It’s that time of year, marketers. Once again, we’re absolutely thrilled to present our annual list of 50 influential leaders who are engaging on social networks around the topic of social media marketing.
The goal of this annual list? To showcase the top 50 influential voices in the marketing industry we can all learn from and follow.
List Methodology:
Influencer Relationship Management (IRM) Platform Assisted: Ranking of the people in this list leverages data and algorithms from Traackr, which is an influencer relationship marketing platform. Unlike the vast majority of lists like this that are published online, this list considers many more data sources than just Twitter. To provide a better sample across the web, Traackr rankings can include citations and links from data sources such as blogs, publications, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Ranking data sources and scoring: For the ranking, this list leverages a combination of data points including:
- Relevance: A score that indicates how influential a person is to a specific topic based on the keywords you provide. Signals for relevance include keyword mentions, keyword diversity, content production rate, freshness of content and other contextual measures. In this case, it was “social media marketing” as well as 10-plus derivative phrases.
- Resonance: A score of how impactful the influencer is with their audience. Resonance measures engagement activity that occurs as a result of publishing (mostly social) content.
- Reach: A score derived by the reach algorithm that takes into account followers, fans, subscribers, visitors and other audience metrics. Remember, this is more than just Twitter.
- Audience: Unsurprisingly, this refers to overall social audience size.
Each of these signal sources are factored into the algorithmic ranking for identified influencers with a focus on topical relevance, resonance of message with the audience and then audience reach. The result is a combination of broad-based influencers as well as individuals with a very specific focus and very high resonance and relevance scores. You’ll see new faces as well as a variety of disciplines and specialties represented.
Many thanks to all who continue to actively share their knowledge about social media marketing through year-round engagement and by providing help to others with insight and expertise in our vast social realm. We hope this list will serve as a handy jumping off point to start your ongoing journey of learning from these leading social media marketing industry influencers.
You’ll likely see both many familiar faces and a wonderful variety of new social media influencers. We plan to learn new lessons from these 50 top social media marketing influencers and hope you’ll do the same throughout the year.
2019 — 50 Top Social Media Marketing Influencers
Kim Garst @kimgarst
CEO, KG Enterprises
Donna Moritz @sociallysorted
Visual Content Strategist, Socially Sorted
Ian Anderson Gray @iagdotme
Founder, Seriously Social
Neal Schaffer @NealSchaffer
CEO, NealSchaffer.com
Madalyn Sklar @madalynsklar
Social Media Speaker & Consultant, MadalynSklar.com
Dan Gingiss @dgingiss
CEO, Winning Customer Experience, LLC
Brian Fanzo @isocialfanz
Founder and CEO, iSocialFanz
Mari Smith @MariSmith
Social Media Speaker & Consultant, MariSmith.com
Rebekah Radice @rebekahradice
CEO, RadiantLA
Jasmine Star @jasminestar
CEO, JasmineStar.com
Carlos Gil @CarlosGil83
CEO, Gil Media Co.
Tamara McCleary @tamaramccleary
CEO, Thulium.co
Dustin W. Stout @dustinwstout
Co-Founder, Warfare Plugins
Peggy Fitzpatrick @PegFitzpatrick
Marketing & Social Media Manager, Kreussler Inc.
Michael A. Stelzner @mike_stelzner
CEO & Founder, Social Media Examiner & Social Media Marketing World
Lee Odden @LeeOdden
CEO, TopRank Marketing
Christopher Penn @cspenn
Co-Founder and Chief Innovator, Trust Insights
Owen Hemsath @owenvideo
Video Producer, The Videospot
Bernie Borges @bernieborges
Co-Founder & CMO, Vengreso
Samantha Kelly @tweetinggoddess
Owner, Tweetinggoddess
Heidi Cohen @heidicohen
Chief Content Officer, Actionable Marketing Guide
Brooke B. Sellas @brookesellas
Founder & CEO, B Squared Media
Gini Dietrich @ginidietrich
CEO, Arment Dietrich, Inc.
Roberto Blake @robertoblake
Owner & Creative Director, Create Awesome Media
Chris Strub @chrisstrub
CEO, I Am Here LLC
Mark Schaefer @markwschaefer
Executive Director, Schaefer Marketing Solutions LLC
Jay Baer @jaybaer
Founder, Convince & Convert
Nicky Kriel @nickykriel
Social Media Consultant & Strategist, Nicky Kriel Social Media
Park Howell @parkhowell
Business Story Strategist & Keynote Speaker, Business of Story
Amanda Webb @spiderworking
Social Media Trainer & Strategist, Spiderworking
Andrew Pickering @andrewandpete
Co-Founder, Andrew and Pete
Viveka Von Rosen @linkedinexpert
Co-Founder & Chief Visibility Officer, Vengreso
Sean Cannell @seancannell
Founder, Think Media
Amy Porterfield @amyporterfield
Online Marketing Expert & Trainer, Amy Porterfield, Inc.
Steve Dotto @dottotech
President, Dotto Tech
Guy Kawasaki @GuyKawasaki
Chief Evangelist, Canva
Sue Beth Zimmerman @suebzimmerman
Keynote and Breakout Speaker, Sue B. Zimmerman Enterprise
Ann Handley @annhandley
Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs
Sunny Lenarduzzi @sunnylenarduzzi
Social Media Strategist & Consultant, SunnyLenarduzzi.com
Laura Rubinstein @CoachLaura
CEO & Social Media Strategist, Transform Today
Josh Elledge @joshelledge
Founder, UpMyInfluence.com
Ramon Ray @ramonray
Editor and Founder, Smart Hustle Magazine
Chalene Johnson @chalenejohnson
CEO & Social Media Consultant, Team Johnson and SmartLife
Brian G. Peters @brian_g_peters
Strategic Partnerships Manager, Buffer
Robert Rose @Robert_Rose
Chief Troublemaker, The Content Advisory
Lewis David Howes @lewishowes
Founder, School of Greatness
John Jantsch @ducttape
President, Duct Tape Marketing
Ian Cleary @iancleary
Founder, RazorSocial
Jo Saunders @JoSaundersAU
Trainer & Conference Speaker, Wildfire Social Marketing™
Billy Gene Shaw @askbillygene
Founder & CEO, Rethink & Relive LLC
Spread the Social Wisdom & Love
Statistical analysis, no matter how deep and well-researched, can only go so far in finding the people who you’ll find the most helpful and influential in your daily professional marketing lives, which is why we’d love it if you’d please share the name of social media marketers that influence you most in the comments section below.
To further your own social media marketing expertise, here’s a bonus list of our top 5 posts about social media marketing from the past 12 months:
- Where Do Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Stand With B2B Video? Nick Nelson
- TopRank Marketing’s Top 6 B2B Social Media Marketing Predictions & Trends to Watch in 2019 Caitlin Burgess
- Our Top 10 Social Media Marketing Posts of 2018 Lane R. Ellis
- A Taste of Social and Influencer Marketing: What B2B Can Learn from B2C #SMBMSP Debbie Friez
- Tapping Key Takeaways from Recent Research on Fortune 500 Social Media Usage Nick Nelson
