Hundreds of thousands of people are trying today to get to see David Hornik. He is a celebrated venture capitalist who is based in Menlo Park in the heart of Silicon Valley. How do you get his attention when you are seeking funding as an entrepreneur? You have to either have such a compelling idea that he will listen to you or even better be introduced by someone he trusts and knows. He likes smart people who don’t waste his time, and come with the uncommon idea that he finds so unique he has to talk to you. David is a celebrated and successful VC who funds companies in social media and marketing like SixApart, Stumbleupon and VideoEgg.

David Hornik is renowned in the venture industry for his unusual perspective on social media. He is an investor in Six Apart, Stumbleupon and VideoEgg. His VentureBlog is one of the most highly read blogs in the industry and his podcast VentureCast, is educational and fun. David talks to me about his latest thinking on the social media world and explains why he feels Facebook is the most amazing platform today. We also discuss Twitter and the future for mobile. This is just part one of three podcasts from David Hornik that will air on Marketing Voices.

In an interview that is part one of a two-part series, the latest research from Marketing Profs Director Of Research, Tim McAtee, has released a new comprehensive study. It delves into the participation rates of companies in social media by industry. What they find is although the overall use of social media is high, the adoption rate is over just 1/3 in just a few of the top industries. They found that the majority of industries are NOT participating in social media. But what he does say is the usage of social media networks in B2B and B2C is similar. Facebook is the most commonly used tool by corporate marketers overall. I ask him more about this study in my Marketing Voices podcast. What he found in this study is available at marketingprofs.com.

Jake Kahle, principal of Something Gaming Partners (Twitter.com/JakeKahle and phone: 702-481-6954) is working marketing partnerships and leveraging social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to help many Las Vegas casinos. These casinos live and die off their databases which capture the customers contact information says Kahle, and then his firm helps drive more customers to the casinos through games and other marketing programs.

Shel Israel and I sat down at his house and talked about his latest book, Twitterville. So far the book is selling really well, and is on a path to sell at least as well as Shel’s first book, Naked Conversations. Shel feels Twitter has had a transformational impact on the lives of millions. His book delves into stories of businesses, individuals and others who have used Twitter successfully.

The legendary Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author and Twitter aficionado talks about the strategies he uses for gaining incredible numbers of people following him on twitter. More than 180,000 people are reading his tweets as of October 2009. He talks about how there is no correct or incorrect way to use Twitter despite the challenging criticisms he gets from his followers on his strategy. He uses Twitter mostly promotionally just to build Alltop, a company he co-founded and loves dearly. Guy talks about how he is a broadcast network—more like PBS– as he educates his readers with his content-rich tweets. He uses ghost writers and discusses his transparency and tricks-of-the-trade.

Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group and formerly the key social media analyst at Forrester Research, talks to Marketing Voices about the latest trends in social media and marketing. Charlene provided these insights:

1. Social media will be like “air.” It will be everywhere and used by everyone. No one will be afraid to use the tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter—sharing information will be second nature.

2. Every employee can be a marketer. From the manufacturing floor to the executive offices of large and small companies, everyone in the company will be using social marketing tools as a way to build brand and visibility.

3. Everyone can be a marketing channel for you. What’s most important is whether these bloggers have the right audiences and have captured the minds and hearts of others.

4. People are putting the technologies (for example, Twitter and Facebook) first—not the business objective. People must first determine what they want to accomplish rather than learn how to use these technologies.

She is writing a new book that will be published early 2010 that is called Open: How Leaders Win by Letting Go. In this book, she explains how leaders in today’s businesses need to understand the need for communication transparency, letting go and not be so controlling in order to succeed.

Recruiting is an industry that needs more edgy marketing. Having worked with some recruiters over the years, I was curious to learn from Hollister about social media techniques they have employed. Meg Toland of Hollister and I spoke about new ideas they are using including Twitter, Facebook and other tools.

Given the recession, and the proliferation of small and medium sized businesses, I spoke to Duncan Egan recently, the Senior Director of Marketing for Taleo, an on-demand talent management solution company. Egan knows tons about small and medium sized businesses and told me the social media tools he finds most effective are Ning, Twitter and Facebook. He tells me that Ning is great community site platform and discusses how to use Facebook and Twitter so they leverage each other.

Trying to manage social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn is tough today. Brands want to communicate but really ensuring they are managing what is being said and where it is being said is impossible. A relatively new company is trying to address this need for communication control, and it’s called Direct Message Labs. Marketing Voices talked to CEO Steven Plous of Direct Message Labs, and learned they are approaching social media from a marketing, lead generation and new customer acquisition perspective. They gather data across all the social media environments and provide unique insight into customers and their behavior. Most of their customers are Fortune 500 brands.