7 Social Media Companies that Kick Ass

Cool list Jason. Now I know I have to remember to add the number 6 to all future social media companies that I start since that accounts for 25% of your lists (Radian 6, Ripple 6, and 6 Apart). And all in a row no doubt :)

A few of these companies are a bit obvious, but I think I get what you were going for. Seeing Crispin and WordPress up there with companies that have 10 employees really shows you how even the playing field is within social media.

Thanks Michell. There are definitely many obvious names on the list. I think you put it well. The parity that exist on the social media playing field is very cool to see.

Thanks Jason for including Radian6 amongst some very cool companies, and thanks for your kind words about us.

Surprised that there are really only a couple "social media agencies" on the list. I figured there were more of those making a splash. I have heard of Ignite before. Just would have though more companies like that would be thriving with all the love social media is receiving right now. Maybe they are out there but have just not made as big of a splash as others yet.

Also, where are the PR kings on your list? You nailed Crispin as the top ad agency for the list, but I would think Perkett or Edelman would warrant a mention.

That being said, I think this kicks off a good conversation about, as you said, the broad range of companies defining this industry. Well done.

This list rocks Jason, thank you for sharing it. There are actually a couple companies on here that I went and looked at and plan on following up with this week. The vendors for blogging, tracking, etc. are just what I needed. My boss just put me in charge of social media in addition to all the rest of our marketing. I could definitely use insight from these experts. I had only really heard of WordPress and Crispin Porter before.

Jason,
Fabulous list, you've included some top drawer talent and we're honored to be thought of in the same vein. We're very glad that we are one of the "number 6" companies you included.

We're going to be making some big announcements soon of great new technology and partners doing new things in social media. So please keep watching what we're doing for some interesting things in the near future.

Thanks for the shout out Jason. We appreciate it and are humbled to be included in such awesome company.

All the Best,
Carri Bright
Communications Lead
IZEA

looking forward to your announcements. if all the "number 6" companies merge, it would be a social media empire

IZEA is a unique company on the list. no one is really doing any of the things you guys are investing in. definitely deserving Carri.

Nice post Jason. Saw your post today and just thought I’d bring your attention appssavvy (http://www.appssavvy.com), a direct sales team for the social media space based in NYC. appssavvy represents social media application developers to brands and agencies.

Since starting up in early 2008, appssavvy has connected more than 75 brands (Lexus, Sony, Oakley, ChapStick and Kohl’s to name a few) with contextually-relevant or integrated sponsorship programs with social media applications. In fact, here is a story (http://www.dmnews.com/Brands-compete-for-app-atte... about what they do that came out today.

Thanks for the opportunity to bring appssavvy to your and the group's attention.

Jason,

Truly humbled to be included on the list. Best part is, we're having a lot of fun as we go. ~Jim

Here's to the day when all media is social, and we can stop saying it. Thanks for the include. ;)

I bet you guys are having fun Jim. The thing about working in Social Media, is no one is trying to trick anyone or game the system. Or if they are, they are unsuccessful for the most part. It all functions on the premise of giving value to one another, helping one another, with cool technology. How could that not be fun to do every day.

agreed. I am hungry for that day. I imagine by the end of the year, we may have another web 2.0, social media, semantic web term to replace it all once more. I doubt we will escape the unending nomage drama anytime soon.

\”I work on the internet\” is still my answer for a lot of people when they ask what I do for a living.

agreed. I am hungry for that day. I imagine by the end of the year, we may have another web 2.0, social media, semantic web term to replace it all once more. I doubt we will escape the unending nomage drama anytime soon.

"I work on the internet" is still my answer for a lot of people when they ask what I do for a living.

pretty good list. definetly twitting this….
thanks!

Perkett and Edelman were on my short list Jeremy. I think they both have "made a splash" and invested in social media well as part of the future of their industry. In all, I probably had 12 more companies in my internal discussion for this post. Some just did not make it for me personally as part of the top 12. The list is completely subjective and reflects more about me than the companies excluded. This is by no means a definitive list of anything. Just something cool to share. I would also add, that of all the disciplines included in the social media, PR is probably what I have the least experience with. I am sure that affects my desicion as well.

