On this Valentine’s Day, I thought I would share the love with some wonderful people in town I look up to regularly for their wisdom on advertising, marketing and social media strategy. They make me a better expert at what I do (after all, nobody can know everything and if they claim to, be very suspicious) and make me grateful that we have such a social media community like Twitter where such sharing of knowledge can occur.

In truth, there are so many more than these 8 in town that I love following but I’d be writing this post for the next month or so. I didn’t include brands/organizations I love following for this list but specific people. If you have others you’d like to suggest for this list that you like following, let me know.

Here they are, in no particular ranking:

Gini Dietrich: @ginidietrich
Fun, smart, thought leader. Love watching her videos / reading her views on social media and PR’s role in it. Plus, I really hate the concept of PR “spin” so I have to love any person who also has the handle of @SpinSucks.

Liz Strauss: @lizstrauss
Great thoughts on social media that she writes originally and finds to share. On an underrated note, she takes some of the most stunning photos of the lake via Instagram.

Barry Moltz: @barrymoltz
I usually have a “Hey, I didn’t know that” moment when this gentleman shares compelling tweets on technology related to social media.

Amber Naslund: @ambercadabra
I became a fan of Amber’s the moment I read her book co-authored with Jay Baer, “The Now Revolution.” Most recently with Radian6, I’m anxious to watch her next venture and read her tweets in the interim.

Sima Dahl: @simasays
Social media wisdom from Sima dispensed regularly. We’ve had some nice banter over Twitter and look forward to meeting her in person soon.

Steve Congdon: @stevecongdon
The king of Chicago ad agency new business thoughts. And quite possibly one of the nicest people in town you may meet.

Ann Dwyer: @AnnDwyer_Crains
If it deals with Chicago business and entrepreneurs, Ann’s all over it through her Crain’s blog and tweets. (Full disclosure – I just started writing a weekly blog column on Crain’s each Wednesday, but was a genuine fan of Ann long before that).

Adriana Llames: @adrianallames
Adriana always has good things to share on the topics of personal branding and career coaching.

I know this is hardly an all-encompassing list. Again, there are many more in town that I love following in other areas. But you could do a lot worse than following these folks to start with.

And if you happen to like what these people are tweeting about, you may similarly enjoy following a certain guy who goes by the handle of @DanOnBranding. Just sayin’.