What is social media? Some people think of geeks like me who spend all day on Twitter or Digg, some think of marketing or PR “gurus”, but really it’s just a conversation—empowered by new web technologies that connect people globally. It is reshaping how companies relate to and interact with their markets with people. It is giving more power to the consumer, nurturing communities of people with shared interests in innumerable topics. Social media is changing the rules of the game so that individuals can join, build and lead communities; rebel freelancers or micro-entrepreneurs can take on large corporations.

Viralogy.com is a community that strives to highlight thought leaders and influencers in this global conversation. They are quickly branding themselves as the place to go when you want to find the authoritative bloggers on any particular topic, by ranking individuals’ online influence through the blogosphere, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Stumble, and Digg statistics.

Almost everyone has read the influential works of social media thought leaders like Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Leo Babauta, for example. But Viralogy co-founder Jun Loayza, as a member of Generation Y, wants to take a different approach to finding the authoritative voices on the web. “They have amazing content,” he says, “but at times it feels like I can’t relate with them. They’re in a position where they have reached success, and are now teaching us about how we can become successful, which may be the source of the disconnect. [But] I want to read about people who are in the trenches like me; I want to hear from people who haven’t made it yet, but are doing things the right way and can teach us how they’re doing it every step of the way.  I want to hear from the experts in my Generation.”

Jun and his team at Viralogy decided to create Viralogy Experts—a platform that will feature Gen-Y experts on a range of topics, including personal finance, business strategy, marketing & PR, and personal development. And Jun asked me to join their expert panel as a thought leader on location independence, so I’m excited and proud to announce my partnership with them for the launch of this new community! The five debut experts are:

• Adam Baker at Man Vs. Debt
• Steve Spalding at How To Split an Atom
• Stuart Foster at The Lost Jacket
• Derek Halpern at Prevential.com
• Cody McKibben (that’s me!) here at Thrilling Heroics

What we all share in common is that we are actually going through these challenges and transitions right now, so you can follow along with our journeys and know that our advice has been tested first hand. We hope to bring in a fifth expert on personal development and eventually expand to at least ten thought leaders, with the goal to help you separate the wheat from the chaff on the web and go straight to the blogs that give you actionable, step-by-step teaching from peers that you can trust.

Viralogy Experts launches today, so go check it out and please subscribe!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Join Influential Gen-Y Thought Leaders on their Remarkable Business & Lifestyle Journeys