who will Listen to you

Bloggers have the extraordinary task of not only sharing stories and information but also listening to the needs, wants, and comments of their readers.

The other day I was alerted to a blog post by Rafe Needleman entitled, “How to be the most hated Blogger on the Internet: Five role models” and I figured, why not turn it around and applaud those bloggers that put in extra time to listen to their readers.  This is a short tribute to those bloggers who care about their readers and make themselves accessible (feel free to tweet at or direct message).  Some are my personal favs and some were nominated by others.  Do you agree or disagree?-take the poll!

1. Joi Ito (@joi and www.joi.ito.com)
   1. Joichi Ito is currently the CEO of Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that empowers people to create, use, and share consistent with copyright law.  He’s been influential in the tech world for longer than a decade, and just last year he was ranked by BusinessWeek as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web.
2. Brian Solis (@briansolis and www.briansolis.com)
   1. Since coining the phrase “PR 2.0″ (also the name of his top-rated blog) in the late 1990s, Brian Solis has been redefining our understand of public relations and social media.  He’s been running bub.blicio.us since 2006 and was named among Silicon Valley’s 40 Under 40 in 2008.
3. Om Malik (@om and www.gigaom.com)
   1. A born writer, Om Malik is the founder of GigaOM.com, a tech and business blog focusing on web 2.0 topics. Since its founding in 2001, GigaOM has grown to a readership of over 500,000 per month and has been ranked among the top blogs in the world by Technorati and CNet.
4. Robert Scoble (@scobleizer and www.scobleizer.com)
   1. This guy’s been in Silicon Valley since the day he was born.  Well, almost.  He came to fame during his time at Microsoft, but he didn’t let it get to him: he posted his cell number on his blog for people to reach him with issues. These days he’s a household name among geeks the world over and though he has over 54,000 Twitter followers, he still manages to punch out a good number of @ replies.  He’ll even follow you back.
5. Gina Trapani (@ginatrapani and www.ginatrapani.org, www.lifehacker.com)
   1. Recently named one of the Most Influential Women in Technology by Fast Company Magazine, Gina Trapani was, until very recently, Madame President of Lifehacker.com, a website dedicated to making your life easier and more productive using technology.  She’s staying productive too: her book is in its second edition and her writings are features in a variety of publications.
6. Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki and www.guykawasaki.com)
   1. The original tech evangelist, Guy Kawasaki is the managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in high-tech firms in Silicon Valley.  Around the time I was born, Guy was working at Apple, laying the groundwork for the giant corporation that it is today.  He has nine books published, and I don’t imagine he’ll stop there.
7. Pete Cashmore (@mashable and www.mashable.com)
   1. Pete Cashmore isn’t well-known for listening to his bloggers, but with a face like his, who cares?  Not only is his website (mashable.com, the home of “All That’s New on the Web”) wildly successful and popular, but he’s also a total hottie with a Scottish accent.  If you’d like to listen to him (or just look), here’s a video interview.