Social Media Rookie of the Year

Last year this prize went to Maren Hogan. She showed everyone very clearly how you establish an overwhelming presence online in a short time.

It's very simple. You just make sure you're everywhere all the time.

You do that and in a few months everyone's going to feel as if they've known you for years. In fact, they might be wishing they saw less of you.

Anyway, the same thing is absolutely true of this year's winner.

Back in the spring, I got an email from a guy I didn't know at all asking me if he could come on my show as a guest. I said okay and a day before the show I sent him an email confirming the time and contact details.

I got this reply: "Oh, I won't be coming," he said. "I'll be on a plane to Dublin then".

Well, to be honest, I hate people who ask to be a guest and then cancel without even telling me. But this guy was a foreigner so I figured maybe its a diversity issue. In some backward countries they're very relaxed about time commitments.

So, I invited him back and the next thing you know he's got his own lunchtime radio show. And he's all over Twitter 24 hours a day. Plus, he's got an discussion group on Linkedin.

Then, he flies down to a conference in Texas and another in Toronto and before you know it he's organizing his own conference in London and then one in the USA. And then he starts a blog.

Obviously, it's Bill Boorman.

Now, I have said in the past that in social media you've got two types of people. The cowboys and the shopkeepers. I'm a cowboy. Bill's a shopkeeper. I'm friends with a lot of shopkeepers but I know I bug them because they don't like to be criticized in public.

Here's what Bill said about me just the other day: "From personal experience, I know the advice he gives is usually right however its delivered." That's the zinger. The "however".

Here's another compliment Bill paid me on Twitter: "@Animal has an increasing following in the UK. not to everyones taste, but has a place."

He was defending me from a detractor. Now that's some compliment and I'm going to pay it right back. In spite of all his faults, Bill Boorman is undeniably the Social Media Rookie of 2009.

Comments

[Greggdourgarian]

So it's true what they say. Behind every successful cowboy is a wife who works as a shopkeeper in town.

[Stephenodonn]

Faint praise indeed. I know yiu guys love each other really (in a manly recruiting way, of course).

[Caught]

I am a spammer