Top 50 Social Media Influencers

While there are many wonderful options to choose from on this list, the person I'm most interested in would have to be

#10 Mari Smith, Facebook Expert

Bibliography of Experience and Work

• Since 1999, Mari was an internet marketer specializing in relationship marketing, email marketing and web copy.

• In 2008, FastCompany.com dubbed her “the Pied Piper of the Online World.” Basically, because she's such a raving evangelist for the platform!

• Her first experience with Facebook consisted of participating in an alpha test team for a Facebook App. Before long, she started conducting interviews of other social media specialists and bloggers and began creating products, online courses and training.

• She also joined Twitter a few months later and fell in love with that platform too.

• Speaking is her passion, and she attributes that to her active participation in speaking organizations like Toastmasters, Speaking Circles, and the National Speakers Association. In 2003 she began to get involved with Peak Potentials where she served as a SuccessTracs Coach for 2.5 years. Mari has been speaking on social media success since 2007 and traveling the United States and internationally to provide social media keynotes and in-depth training. She has even shared the stage with Paula Abdul, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sir Richard Branson, Lynn Twist, Tony Robbins, Les Brown, Brian Tracy, Harvey MacKay and many, many more.

• One of Mari's firm beliefs when it comes to Social Media is Relationships First. 

"It’s so important for businesses today to strategically utilize Facebook and Twitter along with a wide array of other powerful platforms. However, social media requires a whole different approach to be successful in generating more revenue. You have to know the right approach. My motto is, “Relationships first, business second.”

• Currently, Mari Smith is available for hire as a relationship and internet marketing consultant and social media business coach. After applying her proven Social Marketing methods, her clients typically experience a significant increase in traffic, subscribers, clients, affiliates, lucrative strategic alliances and targeted media attention.

• Published Works:
• The New Relationship Marketing
• Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day

Three Questions that I'd like to ask Mari about professional social media:
1) Since your main focus is relationships, and you yourself state that you are a natural networker and don't rely on social media for interaction, how to you feel that the quality of interpersonal relationships and communication has changed (or even suffered) because of our reliance on social media?
2) How would you explain relationship marketing to a novice?
3) Do you think that non-profit organizations should take the same or similar approach to Facebook marketing as large corporations? If not, how should their strategies differ?