We’re returning to a familiar theme just as Spring arrives: our top 30 marketing influencers for 2019. When we did that in March last year, the blogpost was very successful and didn’t go unnoticed on social networks.
With great enthusiasm, we’ve scouted blogs on B2C and B2B marketing sites. These influencers are taking up a lot of space, not only in conversations but also in company strategies that badly want exclusive access or seek to take advantage of their public and their credibility.
We’ve already written two blogs on the subject to try to define the profile of these funny little “bugs”. One of them, Lee Odden, the undisputed marketing expert, did a great job of talking about the subject with a post that must absolutely be read
The Annual List
Each year, several other blogs and personalized sites make their list of 50 or 100 biggest influencers of marketing, social networks or even B2B marketing as does Lee and his team at TopRank with at least three different rankings. Lee was also passing through Montreal a few months ago for a conference on content marketing at Infopresse.
The influencers in marketing are not the young youtubers or maniacs of Instagram who acquire some celebrity and make easy money.
Here is an example of just a part of a bio of an expert in marketing:
Tamara McLeary:
«She is ranked by Klear in the Top 1% of global Social Media Influencers. She is listed as one of the Top 50 Social Influencers of 2015, one of the Top 50 Big Data Influencers of 2016 and one of the Top 100 IoT Influencers of 2016by Onalytica. Tamara is also ranked in the Top 25 AI/Machine Language influencers, a Top 50 Blockchain Influencer, and Top 50 Digital Transformation Influencer. Tamara is an IBM Futurist and was ranked as the third most mentioned person on Twitter by Chief Marketing Officers in 2015 by Leadtail. In addition, in 2016, Tamara was named the #1 Most Influential Woman in Martech by B2B Marketing».
Here, we are in another league. No fashion victims, foodies, hotel rats or starlets in bad selfies on Instagram who “plugs” products for cash, lots of cash…
Here though, it’s serious and this kind of influence means money, but not in the outrageous way of Neos … The pros organize or keynote conferences, write books, advise companies, teach at universities, get involved in their environment and are less flashy for the most part.
How We Measure
It is humbly, that we create our list but with an approach that touches on more authentic values. We forget the numbers as in the rankings of Onalytica for example.
On the one hand, we have dissected a dozen if not more, of these rankings published in 2017-2018 to see if some influencers are unanimous, which is the case for some elsewhere in the “social graph” above.
These rankings are based on quantity and not quality, so we are proposing a different approach by establishing an evaluation that preserves the 10 outstanding measurement indicators we used last year:
- Recognized by all players in the web marketing field
- Digital identity – structured and extensive presence on search engines
- Regular presence on a multitude of social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, SnapChat, Google+, Quora, etc.)
- Active blog and other publications
- Contribution to the Web community (conferences, teaching, social involvement)
- Presence in the media as spokesperson for the community
- International presence and exposure
- Experience in Web-related fields
- Qualified audience in terms of numbers but also in terms of quality (example: no fake accounts)
- Unanimous in the other rankings.
So, from this perspective, here is a list of 30 names sorted alphabetically and by country. No ranking, no ego, just a lot of links and references.
USA
Jay Baer – Twitter account: @jaybaer – Website/blog: https://www.convinceandconvert.com/blog/
President of Convince & Convert, speaker and author of the best selling book, «Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help, Not HypeZ»
Michael Brenner – Twitter account:@brennermichael – Website/blog: https://marketinginsidergroup.com/blog
CEO, Marketing Insider Group, speaker, co-author «The Content Formula»
Heidi Cohen – Twitter account: @heidicohen – Website/blog: https://heidicohen.com/
Entrepreneur, blogger and speaker.