I hope to see more Social Media Agencies pop up as well. Most of the ones out there have not been around as long as Ignite. They are typically pretty small shops, so yes it will take time for many of them to make a splash, especially with big agencies and media companies buying up any of the ones that look promising. The nature of the beast I think.

Thanks for your additions.

Picked this list off of Twitter. Nice work. I had not heard of a couple of these outfits. Nice to see the mix of large and small. Expect to see my company Bash Foo up there one day. ;-)

Scribnia is an up and coming site that will have a big effect on social media. It offers the ability for users to rate and review bloggers and authors. With so many social media "experts" on the Internet, users will finally be able to tell who is worth following on Twitter, reading, and hiring. You can even read about Jason Keath:

http://scribnia.com/author/show/410/jason-keath/

Scribnia is an up and coming site that will have a big effect on social media. It offers the ability for users to rate and review bloggers and authors. With so many social media "experts" on the Internet, users will finally be able to tell who is worth following on Twitter, reading, and hiring.

EditL as Jason pointed out, not everyone could see the link because Scribnia is in private alpha but if you are interested, you can receive alpha invitations by leaving your email address on the homepage.

I really need to pay attention to Radian6 – as my clients start demanding tools for SM maximization, companies like R6 (and others) will be quite important. I love SixApart (my blog is powered by typepad), but feel some of the tools out there (such as TwitterGrader) are just fluff.

I would say the whole Grader series by Hubspot is meant more as an inbound marketing tool than a serious business or marketing tool for the end user. However, for Hubspot they are serious marketing tools. But I agree Jim, the whole tracking, analytics, brand sentiment vendor industry only going to grow for the forseeable future as businesses demand better tools.

It's clearly a segment in it's infancy when we see such a wide variety of companies on a list like this. It's an exciting time, and I'm thankful we're focused on the technical implementation of social networking sites – there's a lot of work!

Thanks for including us on the list! We are so happy that we have earned your respect.

Thanks for the nod Jason (even though we're actually New Marketing Labs – CrossTech is our parent company) :)

It's really special to be included on a list with the type of companies you listed! I know people at most of the companies you selected and they all have great teams that are doing interesting stuff in our space.

Jeremy – thanks so much for mentioning us. I am very flattered and happy to be in the company of these companies that I really respect – even if just in the comments. :) Thanks for following our work and for the mention.

Jason – great list. I respect a lot of these folks and what they're doing. It's been fantastic watching the creativity – and we're pushing the boundaries ourselves here at PerkettPR with the integration of PR and digital content. Fun stuff!

BTW – I'd love to help you learn more about the PR industry anytime! Let's connect – i just followed you on Twitter.

Thanks for the great post.

Christine Perkett
http://www.twitter.com/missusP
http://www.twitter.com/PerkettPR

Thanks for visiting Christine. I will definitely take you up on that.

Couldn't agree with you more!

This list rocks Jason, thank you for sharing it. There are actually a couple companies on here that I went and looked at and plan on following up with this week. The vendors for blogging, tracking, etc. are just what I needed. My boss just put me in charge of social media in addition to all the rest of our marketing. I could definitely use insight from these experts. I had only really heard of WordPress and Crispin Porter before.

[...] This next one is actually not too bad, though as a n00b, it might all just fly right over my head. 12 social media companies that kick ass [...]

Pretty good list there but you haven't mentioned many of the companies creating the apps that we all enjoy on social networking sites.

Companies like http://www.bluhalo.com and http://www.punkyduck.com

mRELEVANCE out of Atlanta/Chicago has a really good reputation and real estate focused. They alos run some of the best real estate blogs around. http://www.mrelevance.com

[...] Keath, was published today. I really like the rationale that Jason used, There are several types of social media companies out there. Some are research focused, or software heavy, or app developers, or monitoring services. [...]

Media-Fuse is a Chicago-based creative services agency that specializes in Social Media Campaign strategies, viral media campaigns and integrated mobile content.

Your target market is dodging your every move; you have to go where they go and where they are spending their time in thriving online social networks. We support advertising agencies and major media firms alike in building brand equity leveraging the most current web-based technology.

