StartupNation Judges' Synopsis

John Lawson earned his chops as Runner Up (#2) in the Savviest in Social Media category after competing in this very competition last year. His effort to drum up votes resulted in usage of Twitter in a big way and from that his business opportunity was born. He'd provide news tidbits in Tweet-sized bites and people "followed" him in droves and started asking for more. Now, one year later, that "social marketing strategy" has yielded some astonishing results.

He created an eCommerce blog site and his Twitter ID has shot him into the stratosphere of ecommerce experts. He has amassed over 11,500 followers on Twitter, 800 fans in Facebook, and his website gets over 46,000 page views every month and 150+ people are LinkedIN.

He's also been tapped to speak on several panels and to give presentations on the business of ecommerce as far away ass Sydney, Australia. All of this started from a few Twitter tweets to get votes for this contest in 2008, and it demonstrates the power of leveraging social media in a very savvy way.