Top Users on Twitter for Marketing, PR and Social Media Information.

Having a tought time identifying the top PR, Marketing and Social Media professionals to follow? You could do alot worse than starting with these 50. Simply click on their name and follow them on Twitter to get the hottest ideas and news directly from the top Marketing, PR and social media industry experts.

1. Guy Kawasaki – Co-founder of Alltop and blogs at How to Change the World.
2. Chris Brogan – Social media trends and insight on self-named Social Media Blog.
3. Bill Stoller – 25-year veteran in Public Relations from Publicity Insider.
4. Beth Harte – Public relations educator from MarketingProfs.
5. Pete Cashmore – CEO of Mashable: The Social Media Guide.
6. Peter Shankman – PR pro with unique ideas. Founder of HARO (Help a Reporter Out).
7. Laura Fitton – Discussing PR, social media and family life. Founder of Pistachio.
8. Gary Vaynerchuk – Unique PR and marketing tactics. Best known for his video Blog.
9. Julien Smith – Tweets on a variety of topicsis. Co-author of the Trust Agents Blog.
10. Brian Solis – Offering the latest social networking news and advice. Author of PR 2.0.
11. Stephen Davies – Sharing PR news stories and insights. Also, at PR Blogger.
12. Mirna Bard – The latest PR news and helpful social media information. NuReach Media
13. Karen Russell – Public relations educator who tweets and blogs at Teaching PR.
14. Kellye Crane – Public relations strategies and social media marketing. Solo PR.
15. Todd Defren – Offers a personal look at social networking and PR strategies. PR Squared
16. Scott Monty – The head of social media at Ford Motors and runs The Social Media Blog.
17. David Meerman Scott – Author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”. His website here.
18. Beverly Macy – Social media marketer and teacher at UCLA. Also, author at Gravity Summit.
19. Chip Griffin – CEO of “Custom Scoop” and blogs about social media and pr here.
20. Marcel LeBrun – SEO and PR insight and CEO of Radian6. Blogs at Media Philosopher.
21. Liana Evans – Marketing expertise on Twitter and is one of the Search Marketing Gurus.
22. Richard Binhammer – Part of Dell’s social media team providing info on his blog.
23. Keith Burtis Social media expert offering expertise on his blog at KeithBurtis.com.
24. Connie Crosby – Social networking professional sharing on her blog and Twitter.
25. Neville Hobson – Social media tips on Twitter and at nevillehobson.com.
26. Cece Salomon-Lee – Director of Marketing for InXpo discussing PR at PR Meets Marketing.
27. Christopher Penn – Social marketing expert and real life ninja. Marketing Over Coffee.
28. Brendan Cooper Copywriter and social media marketer. Blogging at brendancooper.com.
29. Ferg Devins – Directory of social marketing for Molson.
30. Shel Holtz – Self-made public relations expert read at A Shel of My Former Self.
31. Amber Nasland – Director at Radian6 and social marketer read at Altitude Branding.
32. Elena del Valle – Tweets about Marketing and PR and blogs at Hispanic MPR.
33. Trevor Cook – Social media and online PR at trevorcook.typepad.com
34. Sonny Gill – Tweeting PR tips and is a social marketing guru who blogs at sonnygill.com.
35. Doug Haslam – PR professional for Shift Communications. Social media blog here.
36. Joseph Thornley – Building relationships and integrating social media with PR. Pro PR.
37. Mack Collier – Tweets about social media and marketing. Read atViral Garden.
38. Lisa Dilg – PR Account Director at Perkett PRsuasion
39. Jimmy Vee – Author of Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers.
40. Leslie Carothers – Marketing and Social media consultant. Kaleidoscope Partnership.
41. Mike Kujawski – Social media marketing for non-profits and government organizations.
42. James Walker – Tweeting and blogging PR advice at Gen Y PR Prescription.
43. Dave Fleet – Social media account director at Thornley Falls and a marketing blogger.
44. Colin McKay – Writing about marketing, networking and politics. Read at Canuckflak.
45. Lee Odden – Experienced social media marketer on Twitter and toprankblog.com.
46. Debra Mastaler – Link building and SEO tips for business owners. Read at Link Spiel.
47. Arik Hanson – Digital communications consultant. Marketing and PR at arikhanson.com.
48. David Jones – Blogs and tweets about the public relations industry. PR Works.
49. Carin Galletta – Word of mouth advertising and more traditional PR. Ink Foundry.
50. Matt Rauch – And of course, don’t forget about me. PandaMedia

Learn more about he parties involved in Search Engine Marketing and the environment in which they come together. Business owners, find questions and answers related to the challenges you will face in your effort to form an expert search engine marketing strategy for your Web Property.