Marsha Collier – Twitter account: @MarshaCollier – Website/blog: https://www.coolebaytools.com/blog#.WMcr8_k1_Dc
Entrepreneur, speaker, author of 48 books, including «eBay for Dummies», «Social Media Commerce For Dummies‘» and «The Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide: How to Connect with your Customers to Sell More» and, founder of the podcasts #CustServ, #techradio
Pam Didner – Twitter account: @PamDidner Website/blog: https://www.pamdidner.com/Pam is a marketing consultant and author. Her work has also been published in numerous publications including The Guardian, Huffington Post, The Content Marketing Institute and others. She also wrote the books Global Content Marketing and Effective Sales Enablement
Brian Fanzo – Twitter account @iSocialFanz – Website/blog:
https://www.isocialfanz.com/blog/ Entrepreneur, strategist and speaker, Brian inspires, motivates, and teaches companies how to leverage emerging technologies and digital marketing to reach the Y and Z generation consumers. He is the founder of iSocialFanz who helped launch digital strategies and influencers with the world’s most iconic brands. He also hosts three podcasts (FOMOFanz, S.M.A.C talk and Just try this)
Ann Handley
– Twitter account:@MarketingProfs and @annhandley – Website/blog: https://www.annhandley.com/
CCO at MarketingProfs and co-founder of ClickZ, speaker and
author of the best-seller « Everybody Writes»
Carla Johnson – Twitter account: @CarlaJohnson – Website/blog: https://typeacommunications.com/blog/ An international lecturer and prolific author, Carla has written eight books including the most recent:
Fast Forward Files
Tamara McCleary – Twitter account : @tamaramccleary – Website/blog: https://tamaramccleary.com/about/ . CEO at Thulium.co. Speaker, panelist and recognized influencer, notably by Forbes.
Jason A,
Miller – Twitter account: @JasonMillerCA – Website/blog: https://rocknrollcocktail.com/social-media-cocktail/
Jason is a specialist in B2B marketing and the
«global content marketing leader» at LinkedIn by day, and a Rock ‘n’ Roll
photographer by night. In 2014, he published the #1 best seller on
Amazon, Welcome to the Funnel: Proven Tactics to Turn Your Social
Media and Content Marketing up to 11.
Margaret Molloy – Twitter account: @MargaretMolloy –Website/blog: https://www.siegelgale.com/people/margaret-molloy/ She has been the global CMO at Siegel+Gale since 2013. she was named the “B2B marketer of the year” in 2017 by The Drum. Margaret was also recognized as one of the top 10 CMO’s to follow on Twitter by Forbes and top 5 most influential CMOS on social media, again by Forbes.
Lee Odden – Twitter account: @leeodden – Website/blog: https://www.toprankblog.com/
CEO of TopRank, speaker and author of «Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing». He is quoted by publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The EcoNameist, Fortune magazineand Entrepreneur.com
Neil Patel – Twitter account: @neilpatel – Website/blog: https://neilpatel.com/blog/ Neil is an entrepreneur known for founding Crazy Egg, Quick Sprout, and KISSMetrics. He is also a lecturer, blogger and regular contributor to publications such as Inc., Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com and TechCrunch..
Chad Pollitt: – Twitter account: @ChadPollitWebsite/blog:https://www.chadpollitt.com/
Partner and VP Audienceau Native Advertising Institute, Professor of Internet Marketing at Kelley School of Business at the University of Indiana, he is also speaker and author of several books, such as “The Native Advertising Manifesto,” “The Content Promotion Manifesto“ and “51 Things Your Mother Taught You About Inbound Marketing.” He also writes for Huffington Post, The Guardian and Social Media Today.
Joe Pulizzi – Twitter account: @joepulizzi – Website/blog: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/ Founder of the Content Marketing Institute and the Content Marketing World Conference, speaker and author of five books including the most recent: Killing Marketing: How Innovative Companies are Turning Marketing Cost Into Profit
Rebekah Radice – Twitter account : @RebekahRadice Website/blog: https://rebekahradice.com/blog/. She is an entrepreneur and author of the book https://rebekahradice.com/social-media-mastery/ . She is an international speaker, creator of “The Authority Matrix,” and hostess of the podcast “Brand Authority Show”
Mark Schaefer – Twitter account: @markwschaefer – Website/blog https://www.businessesgrow.com/blog/ Consultant, speaker and author of 8 books, the most recent one being «Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins»
Mary Shea – Twitter account: @sheaforr – Website/blog: https://www.forrester.com/Mary-Shea. She is a speaker and principal analyste for Forrester and specialises in B2B marketing. For Forrester, she regularly publishes studies, the most recent being : New Tech: B2B Social Selling Tools, Q1 2018
Clara Shih – Twitter account: @clarashih – Website/blog: https://hearsaysystems.com/blog/. Founder and CEO of Hearsay Systems, author and long-time influencer on social media. She also wrote The Facebook Era and The Social Business Imperative.
