Social media's 10 most influential entrepreneurs

GlobalPost

Lots of entrepreneurs want to be cool. Most are not.

But when it comes to social media, it seems there are two strategies you can follow to help boost your influential powers on Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the internet.

That's my big takeaway from this story today by Megan Berry in the Huffington Post, which ranks the social web's ten most influential entrepreneurs. (Berry is the marketing manager for Klout, a social media analytics firm).

Option one: start or run a successful web or tech company. Nine of the top 10 fall into this category.

Here they are, from least to most influential:

  • Kevin Rose (Digg)
  • Martin Varsavsky (Viatel)
  • Steve Case (AOL)
  • Jack Dorsey (Twitter)
  • Loic Le Meur (Seesmic.com)
  • Bill Gross (Idealab)
  • Jason Calacanis (Weblogs, Mahalo, among others)
  • Mark Cuban (an investor in Weblogs)
  • Guy Kawasaki (Alltop, Apple)

Option two: grow an awesome beard.

Clearly, Richard Branson is on to something.

The Virgin Group founder got his start in the music industry. But he is the social web's fourth most-influential entrepreneur.

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