Whether you are new to Digg, a seasoned pro or Kevin Rose himself (Hi Kevin!), these three men have a powerful influence on what you read. Msaleem, MrBabyMan and Zaibatsu have established themselves as a “Digg Trinity”, three unlikely friends whose names are synonymous with social media, their submissions appearing on the front page of digg on a daily basis, driving millions of readers to sites they discover.

GearCrave joined the trio to discuss Digg, social media and their latest project, the Drill Down Podcast…

GearCrave: What is your name, digg username, location and job title?

Msaleem: My name is Muhammad Saleem and I go by the user name msaleem on almost all social media sites (except for StumbleUpon where my user name is msaleem-stumbl. I live in Chicago and I work as a strategy and product/business development consultant to startups.

MrBabyMan: My name is Andrew Sorcini, I go by MrBabyMan on Digg (and other social networks), and I’m a film editor.

Zaibatsu: I’m Reg Saddler, I go by Zaibatsu on Digg, mixx, and everywhere else. I’m a retired tech consultant.

GC: How did the three of you originally come together? When was the idea for the Drill Down Podcast created?

MBM: We’re all submitters on Digg. It’s a natural occurrence amongst Digg submitters (and I really can’t explain why) that as they become more and more successful, they begin to connect with each other outside of Digg. For the most part, all the top submitters know each other and chat with each other fairly regularly. This is how Mu, Reg and I first connected.

Mu and I would occasionally chat about the tech stories we saw on Digg, and our conversations were so free and insightful, I began to wonder if anyone else would be interested in eavesdropping in on them. Mu suggested we make it a threesome with Reg, and we started to record our chats.

GC: What is The Drill Down Podcast? What does it mean for the world of social media?

MS: The Drill Down podcast covers technology-related and web-related news and often reviews new social web apps. As for social media, the podcast is a place for people to come together and discuss all the latest social media happenings. We don’t ‘run’ the show, in fact we take recommendations from the audience and often invite them to co-host the show with us.

GC: What doors has Digg opened for you and your respective careers?

MS: I don’t think it’s Digg specifically that has opened doors for any of us, but via Digg, it’s our respective understanding of some of the most important properties in the social web sphere that has opened doors for us. In fact it is this same understanding that allows us to utilize Digg to its maximum potential.

MBM: My entertainment industry career is independent from my involvement on Digg, and outside of the realm of social networking, my co-workers, friends and family are unimpressed, uninterested or just don’t get it. That’s fine by me.

Z: Digg has definitely introduced me to a lot of wonderful people in social media I otherwise wouldn’t have met. Since being on Digg, I’ve developed great relationships with them.

GC: What do you believe is the key to your success on Digg?

MS: There is no big secret to success on Digg. Submit good quality content and participate actively on the site and anyone can be just as successful on the site. The new crop of power-Diggers prove just that.

MBM: I think my success is due for the most part to the Digg community finding an affinity with many (roughly about 27%) of the stories I submit. And for that, I’m grateful to be able to choose and submit content they connect with.

Z: I think people really like me and my posts. Also I have a, shall we say, distinctive title/description style that I think people dig (pun intended)

GC: For each of you, what are a few of your all-time favorite personal submissions to Digg?

MS: My favorite submission so far was the announcement of Al-Gore being awarded the Nobel Prize.

MBM: That’s tough to say, but I’d have to say my favorites are the ones that really moved people, engaged them in heated debate, or inspired them to consider a viewpoint they hadn’t previously.

Z: So neighbors steal your wi-fi net access, kill the connection or have fun or anything with treefrogs.

GC: If you could change any one thing about Digg, what would it be?

MS: I would make it much more transparent.

MBM: I would call for more transparency in the process. I understand Digg’s desire to protect their process from spammers, but it also fosters uncertainty and mistrust. If users aren’t told how the process works (especially one as seemingly arcane as Digg story promotion), how can we be assured when or if it’s working right?

Z: They just need to call it Diggzbatsu and make every frontpage story one of mine. Digg my stuff!

GC: Where would you be today without Digg and Social Media online? What would you focus on?

MS: I would either be blogging or not be on the social web at all. I would be working for a venture capital firm or a consulting firm that invests in or works with Silicon Valley startups.

MBM: I’m a film lover at heart, so if I wasn’t involved with Digg, I’d probably be watching, making and writing about film.

Z: Drunk in bed, surrounded by several women and lots of great food. So basically no difference.

GC: What do you see as the future of social media?

MS: I think the future lies in better integration of social and collaborative technologies into our everyday lives, as well as better utilization of filtering and recommendation technologies that learn our preferences and adapt to suit our needs the more we use them.

MBM: The future of social media lies in the seamless integration of social media and networking with mainstream media until all content is accessible on our own terms and we can interact and develop conversations around it all.

The trend in software is to move beyond the server and host everything in “the cloud”, across multiple servers. In the future, social media will go to “the cloud” as well, but the multiple servers will be our own personal media devices. Want to watch a protest in Beijing on your iPhone? Connect to one of dozens of protesters streaming the event live from their iPhones– true virtuality.

Z: Whatever it is, it’s gonna have more me in it.

GC: For each of you, what gadgets or technology can you absolutely not live without?

MS: I would be completely lost without my MacBook Air (and probably iPhone too).

MBM: I’m a relatively new iPhone user, and I’m already addicted. Its basic concept, a multifunction, customizable, handheld touchscreen interface is the future of social media, and will be for a while. Beyond that, I couldn’t live without my personal computer, and of course, the HDTV!

Z: All of them. Especially those which allow the- ahem- unrestricted distribution of media and software.

GC: If you could have lunch with any one inventor, technologist or entrepreneur, who would you wish to meet?

MS: I have wanted to meet Tim O’Reilly for a while now.

MBM: This is a cliche answer, I know, but I’d really love to pick the brains of both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and see what makes them tick. Their foresight on the future of technology is truly impressive.

Z: Probably Bram Cohen, the guy who invented Bittorrent. or Steve Jobs (although he DID write to me one time and bitchslapped me down when I asked him why he stopped authorizing Mac clones to be sold).

Thanks for chatting with GearCrave, guys. Be sure to take a moment to check out the Drill Down Podcast, and be sure to visit Msaleem, MrBabyMan and Zaibatsu on Digg!

(thanks to the talented Logan Lape of LapeDesigns.com for the main image!)