Mari Smith – Twitter account: @MariSmith – Website/blog: https://www.marismith.com/mari-smith-blog/. Consultant named as the “Queen of Facebook”, Mari Smith is one of the biggest marketing experts on Facebook. She is a speaker and author of «The New Relationship Marketing: How to Build a Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web» and co-author of «Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day»
Gary Vaynerchuk – Twitter account: @garyvee – Website/blog: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/blog/
CEO of Vaynermedia. Investor in Twitter, Snapchat, Uber andVenmo. Vlogging daily on YouTube under the name « DailyVee ». Speaker and author of 3 books: «#AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness»
Crystal Washington – Twitter account: @Cryswashington – Website: https://crystalwashington.com/ Crystal is a marketing technology strategist, a lecturer and author of two books: One Tech Actionand The Social Media Why. Its customers include Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway and General Electric.
CANADA
Michelle Blanc.- Twitter account: @MichelleBlancWebsite/blog: https://www.michelleblanc.com/
Associate at Analyweb Inc. Speaker and author of «Les Médias sociaux 101», «Les médias sociaux 201» and co-author of «Pourquoi bloguer dans un contexte d’affaires»
Maggie Fox –
Twitter account: @maggiefox
– Website/blog:
https://www.workhuman.com/ Maggie
founded the world’s first social media consulting group called, Social Media
Group. She is currently CMO for Workhuman. Over the years, marketing magazine
has included her among the 100 top marketers in its 100th Anniversary Edition
and the National Post has named her the top innovator. She has provided
interviews to numerous media outlets such as: Inc. Magazine, The Washington
Post, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, CBC radio and The Financial Post
and is a well-known international speaker.
Randy Frisch –Twitter account: @randyfrisch Website/blog: https://b-rand.com/ Randy is the Co-founder and CMO of Uberflip and the co-host of Conex Show podcast. He’s also an authoer of the controversial book F#ck Content Marketing: Focus on Content Experience to Drive Demand, Revenue & Relationships
Tara Hunt – Twitter account: @missrogue – Website/blog: https://www.tarahunt.com/
YouTuber, entrepreneur, speaker and author of the best-seller «The Whuffie Factor»
Mitch Joel – Twitter account: @mitchjoel – Website/blog: https://www.twistimage.com/blog/
President of Mirum, blogger, podcaster, speaker and author of «Six Pixels of Separation» and «CTRL ALT Delete»
Julien Smith – Twitter account:@julien Website/blog: https://juliensmith.com/ Julien is the CEO of Breather, the author of 3 bestsellers according to The New York Times. Two of the books, Trust Agents and The Impact Equation, were written in collaboration with Chris Brogan. The other, The Flinch, remains, despite its publication back in 2011, one of the best readings on Kindle Books. He is also on the radio, a consultant and lecturer.
EUROPE
Minter Dial –Twitter account: @mdial –Website/blog: https://minterdial.com/. He founded the Myndset Company and since then, Digitalproof Consultancy Ltd. He is a professional lecturer on 3 main topics: the brands of tomorrow and the new marketing, the world of the Internet and new technologies, the leadership and the importance of emotional intelligence in companies. He is the author of several books including his most recent: Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence.
Timothy Hugues – Twitter account : @Timothy_Hughes Website/blog: https://www.social-experts.net/blog/ Tim is the CEO of Digital Leadership Associates and is the #1 influencer in the field of “social selling”. He also wrote the bestseller : Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemaker
Conclusion
Please note that in this post we have been dealing with influencers of Web marketing in general. There are several others who would have had their place on this list, but we had to stick to our top 30.
If you know of others who deserve to be in this selection, we invite you to comment below for next year’s list. Yes, only eight from Europe and Canada compared to 22 in the US. This is very revealing of the dominance of our southern neighbors in the field but, it is a better than last year for Europe and especially, Canada.
And it’s worth noting: there are 15 women, the exact parity. #jamaissanselles
