, grammar, and bacon – true story. Vernon is a former journalist and has a wicked sense of humor, but more importantly, she made the transition to new media where she has become a well respected conference speaker (you’ve seen her at SXSWi, SMX, ROFLCon, and others).
She operates the only bacon news aggregator online, and is a wicked writer, editor, a highly sought after social media strategist, and even web design. Vernon is well known in tech circles, and is a mentor at Women Innovate Mobile, is the NYC Chapter of Girls in Tech’s Board President, an Advisor at Bella Minds, and is involved at NY Tech Women, Women 2.0, NY Tech Meetup Leadership Circle. In other words, she gives back a lot of her time advising the next generation of startups.
Ann Handley
[dropcap style=”style1″]H[/dropcap]ands down the content marketing queen of modern times, Ann Handley is a veteran of creating and managing digital content to build relationships for organizations and individuals. She is co-author of the best-selling Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (Wiley). But to be honest, she has influenced almost all of the influencers on this and any list as the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, where she has been since 2002. Let that sink in.
Ann Tran
[dropcap style=”style1″]S[/dropcap]ocial media consultant, travel and tech writer, Ann Tran has shown up on lists before due to her strong influence in the social media community.
Now, we’ve chosen to include her in our list of industry influencers because she’s so much more than just Twitter – just look at her blog and you’ll see her deep roots in the art community, her love of nature, affinity for wine, travel, and even photography.
Following @AnnTran_ on Twitter will give you a daily dose of inspiration on a variety of topics that will broaden your horizons.
Anne Weiskopf
[dropcap style=”style1″]S[/dropcap]pecializing in content creation, social media strategy, business development, publishing and media, Ann Weiskopf is well respected in the tech and social media sectors, having been in the industry for longer than most – she was even part of the launch team of TWTRCON (now the Realtime Report & Conference), and has a soft spot for brand positioning with a strong interest in journalism and new media.
Weiskopf is now the VP of Business Development at DIGIDAY:, a media company and community for professionals who work in the digital media, marketing and advertising industry. She has been a tremendous force in calling out fakes online and helping shape web culture (particularly media) away from moronic behavior.
Anthony Iannarino
[dropcap style=”style1″]A[/dropcap]nthony Iannarino is a sales coach and consultant that calls himself a cataylst, an instigator, and an agitator. We agree.
Iannorino makes no apologies about the B2B sales world and is never shy to share tactics with the world that many would consider secretive for the industry.
His sales blog is consistently thought provoking, educational, and never dry or boring. If any part of your job involves sales, you should definitely get to know Iannorino.
Keep clicking for other influencers you must meet:
Linda Bernstein
January 2, 2014 at 2:22 pm
So many terrific people here! I love this list.
Christopher S. Penn
January 2, 2014 at 2:40 pm
Thanks for including me! Much appreciated.
Ted Rubin
January 2, 2014 at 3:50 pm
Honored to be included 🙂
Miriam Slozberg
January 2, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Very honored to be included! Thank you.
Amber Osborne
January 2, 2014 at 4:27 pm
Honored to be included among those who inspired me to get into this industry. Thank you!
annhandley
January 2, 2014 at 4:45 pm
This list is stuffed full of people I’m lucky enough to call friends, as well as many who have influenced *me*. Thanks for adding my name to the roundup.
Charles E Gaudet II
January 2, 2014 at 5:51 pm
Thank you for the honor! I’m both humbled and grateful to be included among this least of extraordinary people.
AmyVernon
January 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Thanks so much for the honor folks. I’m fortunate to have met many of these folks, and now have a whole list of others I want to make sure I catch up with!
AmyVernon
January 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Thanks so much for the honor folks. I’m fortunate to have met many of these folks, and now have a whole list of others I want to make sure I catch up with!
AmyVernon
January 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Thanks so much for the honor folks. I’m fortunate to have met many of these folks, and now have a whole list of others I want to make sure I catch up with!
AmyVernon
January 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Thanks so much for the honor folks. I’m fortunate to have met many of these folks, and now have a whole list of others I want to make sure I catch up with!
AmyVernon
January 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Thanks so much for the honor folks. I’m fortunate to have met many of these folks, and now have a whole list of others I want to make sure I catch up with!
AmyVernon
January 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Thanks so much for the honor folks. I’m fortunate to have met many of these folks, and now have a whole list of others I want to make sure I catch up with!
