Reddit’s general manager is now one of the most influential people in the world.
Time has released this year’s Time 100, its annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people on the planet as curated by the magazine’s editors, and Erik Martin made the cut.
“If the Web’s most powerful images are the ones that go viral, then Erik Martin oversees the most infectious petri dish around,” wrote Time’s social media editor Allie Townsend in Martin’s entry. “Martin, 33, is the general manager of Reddit, a website whose users submit items and then vote the entries up or down, creating an ever shifting news-popularity tote board.”
Reddit rallied behind Martin, who uses the handle hueypriest on the social news site, in an online vote to influence the lineup of celebrities, athletes, public figures, and politicians.
Though Martin pledged his support for filmmaker Asghar Farhadi in the poll, he was perched at the top of it for a while with hundreds of thousands of votes pledged in his name. However, he finished in second place behind Anonymous, which was also included in the Time 100.
“I’d much rather Asghar Farhadi win Time‘s 100 Poll – his beard is superior to my own,” Martin told the Daily Dot earlier this month.
A Seperation director Farhadi did indeed feature on the list. The duo’s success in making the cut shows one should never underestimate the power of a well-maintained beard.
Photo via Twitter