Who are the top Minnesota innovators when it comes to cutting-edge use of social media like Twitter and Facebook?

Local activists are eagerly weighing in on that question at several sites, and some are compiling actual lists of who deserves recognition.

One of the first to release his list is David Erickson of eStrategy Internet Marketing Blog. He’s compiled his Top 30.

Regular MinnPost readers will find lots of familiar names on his list, including our media writer, David Brauer, who uses Twitter, Facebook and crowdsourcing techniques in his BrauBlog reporting and other interactions with the public. Erickson praises Brauer for “using these tools to be a better journalist.”

Erickson, who has been blogging about the Internet and social media since 2005, says he focuses on “practical aspects of online communication [and] strategic communications” and offers “reflective or speculative thoughts about how we behave online and how the Internet is changing the way we communicate and interact with one another.”

And like the other folks on his list, he isn’t afraid to try new things. Erickson and several others on his list, for example, are among the beta testers for our new Real-Time Ads, an advertising feature designed to be a fast-paced marketplace full of regularly updated messages that will make readers come back often to check out what’s happening. Other beta-testers on Erickson’s list are WCCO-TV reporter Jason DeRusha and Sean Kershaw, Citizens League executive director

Another social-media innovator, Garrick Van Buren, actually helped us develop Real-Time Ads.

Two of the folks from Minnov8, which posts weekly on our site about social media and technology issues, made the list, too: Steve Borsch and Graeme Thickins.

So, too did several friends of MinnPost: There’s Chuck Olsen of The UpTake, which became an essential video source for us and the state’s political aficionados, particularly during the extended Senate recount proceedings. And Ed Kohler, who’s consulted with us several times as we’ve explored new features and approaches.

We salute them, too, for all of their efforts -- and their willingness to keep trying new things.

Don Effenberger is a MinnPost news editor.