Twin Cities Social Media Titans

My friend and colleague Blois Olson and I were honored to be named by Judy Grundstrom as among the Top 10 Twin Cities Social Media Titans this week on the strength of our work on behalf of Punch Pizza and No Name Steaks.

While it is great to recognized and to be mentioned alongside such great talent, I think anyone in this business will acknowledge that we are only as good as our clients are visionary and brave. And while I am definitely flattered to be included, credit should go to our entire team at Tunheim Partners.

I’m lucky enough to work with an incredible group of super-talented, super-smart people who all really get online communication. I think one of the reasons we’ve had such success in the social media realm is because our e-Strategy practice is not so much a specialty area as it is an agency-wide capability.

The list further reinforces the remarkable amount of online marketing talent we have in Minnesota.

Judy Grundstrom, the woman who organized the list, assembled a panel of four judges:

• Chuck Olsen – Chuck has been doing social media before social media was called social media; his resume includes the documentary, Blogumentary; the video blog Minnesota Stories, and co-founding TheUptake.
• Jackie Bateman – Jackie is a young political operative who helped elect Senator Franken as his Deputy Finance Director.
• Brian Gruidl – When he’s not playing in various bands, Brian manages the email marketing program for Fingerhut.
• Judy Grundstrom – Among the many, many things she does, Judy is a walking case study in personal branding; you can learn a lot by studying how she uses social media in this regard.

In addition to Blois and I, the Top 10 Twin Cities Social Media Titans list (1-5, 6-10) included:

• Dusty Trice – Dusty burst onto the Twin Cities social media scene with his amazing dustytrice.com political blog.
• Kelly Groehler – Kelly is a mover and shaker behind a lot of Best Buy’s social initiatives.
• Jason Matheson & Alexis Thompson – Jason & Alexis host their own show on FM 107.1. The duo launched a successful social media campaign to persuade Katie Couric to be a guest on their show.
• Jennifer Kane – Jennifer’s social media “bootcamps” for small businesses are enormously popular and praised for their extraordinary quality.
• Jason DeRusha – Jason used social media to get a day named after him. No shit. There’s an actual proclamation.
• Nancy Lyons & Meghan Wilker – A.K.A. the Geek Girls, Nancy & Meghan have created a great brand for themselves with their Geek Girls Guide blog that demystifies social media for non-techie audiences.
• Kate Iverson – Kate is the editor in chief for the superb online arts, fashion and entertainment site l’etoile.
• Rachel Dykoski – Rachel is simply everywhere, from helping area advocacy organizations with their online presence to multiple blogging gigs.
• Tom Pick – Tom’s social media sights are set on B2B, an emerging sector of the social media industry. He blogs at WebMarketCentral.

Judy herself is a regular on the Jason & Alexis show, during which she announced  the Top Ten Twin Cities Social Media Titans.

Again, I’m flattered to be included but you’re only as good as the people around you, so Team Tunheim should get all the credit.

Thanks, Judy!