Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to thank God for giving me the strength and resilience it took to complete this book. I have to say that it was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. When my to-do list piled up higher and higher and there was no end in sight, he was the one who helped me through all the stressful times.

I also want to thank my wife Kathy for her sacrifice and support while I spent most every weekend at Starbucks writing this book. She has been my rock since the beginning. Thank you to my two little girls, Milan and Savvy, whose smiles and kisses got me through each and every day; and for their complete understanding of my absence at Family Movie Night, our family tradition of camping out downstairs and watching movies every Friday night. A big thank you to my mom for just being mom and supporting everything I do. This book is every bit as much your accomplishment as it is mine.

I want to thank Que Publishing (Pearson), specifically my acquisition editor, Michelle, for believing in me and my vision for this book; especially when other publishers weren’t giving me the time of day. And thank you to my development editor, Leslie (LTO), whose feedback was valuable in helping me become a better writer.

Thank you to my team at Edelman Digital who has supported me from the beginning: Cricket, Mary, Kevin, Jenna, Karen, Sue, Shay, Paul, Jeanette, Lisa, Terry, Sarah, Rachelle, Santiago, and Adriana. It’s because of their hard work, diligence, and “get the job done” attitude that I was able to focus on writing my book during the evenings and on the weekends instead of worrying about work. I can’t forget Chris L. for reviewing and giving me feedback on one of the hardest chapters in the book for me on measurement.

I also want to thank several friends and mentors who have either influenced my decision to write this book, opened some doors, or just did something awesome for me during this process. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart: Brian Solis (@briansolis), Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan), Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang), Krystyl Baldwin (@krystyl), Laura Fitton (@pistachio), Janet Aronica (@janetaronica), Jennifer Leggio (@mediaphyter), Gabriel Carrejo (@gabrielcarrejo), Jay Baer (@jaybaer), Maria Ogneva (@themaria), Amber Naslund (@ambercadabra), Paul Greenberg (@pgreenbe), Becky Carroll (@bcarroll7), Paul Chaney (@pchaney), Shel Israel (@shelisreal), Aaron Strout (@aaronstrout), Justin Levy (@justinlevy), Jacob Morgan (@jacobm), Mike Stelzner (@mike_stelzner), Jim Tobin (@jtobin), Robin Miller (@RobinWithAnI), Chuck Hemman (@chuckhemann), Adam Schoenfeld (@schoeny), Vilma Bonilla (@Vilma_Bonilla), Andy Smith (@kabbenbock), Adam Helweh (@secretsushi), Betsy Soler (@bsoler), Brian Remmel (@Bremmel), and so many more.

I also want to thank all my Facebook friends for their “Likes,” encouragement, and for sharing my book with friends. I have a special place in my heart for all of you. And I can’t thank my Twitter community enough for their consistent retweets and encouragement. I love you all.

A big thank you to everyone who helped me contribute to this book, specifically Kelly Feller and Bryan Rhoads from Intel, Len Devanna from EMC, Petra Neiger from Cisco, Rohit Bhargava from Ogilvy, Ben Parr from Mashable, Cara Fugetta from Zuberance, Maria Poveromo and Maria Yap from Adobe, David Alston from Radian6, Joe Chernov from Eloqua, and all the other vendors I featured in the book—too many to list.

Without all of your help and support, none of this would have been possible.