Interview with Shel Israel

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Shel Israel consults, writes and speaks about social media. His blog is Global Neighborhoods.

He has advised companies of all sizes on how to use social media to achieve pragmatic business goals. His clients have ranged from Fortune 50 companies to two-guys-meeting-in-a-Starbucks.

Israel is co-author [with Robert Scoble] of Naked Conversations considered by many to be the seminal book in popularizing social media in traditional businesses. I (Steven Streight) helped them with the title of the book. They originally wanted to call it Blog or Die. I told them in some countries, it's Blog and Die. They took that to heart and rejected Blog or Die as the title.

Shel mentions how I was also the most prolific contributor to The Red Couch blog, which formed the basis of the Naked Conversations book. At the time, it was the one of the most important places to be for business bloggers and blog pundits.

Shel is also author of Twitterville and The Conversational Corporation, a Dow Jones, e-book.

He is currently working on a new book, The Disruptors—Fire Starters of the Conversational Age. As he has successfully done with previous books, Israel is posting interview notes and chapter drafts on his blog, Global Neighbourhoods where he invites reader feedback.

A former journalist, he has contributed to BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Forbes, Business Intelligence and other publications. He left writing to start and run his own PR agency for many years, before selling it to employees and spending his fulltime energies in social media-related activities.

An accomplished public speaker, Israel has keynoted in 10 countries and has spoken — always on social media-related issues — more than 75 times.