A couple of months ago one of the guest speakers in my NYU class presented a slide during her talk with a list of 5 SEOs to follow on Twitter. I couldn't believe how much interest this one slide generated - all the students got on high alert and started jotting down names or taking pictures of the slides with their cell phones. Same thing happens every time I speak at a conference.
The Power of Curated Lists
I think most of the marketers underestimate the power of curated lists, and how much users actually love them. Brands want to tell stories and they want the content to be about them. They stay away from lists, so it's a land-grab for smart, creative entrepreneurs.
The businesses that understand the power of 'listicles,' such as Mashable, thrive and grow at rates unheard of in corporate America. Moz 10 Top leads the way on the SEO scene, for example. Successful business models were built by companies such as Thrilist or AppSumo that put 99% of their marketing efforts on lead generation and newsletter marketing. Look up the three companies I mentioned here if you don't already know them to learn more.
Ok, now it's my turn. A week ago I published my new Kindle book, 99 SEO Tools for 99 Cents, and I thought it would be a cool book marketing strategy to include a bonus chapter with a resource of the top 20 SEO folks to follow on Twitter. The book landed on the Amazon bestseller list in "search engine optimization" category, and I already got some good feedback on the value the list provided.
20 SEO Influencers to Follow on Twitter
Here is a totally subjective list of the top SEOs to follow on Twitter (in no particular order). This is not an SEO seniority list or yet another popularity contest for link building. If you follow the SEO folks listed below, you are in a good company.
Below I shared (almost) all the names included in my 99 SEO Tools for 99 Cents. All but ONE. What's the name of the most influential SEO sumo on the planet? Who is she/he? Drop a note in the comments section if you have any ideas. It's an easy guess... I hope.
@M______ ← ???????????
@RandFish ← Rand Fishkin, Moz
@iPullRank ← Mike King, iPullRank
@DannySullivan ← Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land & SMX
@JennyHalasz ← Jenny Halasz, JLH Marketing
@DuaneForrester ← Duane Forrester, Bing
@Fighto ← Paul Shapiro, Catalyst
@Backlinko ← Brian Dean, Backlinko
@DanCristo ← Dan Cristo, Triberr
@Rhea ← Rhea Drysdale, Outspoken Media
@Emcgillivray ← Erica Mcgillivray, Moz
@Dr_Pete ← Dr. Pete Myers, Moz
@StoneTample ← Eric Enge, Stone Temple Consulting
@SankarPonnusamy ← Sankar Ponnusamy, Priceline
@SyrusShepard ← Cyrus Shepard, Moz
@Sonray ← Jason White, DragonSearch
@MarkTraphagen ← Mark Traphagen, Stone Temple
@GregBoser ← Greg Boser, Foundation Digital
@BrentCarnduff ← Brent Carnduff, Echelon SEO
@Btabke ← Brett Tabke, Pubcon & Webmaster World
If you think there are important names that are missing from the list, send me suggestions on Twitter at @SearchDecoder or drop a note in the comments section.