Thanks for making this list Ian (and including me! I’m very flattered)
It definitely irks me that women aren’t recognized as often as men when it comes to these types of lists. I will happily re-tweet!

Kelly

Dooce?
Ruth Seeley (www.nospinpr.com)
Leesa Barnes (www.leesabarnes.com)

OOOOOOOOH! Katie Paine!! http://kdpaine.com/

Good list. Can’t argue with any of them. However, and with the caveat that i’m not a woman myself but a big fan of them, I’ve never bought into this male/female thing in social media. Some of the most interesting social media leaders I know are women: Leona Hobbs, Maggie Fox, Tamera Kremer, Connie Crosby, Eden Spodek and the former and current members of my team Lynn Crymble and Sharon Fernandes. H&K’s global digital head is a woman, UK and Australian digi teams a re run by women. Am I unique in feeling that I don’t see gender as being an issue at all? I don’t judge social media leadership by anything other than the content. That’s what gets my respect and devotion.

Dave,

I understand your point: but I see countless conferences, “leaders lists” and interviews featuring many more men in social media than they feature women. Many conferences are dominated by male speakers, speaking to a male audience using a male context. It’s not a male/female thing simply in social media: it’s a male/female thing in all industries. When a women’s voices are regularly ignored, not sought out this demonstrates and there is a failure to treat the sexes equally. I think social media as a new “industry” risks falling into the same patterns as old-boys business clubs.

Ian

Jennifer Evans from Sequentia Environics. (http://www.sequentiaenvironics.com)

Flattered to have made your list, Ian! I agree with all of the others too – they are brilliant ladies, each and every one.

I’d also add Deb Brown (@debworks, http://debworks.blogspot.com/), Beth Harte (@BethHarte) http://www.theharteofmarketing.com/, and Kathryn Jennex (@northernchick http://www.kathrynjennex.com/)

Good list, will tweet it!
(For the record I didn’t create the ORIGINAL list that got your dander up, though.)

Joan Vinall-Cox: http://twitter.com/joanvinallcox

She’s pretty awesome.

Thank you for this list. It would be much more user-friendly if it included the individuals’ Twitter handles. I really appreciate your point about including all genders in all industry gatherings. I’d add that it’s also important in politics, particularly in conflict resolution. (See http://www.peacewomen.org WILPF’s project on implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325 for more on that topic.)

Ian, it would be great to add in their Twitter names… and even better to add a blurb about their focus.

Hey Ian, thanks a bunch for including me – what great company to be in!

Hi, Ian ..

Thanks for channeling your frustration about the original list into this post! We definitely need more people taking action than just complaining about something. I very much appreciate you including me on the list (plus, it shames me into writing a new post on my blog). And I know a lot of folks can be derisive about these lists (gendered or not), but I always find a few new people I didn’t know about. So thank you for doing this!

Cheers .. k

Bobbie Carlton — @bobbiec. She built up Mass Innovation Nights @MassInno just only social media.

I’d have to add @JessicaKnows (Jessica Smith of JessicaKnows.com and Fleishman-Hillard) to the list. She is an amazing woman with groundbreaking ideas. Very dedicated to helping those new to social media/networking.

Love the list!

FYI: Twitter links in the first set of recommendations are not working correctly. The links are incorrect and are trying to redirect to a page (that doesn’t exist) within the site.

Ian,

Thanks so much for including me in such a dynamite group! Very appreciated and humbling. The trick for me is that I’m inspired a lot by people who aren’t particularly “known” as social media-ites, but they’re the ones practicing this stuff every day at work and hammering out what works. Lots of in the trenches folks from companies (and disclosure: some are clients) like Intuit (Kara, Gretchen and Christine), Southwest Airlines (Paula Berg), Comcast (Bonnie), Higher ed (Rachel Reuben), Embarq (Zena Weist)… the list goes on.

But I’m seconding lots of your and your readers’ recommendations, and even finding a few new ladies to connect with. Thanks again!

Amber

Thanks to Dave Jones for the nomination. And thanks Ian for compiling this list.

Andrea Hill FTW: http://twitter.com/afhill, http://www.afhill.com/blog/

Thanks so much for including me, Ian. I appreciate it, especially given that lots of my friends and colleagues are on this list, or have been added, which is awesome to see.

I’d add Donna Tocci (@DonnaTocci), who is less well-known perhaps, but (as we say in Boston) Wicked Smaht….

Ian,

Thanks so much for including me on the list! I’m humbled. I think KDPaine is a must on the list – she’s the goddess of social media measurement.

And, I’d like to give a huge salute to this list of women who work in nonprofits and social media
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/01/women-in-nonprofit-technology-who-rock.html

Beth Kanter
please note my name is spelled Kanter not Canter – thanks

Heavens! I’ve fixed the spelling of Beth’s name now. Apologies Ms. Kanter.

Congratulations ladies.
Thx for the list, Ian.
No offense, Dave, but the old boys’ club is alive and well, even in social media.

For shame for creating an almost all-boy list of social media experts. Guess which consumer segment accounts for the lion’s share of growth in social media? Yep, it’s moms.

I would add:

Danielle LaPorte
http://whitehottruth.com/
@whitehottruth

Lauren & Emira
http://www.soapboxgirls.com/
@laurenbacon and @emiramears

Great list so far!

Cheers,
Jackie

Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see Mari Smith’s name on your list. She was one of the original players in Social Media, and continues to be a major force. She certainly deserves to be on there. Some of the people listed might have even learned from her. She’s on Twitter @marismith. Thanks for the list!

