David Fossas Tumbling

Posted by: Kelly Lux

Dennis Crowley, ‘Cuse grad (and 2010 iSchool Convocation Speaker) may have been crowned the ‘New King of Social Media’ by Wired UK, but there are plenty of princes and princesses in the realm as well.

Over the past couple of years of my involvement with social media at Syracuse University, I’ve been impressed by the sheer number of recent (and not so recent) grads who are working in high profile social media jobs.  While other areas of the job market are in the doldrums, social media hiring is going full-tilt. Syracuse grads are apparently well-positioned to take advantage of this trend, as evidenced by the people mentioned below.

One of the best ways to get your own job in social media is to pay attention to what others in the field are doing.  Check out the list below, follow their work and their tweets, blogs and tumblrs, and see if you can make your own social media dream come true: 

Deanna Belle Govoni (@deanna24) Social Media Marketing Manager at Cisco.  Deanna focuses on blogging and social media for the enterprise.

Jay Adams (@FalconsJAdams) New Media Producer for the Atlanta Falcons and Managing Editor of AtlantaFalcons.com.  Jay also oversees the social media strategy and policies for the Falcons.  His personal philosophy is ” to make our fans feel like they’re one step away from the locker room, the coaching staff, the front office.”

Benjamin Clymer (@benjaminclymer) Founder and Executive Editor of the luxury watch blog HODINKEE (@hodinkee).  Ben is also a curator for the Gilt Groupe (@GiltMan).

Sean Andersen (@seanandersen) Director of Interactive Services at Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, where he  ”focuses on bringing emerging media to entertainment reality.”  Six Flags recently won a spot on Info Week’s 2011 list of  Top Technology Innovators.

Sarah Molinari (@homedepotsarah) Senior Manager of Social Media for The Home Depot (@homedepot).  Sarah’s Home Depot community includes more than 47,000 followers on twitter and 447,000 fans on facebook.

Matt McLernon (@mcmatt)  Communications Manager at YouTube (@YouTube).  ’Nuff said.

Malaka Gharib (@MalakaGharib) Blog Editor and Social Media Manager at ONE.  With more than 500,000 followers on twitter,@ONECampaign is a grassroots campaign fighting against poverty and preventable diseases.  Malaka also runs a DC-based food magazine, The Runcible Spoon.

 Lea Marino (@BizzyLea) Community Manager for Bizzy (@Bizzy) and organizer for @CMMeetup.  Lea is an active  participant in the NYC social media scene and also tweets about macaroni & cheese in her spare time @MacCheesy.

 Josh Lukin (@coffeeon3rd) Director at MLB Advanced Media (@MLB).  Josh recently relocated to NYC from LA where he launched the LA Dodgers social media presence.  He blogs about life, lattes and the love of the game.

 Jenn Pedde (@jpedde) works for 2tor as the Community Manager for the online MSW degree at USC.  She is also cofounder of the The Community Manager and Eat Your Serial.  Jen is also my partner and co-founder of the weekly #CMGRchat on twitter.

 Rah Mahtani (@rmahtani) Social Media Community Coordinator for Volvo (@VolvoCars_US).  Rah is a founding  member in good standing of the SU social media team and runs a t-shirt design company.  He also loves dogs as much as I do.

A special shout-out to Big Fuel, a hot social media agency, is deserved here.  Big Fuel is home to (at least) three ‘Cuse rockstars:

  David Fossas (@dfossas) Director at Big Fuel (@bigfuel) worked in the movie industry on the west coast before moving  to  NYC.  Dave also blogs and tumbles.

 Alana Edmunds (@alanamarie) Tech Lead and Interactive Producer at Big Fuel.  Alana is a fashion fanatic and also  blogs on The Pursuit of Techyness.

  Calvin Morrissey (@calvinmorrissey) is the Distribution Manager for Buick/GMC at Big Fuel.  Calvin is a Sports  Management grad and interned with both the Syracuse Chiefs and the Crunch while at SU.

A blog post is only so long, but there are plenty more who deserve to be mentioned.  Check out the great work from these ‘Cuse grads as well:  Lauren Bertolini, Nicole Hering, Michele Weisman, Jessie Assimon, Caitlin Heikkila, Katelyn Buress, Amber Rinehard, Tricia Ling, Vanessa Bedard,Adam Rosenberg, Nick Cicero and Dani Burns.

What other iSchool or ‘Cuse grads do you now that are rocking the social media world?  Share in the comments.