Media-Fuse is headquartered in Chicago; we understand how to bridge the emerging divide between brands and consumers.

Interesting post. I have made a twitter post about this. Others no doubt will like it like I did.

Good information in this……….

you have to include Socialize Media to the mix.

this company allows complete publishing into all social networks, video sharing sites, picture sharing sites and social network status updates.

its all done through one web interface and dashboard.

it is truly a one stop Social Media Manager.

http://www.socializemedia.com

Open Government TV is looking for the right Social Media firm(s) to team up with to help the federal government advance its new Open Government Directive. Please email your bio, corporate profile to keith@kdm-assoc.com and or call us at our office 202-449-7705 to set up a time to further discuss.

wordpress, Izea……..
I know that, because I love Blogging

Have you heard of Shoutlet? http://www.shoutlet.com

Oxford Communications
http://www.oxfordcommunications.com has been doing some great things. They have taken a regional convenience store with no social media presence and within 6 months have amassed almost 40,000 fans.

I think you should check out Single Platform from NY. They should definitely be added to your list!

Oh my god. This is exactly what I needed. It was fast and extremely helpful. THANK YOU!!!

These were really a good list of social media companies. I am having lots of sites that needs SEO. I think I'll be doing good with the help of these sites. Can you please tell me which one of these are economical, if you have tried them personally?

test

how about Majestic Social Media-SEO. There awesome!

involver is the top app builder for facebook, check them out http://www.involver.com

involver is the top app builder for facebook, check them out http://www.involver.com

Nice, and thanks for sharing this info with us.nGood Luck!

some are missing in this list please add them..

Nice post. This post is different from what I read on most blog and it have so many valuable things to learn.nLeathernLeather Bags

A little late to the post but that’s a pretty diverse list of type of companies in social media. I would say though, izea, is not kickass. fyi your cloud shout link does not work. But the others are all dominant in their areas.

I’m a little late to finding this, but it’s a great list. Will you be adding on to it? There are many social media companies that deserve a mention!

It’s an ok list, I think you left off an important one – SMInetwork. They are definitely the most innovative of the lot. I’ve been using it for about 3months now, love it!

It’s an ok list, I think you left off an important one – SMInetwork. They are definitely the most innovative of the lot. I’ve been using it for about 3months now, love it!

It’s an ok list, I think you left off an important one – SMInetwork. They are definitely the most innovative of the lot. I’ve been using it for about 3months now, love it!

Good list – but I wonder if you are familiar with SocialSignal.com? They’ve been working in social media since before it was even a term, and Rob Cottingham also produces an excellent cartoon (taken up by HubSpot among others) called Noise to Signal. They are awesome… and I don’t even work for them!

I own a media that specializes in social media. We aren’t big enough to be on that list, but I’d love to transparently promote ourselves here as a great small company with some really strategic case studies on how to creatively use social media marketing. I hope this is acceptable – I don’t want to spam. nnHere is our site: http://socialfulcrum.com/

Be sure to list your company on http://InvestInSocial.com as an agency.

Please encourage Social Signal to list themselves onrnhttp://InvestInSocial.com as an agency.

Instead we created a directory for everyone to be able to add their ownrncompany and details, here http://InvestInSocial.com.

Please encourage SMInetwork to list themselves onrnhttp://InvestInSocial.comas an agency.

Great list… I think that you should also add a few companies that specialize in social media marketing for small businesses and can handle the creative aspect of Social Media such as Custom fan page design, creating cool contest ideas etc. My personal favorite is http://www.facebook.com/hypemediadesignsu00a0

CHECK OUT MY BLOG! http://itsmekeenan.coloursplash.org

This post was very nicely written, looked after includes a lot of useful facts.Wow!, this was a high quality post.

Hi there!!!nI just hired a social media company to take control of all of my online platforms! when searching for one i had a look at the above companies and made contact andu00a0receivedu00a0a quote, WOW!! i think these companies are better suited to businesses with huge advertising budgets however, small people like me do not. u00a0i wouldu00a0recommendu00a0www.socialmediamonster.co.uk if you want great business at a much better rate!!