George

Ian, thanks so much for including me on this list. I’m humbled to be in such talented company. One thing I wanted to point out to people who may stumble upon this list and think we’re all a bunch of people hiding behind our laptops, many of us know each other in person too.

FYI, last year I added a Women who Rock blogroll to my blog in response to the Canadian women who are overlooked in social media. I introduced it with a post similar in spirit to yours and also as a call to women in this space to be more supportive of each other.

I’d add Whitney Hoffman to this list. In addition to the fine work she’s done building a community for parents of children with learning disabilities, she leads the Podcamp Foundation along with Chris Brogan and Chris Penn. You can find Whitney at http://www.whitneyhoffman.com/ and @LDPodcast.

The best place to find me on Twitter is actually @EdenSpodek.

Cheers and thanks,

Eden

I should have also mentioned the managing director of iStudio Canada is Katherine Fletcher, another awesome woman in the digital space. (iStudio is Fleishman-Hillard’s digital brand in Canada and my employer.)

Cheers,
Eden

i’d like to put in a reminder about Caterina Fake — who, as one of the co-founders of Flickr, pioneered the early days of online community:
http://www.caterina.net/

she also built the Brickhouse innovation incubator, and is currently a leader at Hunch, which i’m personally watching out for, given her past and her skills and talents.
thanks,
-m

Hey Ian!
Thank you so much for including me in the company of such incredible women!

This is an important and timely topic. I’ve shared more thoughts on my blog here: http://tr.im/xKP7.

The gist of which is this: Gender should not be part of the criteria (nor do I think it is) when choosing speakers on a panel, mentors, or industry leaders. Vision, courage, insight, wisdom, integrity, innovation, compassion. These all seem like far better criteria to me. Don’t they?

Ian,

Great list of great people. I’m honoured to be included, thank you.

Great to see so many of our bloggers on this list, and to see women be specially recognized. Choosing 2 out ohttp://www.mediastyle.ca/2009/09/20-leading-women-in-social-media/f 20 is nothing less than total blindness. There are some very effective women in whatever constitutes social media, but all too often they are drowned up by the blow-hards. If social media is to be taken seriously, if it is to begin to take a decent percentage of the corporate marketing budget, it will be because women like these are being paid attention to.

I’d also like to have seen some very effective business women on this list, including Diane Hessan of Communispace and Gina Bianchini of Ning.

Well, I think you have to include Gina Bianchini, co-founder of Ning; Diane Hessan, founder of Communispace, and my own partner Robin Carey, co-founder of Social Media Today LLC which, in addition to our popular web site of the same name, has also built and manages btob online communities for SAP, Oracle, Teradata and Siemens. These are not the names that are most visible but they are all extraordinary women leaders who are building real businesses in social media.

Gotta throw two out there:

Becky McCray:
http://twitter.com/beckymccray
http://www.smallbizsurvival.com

Becky has created an amazing community for small business owners in rural areas. Provides massive amounts of content and practical application to help others be better and do more with their business using social media.

Liz Strauss
http://twitter.com/lizstrauss
http://www.successful-blog.com

Have only been following her for a few weeks, but see a great amount of passion and knowledge coming from her already. Surprised she isn’t on this list after seeing her credentials.

Flattered to be a contenda.

Wow – thanks for adding me to a list of fantastic women who ROCK the social media sphere. They’ve taught me just to be out there every day and do your thing. And do it well, consistently.
@debworks

Nice job, Ian. I have two MIAs to add.

Elana Centor
http://funnybusiness.typepad.com/funnybusiness/
http://twitter.com/FunnyBiz
Elana has been leading social networking and marketing efforts for several years, and now heads up Digital Wagon Train, a social media training, coaching & consulting company.

Toby Bloomberg
http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/
http://twitter.com/TobyDiva
Toby’s a social media pioneer with a passion for converting individuals to using social media, she has been winning social media converts since 2005 as an avid evangelist, blogger, journalist and marketing expert.

not considering sex in shout-out lists or conference speakers etc is akin to saying we’re so progressive that we’re colour blind, then having only white folks in the room. even in an innovative field like social media where women are gloriously representin’, we all have to be deliberate in naming and recognizing them otherwise ian’s right, the ol’ boys club becomes the default.

so thanks, ian, for igniting this showcase.

What about http://twitter.com/DonnaAntoniadis

On behalf of women in the social media sphere – and not – thanks.

Well, how nice is this? Very! There are tons of smarties around these interwebs, so thanks for the inclusion on your lovely list.

What about Kathryn Finney (www.thebudgetfashionista.com), who not only has a large number of twitter followers, but also has a huge website and started the site The Budget Fashionista in 2003, which is paved the way for sites like Bargainista.

I want to thank Eden for offering to inclue me here as well!

I think this man/woman thing sometimes devolves into linkbait and ignores the fact that men and women can compete on a level playing field – they have to bring what they are best at to the table, and success follows. Chris Penn, Chris brogan and I run the Podcamp Foundation, and there’s always a good mix of men and women at Podcamp, both as speakers and attendees. In fact, Podcamp is a great place to get experience speaking and hone your skills- it definitely has helped me make the jump to speaking and consulting for clients of all sizes, and it would not have happened without getting the experience through unconferences with open speaking lists.

[...] 20 Leading Women in Social Media | MediaStyle (tags: socialmedia women list social blogs) [...]

I’d nominate Margaret Wallace — @margaretwallace

I think another outstanding woman in social media is Lauren Cook @laurencook from Swarm Collective. She is doing some great work with innovative and effective campaigns for companies.

Very (very) late comment, but please, please, please send this list to Margaret Wente at the Globe and Mail, who just blithely announced that women don’t participate in tech. She’s been roundly criticized for it, but this list should be required reading for her.