AmyVernon
January 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Thanks so much for the honor folks. I’m fortunate to have met many of these folks, and now have a whole list of others I want to make sure I catch up with!
AmyVernon
January 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Thanks so much for the honor folks. I’m fortunate to have met many of these folks, and now have a whole list of others I want to make sure I catch up with!
AmyVernon
January 2, 2014 at 7:09 pm
Thanks so much for the honor folks. I’m fortunate to have met many of these folks, and now have a whole list of others I want to make sure I catch up with!
Liz Strauss
January 2, 2014 at 7:31 pm
Thank you, AGBeat, for the thought and work that went into writing about all of us. You captured the people who have influence not just their resumes, making this fun to read. I’m honored that you included me.
Michelle Poccia
January 2, 2014 at 8:34 pm
This list is chock full of GENIUS! Congrats to all who are on it! And thanks AGBeat for my 2014 Stalker List!
Danny Brown
January 2, 2014 at 8:56 pm
Nice to see such a diverse group, and appreciate the fact you took the time to share reasons why people might want to connect, versus a generic “OMG, these guys are just awesome, y’all!!”
Cheers for the kind inclusion, and Happy New Year!
J Philip Faranda
January 2, 2014 at 9:33 pm
I hope to meet Michael McClure in person someday! He is remarkable.
Belinda Summers
January 2, 2014 at 11:00 pm
Gee! A bunch of people I look up to. 🙂 How I wish to be one of them someday.
Matt Hixson
January 2, 2014 at 11:38 pm
This was a great way to start the year. Thanks for including me.
Belinda Summers
January 3, 2014 at 1:00 am
Gee! A bunch of people I look up to. 🙂 How I wish to be one of them someday.
Lucretia M Pruitt
January 3, 2014 at 3:02 am
Some of my favorite people on here… Glad to see AGBeat and I agree on so many awesome people as influences!! Congrats for a solid list and kudos to some awesome folks.
Lucretia M Pruitt
January 3, 2014 at 3:02 am
Some of my favorite people on here… Glad to see AGBeat and I agree on so many awesome people as influences!! Congrats for a solid list and kudos to some awesome folks.
Michael Q Todd
January 3, 2014 at 6:37 am
Great list and especially great endorsements well done for taking the time and effort have subscribed to you
S. Anthony Iannarino
January 3, 2014 at 10:39 am
Thanks so much for including me on this all-star list! I am honored!
Heather MacLean
January 3, 2014 at 11:34 am
Great list. Nice to see some really familiar faces as well as some new ones.
agbenn
January 3, 2014 at 1:36 pm
As the Founder and Publisher of The American Genius, I certainly do not want to sound callous, and text can be so impersonal. We hear your feedback, and have noted it for future reference. When we see people, we see human beings, whatever their race or gender.
In saying that, our pick if we were considering race or gender ie. a particular Hispanic Influencer, it would have undoubtedly been His Holiness, Pope Francis. However, because we’ve covered His Holiness, several times in the past month, it gave way to another open spot out of hundreds of thousands of potential people we considered one by one. To be quite honest, I actually had to go back and look and read every entry to see if anyone was or wasn’t Hispanic.
For the record, I am Hispanic, and I am honored to have our team present this list as it is, and with innocent hearts. We do know several of the persons you’ve mentioned and do hold them in very high regard.
So thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback and encouragement, and we look forward to meeting and getting to know a few on your list. 🙂
Brian Hansford
January 3, 2014 at 1:47 pm
So nice to see some new faces in a list. It gets old seeing lists with the same names over and over just to get SEO juice.
agbenn
January 3, 2014 at 2:01 pm
Maya, bless your heart for sharing your kind thoughts and ideas with us. We agree with your sentiments profoundly, and thank you for recoginizing the complexity of what we’re presenting through our lists. We’ll take your idea and have the team bounce it around and see if we can’t do something as meaningful more often. As you know, things become passe when over done, even when done well. For the record, you influence me in thought provoking ways, and that’s not easy to do with a guy like me.
Happy New Year, and kick 2014’s ass!
tracysestili
January 3, 2014 at 5:19 pm
I love listening to Brian Carter speak. He’s not only funny, but real. Plus he presents data in a way that you didn’t think of. Glad to see he made the list and a few of my other faves. 🙂
Eve Mayer
January 4, 2014 at 5:47 pm
Whoa, I’m so lucky to be on this list! Thank you very much for thinking I’m somewhat as cool as all those respected peeps!
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