Danny Brown

podcaster - author - creator

david spinks

Who I Learn from Every Single Day

Who inspires you to be a better person? Makes you want to read more, learn more, and put actionable ideas and plans into place? Who makes everything fall into place, and because of that increases your knowledge and awareness?

I’m incredibly fortunate that I’m part of a great community, both here at my blog and on the likes of Twitter and LinkedIn. Some great minds wander these social hallways and impart some immense wisdom every single day. Today, I want to share four of the folks that get my creative and business juices going, each and every day.

David Spinks is one of the smartest Gen Y guys around (and there are a few). He runs a blog over at davidspinks.com that continuously makes me ask questions – always a good thing. He has a knack of opening discussions like nobody’s business, like the one on The Social Media Bubble. David has his finger on the pulse of a lot of what’s making impact in the digital space – so much so that Scribnia took him on as their Community Manager over the summer. Yes, he’s that good.

Sonny Gill is a bit of a Jack of all trades (in a very good way), though his blog at sonnygill.com announces him as an online marketer. I’ve been connected with Sonny on Twitter for a while now, and had some really great thought-provoking conversations with him about marketing and social media (hey, two? of my passions!). Sonny’s also the co-founder of #CmtyChat on Twitter, discussing all things community (another passion!). Basically, this guy’s got smarts.

Susan Murphy is one of the most singularly brilliant and creative people I know, with drive that would make an F1 race car seem slow. Let’s see – she’s partner at Jester Creative; she teaches Video Production and Web Media at her college in Ottawa; she’s on the Board of Directors at SAW Video, promoting Ottawa’s media artists; she co-produced the 12for12k promo video. Oh, and she writes one of the more human social media blogs around over at SuzeMuse.ca. Simply put, Susan is doing what we sometimes just talk about.

Jim Connolly is a marketing guy from my neck of the woods over in the U.K. And a little bit more. Jim writes a consistently kick-ass blog over at jimsmarketingblog.com (does EXACTLY what it says on the tin) that strips down marketing for businesses of all sizes into easy-to-implement action plans and ladders to success. He’s also got a cool blog over at thetechnewsblog.com where he shares some of the lesser-known tech and business news. You want a sharp mind? Check Jim out.

There are many, many more people that I learn from daily and I’ll revisit this list frequently to hopefully introduce you to more great people.

I’m a firm believer that we never stop learning – once we think we know it all, we may as well give up the game because we’ll just be left behind. These folks, and others like them, help me stay in touch with the rest of the pack and for that I’m truly grateful.

How about you – who’s your learning post?

The Future of Scribnia

This is a guest post from David Spinks.

David is the Community Manager for Scribnia.? With a passion for the power of social web communities, he has utilized his knowledge of community building to establish a professional career in the social media field.

He authors a blog at www.davidspinks.com and contributes to the Scribnia Blog.

Watching Scribnia develop into a strong and loyal community has been very exciting.

We?ve enjoyed the loyal activity of some very enthusiastic alpha users who have contributed a lot of quality reviews and have been able to find new bloggers in their industries.

I?d like to share with you where we plan on going with Scribnia and how I will play a role as community manager.

We?re looking to continue to develop Scribnia as a valuable tool for bloggers and their communities. By giving the power to the readers, our goal is to really ?level the playing field.? So much focus is placed on Google Pagerank and Alexa rankings. This makes it very hard for the ?little guy? to gain their due recognition.

As many bloggers know, there are so many awesome blogs out there that you rarely hear about unless they pull in loads of links and visitors.

Through Scribnia, we hope that the blogging and online reading communities can really share those blogs that are truly great.

We?d like to continuously refine our discovery engine in order to provide the best possible, personalized recommendations. This is a tough task but one that we?re very committed to. There are a lot of recommendation engines out there but we?re aiming to differentiate ourselves by using author reviews rather than blog reviews, and really taking into account each user?s personal preferences. We take into account a lot more than ?similar content?.

I have a number of roles as Community Manager.

My main role is to bring in users and to get people excited about Scribnia.? So far, this hasn?t been a difficult task as bloggers seem to really appreciate the service.? It?s a benefit for bloggers to get involved early. The more reviews you have the greater chance you have of being featured as a top blogger, or being chosen as an ?Author of the Day?.

We are planning on going public (beta) very soon and hope that our community members will help us get others excited about Scribnia.

The community aspect of Scribnia is one that we?re proud of, and we hope that others will want to be a part of that community.? I will be online pretty much all day everyday talking with users, answering any questions, and staying active on the site. If you know me, you know I love conversation! As Community Manager, I have a lot on my plate, but I?m very excited to help the community grow and to connect with our members.

If you?d like to join Scribnia while we?re in alpha, you can email me any time at DavidSpinks@Scribnia.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at @Scribnia.