Search Engine Marketing Today

I believe there is a significant problem with the search engine marketing industry today. This problem exists because of the parties involved and the environment in which they come together. As such, I will first discuss the party’s involved, and then go on to talk about the resulting environment. Lastly, I will discuss what seems to be the most logical solution.

The Search Engine Optimization Expert

True Search Engine Marketing Experts must spend an immense amount of time doing testing and research to maintain the knowledge necessary to achieve significantly successful search engine results. On top of this, it takes an incredibly unique ability to visualize that which cannot be seen…it is truly a special talent.

Most truly successful search engine marketing experts are able to provide an income sufficient to work for themselves and are not willing to be underpaid to give away what part of it they can, even if it is only today’s picture. This does, however, leave them in a position where they are left to work with comparatively limited resources a good portion of the time, especially when considering product and services support. On top of this, they are probably not left with the time, or most often even the skills, to assemble the resources necessary to support an incredibly successful enterprise.

The Search Engine Marketing Company

Most times a search engine marketing company will be an over-representation of an individual or a small group of people who are willing to share the applicable skills for an adequate fee (usually sold as an enterprise level solution when it is a small group). These situations are very much like the above.

The other side of this is when you have a larger search engine marketing company that sets out to do this work but doesn’t necessarily have what it takes, although the get by for a time since they have significant resources. In these instances, clients will be provided with more or less a ‘plug-in’ service, whereas the client website is basically plugged into a core value network. This methodology can and does work in the beginning. The problem is that this type of value isn’t re-creatable to the extent a larger search engine marketing company needs it to be, especially when they aim to support a large number of clients to cover largely inefficient overhead. Clients in this space see good results upfront, but as the network is relied upon more heavily as the provider takes on new clients, the value and results tend to fade away.

The Search Engine Marketing Client

In contrast, we have companies or wealthy individuals with all the resources necessary to create and sustain a highly successful online enterprise, but in that, can never fully understand the finer points of achieving search engine success for a website. Most times, this group simply doesn’t have the time or inclination or even insight to adequately position this piece of their business, as necessary as it most often is.

The Search Engine Marketing Climate

Quality of worldwide search engine results aside, these parties working together as they do result in an incredibly difficult business situation. On one hand, we have business owners or managers looking to hire a search engine specialist, but in their mind view the need as simply another employee or employee level contract. And on the other hand, we have self-supported search engine specialists with all the ability and knowledge necessary to make all the difference for an online enterprise, but feel it necessary to be compensated adequately for this rare and valuable talent.

All this brings us to the current situation, where true search engine optimization experts seek to charge extremely high monthly fees, not necessarily for the work being done (unless it is a large company where these funds are utilized in a largely inefficient fashion), but as much for the information they have no choice but to give up as they work on a project. In this, you are left with an intricate game of cat-and-mouse where sooner or later upper management or the business owners themselves find it necessary to seek understanding about exactly what is going on in an effort to justify costs. Search engine experts, in turn, become consumed with protecting certain levels of information as not to give the company a false sense of security, as it many times creates a perception that the specialist is no longer needed.

In the end, the company or business owner will normally decide to bring the program in-house once they feel they have a handle on things. The problem is that even if they did understand everything perfectly at the time, as unlikely as that may be, the search engines are almost constantly changing. Algorithms continue to grow in complexity, and once these owners and managers are forced to deal with a few setbacks (which sooner or later happens to everyone), they quickly go from a feeling of confidence to a feeling of confusion.

Can you simply train a Search Engine Optimization Expert?

There are a few reasons why training a Search Engine Optimization Expert is an incredibly difficult task. First, you have to find someone with a background in marketing online and off. Given this, they also need to be what I call a “statistics freak”. Now, if you are lucky to find someone who fits the bill with regard to these two things, you have a shot. You can get them reading the forums and doing the research and even attending Internet Marketing or SEO conferences.

Given a level of success in all of this, you just might start seeing marginal results, but unfortunately, to achieve true success one must also be a visionary. You can have someone read and read and read, but when the answer is found in the reading, it is already too late. You end up being just another of the masses chasing the game while getting a taste here and there. Truth be told, the real gravy in this space is seeing things before anyone else and being able to execute on that foresight.