The Sparks That Ignited The World

This is a collection of forty-nine historical interviews with the actual geniuses that "ignited the world" with their creation and insights into social media. Back in 2006, we knew Web 2.0 as it was referred to, began migrating to social media. No one knew then this disruptive technology, was going to ignite the world in such a profound way, that we still today cannot comprehend it's changes. If I knew when I signed the contract the monumental undertaking it would be to write the largest book ever written on social media, I might never have signed it. The first edition turned out to be 850 pages and that was in the very early days of social media, before Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest. Facebook only had 250,000 members! When I first heard about this thing called social media in 2006, I asked all of my "geeky" friends of which I had plenty of, "What is this thing social media?" They all responded with "Pay no attention to the term. It doesn't mean anything. It's the same as Web 2.0, and we don't even know what the hell that is!", "It has no substance and won't last..." And, so the passion about social media began. Everyone told me, you are evangelizing social media so much, you ought to write a book, which was the creation of The Social Media Bible! I knew if I was going to have understand all of the 21 major categories of social media and digital communication, which I also had to create the classifications on, it would be a huge learning curve. I also knew, my best teachers would the people who created social media itself. The first job was to identify the 50 top inventors, bloggers, authors, officers, and directors of the biggest social media companies worldwide. I next, spent the summer of 2007, tracking them down, connecting with them, and persuading them to tell their story about their incredible contributions to social media. I was shocked and over joyed that out of the 50 world igniters identified, all but two agreed. They would spend as much as spend an hour on the phone, telling me their personal how's, when's, and why's they dedicated their lives to creating social media tools. The excitement of speaking with people like Gary Vaynerchuk before he was Gary "V", Matt Mullenweg who invented and coded WordPress, Alan Levy the founder of BlogTalkRadio, Biz Stone, the inventor of Twitter, and my favorite inventor and "Father of the Internet", Vint Cerf, and many others was a once in a lifetime event! Because of their insights and graciousness, each of them taught me about their contributions to their own vertical segment of this new digital world. This gave me a complete perspective and understanding, which was more than anyone else at the time and maybe even today. Not everyone needed to become an expert in every platform. I am proud and grateful to say, The Social Media Bible is in it's Third Edition, five languages, hit #1 on Amazon, and broke the $2m retail sales mark. This is unbelievable for a business book! Realizing the value of this content, I made it a point to take three of the average ten pages from each of interviews and put them in each chapter of the book. Unfortunately, I was only able to give 30% of the amazing content and insights to my readers. There was literally, a treasure trove of personal insights from the actual inventors and developers of of the biggest names in social media. Now, we visualize them as mega-corporations, when in 2007, they were only start ups and dreams of people just like you and me. Now, on the 10th anniversary, I am sharing their entirety as a self-help, blueprint to wealth, inspiration for us all to follow our dreams. When I teach entrepreneurism, two of the first quotes I give my students are... "You can't loose if you don't quit" and "Never give up!" You will experience this spirit in their individual stories captured here. Learn from the successes of these giants. Share the passion they feel for what they believe. And... Never, Give, Up!