Social media marketing is a complex practice where the rules are constantly changing. It's also a relatively new industry. Unlike other types of marketing, social media requires careful attention to shifts in consumer trends, staying in touch with the latest social media platform updates, and a firm grasp of how to leverage customer interactions as a business driver.
Another factor that makes social media marketing unique is the industry has largely followed the lead of several individuals who quickly learned the intricacies of social media networking and capitalized on its value as a marketing tool. These individuals haven't just grown their own brands into powerful names; they've also helped countless other businesses of every size find more success in their marketing campaigns.
For this post, I've identified some of the most influential thought leaders and pioneers in this business to follow on Twitter, so you know where to look for guidance in your marketing campaigns. Check out their portfolios, tweets, and previous work to see why these are some of the leading voices in social media marketing.
Neil Patel - Considered one of the best writers, bloggers, and tech entrepreneurs of his generation, Patel is the co-founder of KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, and ACS, and his work can be found across a variety of respected publications. Patel is a pioneer of social media marketing. He created his first website at the age of 16, and after a bad experience with his first marketing firm, realized his own potential as a marketing professional. Since then, Patel has founded and co-founded several successful businesses, all built around digital marketing , while he has consulted for some of the biggest companies on Earth, including Google, NBC, and eBay.
Liz Strauss - Named on Forbes' 'Top 10 Women Social Media Influencers' list, as well as being labelled by The Huffington Post as one of the 'Top 10 Influencers Alive', Strauss is one of the leading voices in the industry. With a healthy balance of business and emotional appeal, her words carry a lot of weight, and it's worth paying attention.
Kim Garst - Garst is the founder and current CEO of Social Media Branding. She also has a huge Twitter following, so her voice is very influential. Already a predictor of media influence in year's past, she's someone you should be paying attention to - today.
Scott Monty - Monty is the CEO and co-manager of Detroit's Brain and Trust Partners. Named by Forbes at one of the most important influencers in social media, he was also ranked #1 on the list of 25 Social Business Leaders. Monty is a firm believer in knowing and understanding your audience, and has built an incredibly successful consultancy on the foundation of this idea. His work focuses on emphasizing humanity in digital marketing. Monty's philosophy is that successful marketing is built by appealing to human nature.
Brent Csutoras - CEO and founder of Pixel Road Designs, Csutoras' more than ten years of experience in Social Media Marketing means a storehouse of knowledge. As an avid speaker on the topic, one of his main focuses is on future tech's implications for societal growth. Brent's work focuses on moving brands into the future by leveraging the newest tech and a company's unique strategies and offerings as marketing tools. He's a regular conference speaker at events like Pubcon, SMX, and InfoPresse, and writes for several marketing publications. His social media firm has gained a reputation for developing incredibly successful viral content for clients.
Jason Falls - Falls is both founder and partner at the Conversation Research Institute. A leading digital strategist and innovator of conversation research, he advises for Elasticity - a digital agency that helps brands excel - while he's also the founder of SocialMediaExplorer.com. Falls has earned a reputation for being one of the most entertaining and engaging keynote speakers in the realm of social media marketing. He conveys his message in a way that distils the most important facets of digital marketing into digestible ideas for audiences.
Sharon Feder - The former COO of Mashable, Feder is one of the reasons that company saw such explosive growth. She understands more about social media than nearly anyone else in the field, knowledge Feder now puts to use for themuse as their Chief Content Officer. Expect to see her explosive talent shift themuse as much as it did Mashable.
Jeff Bullas - Founder of jeffbullas.com, Bullas is a thought leader in the social media marketing and content marketing industries. His experience with telecommunications, information technology, and digital marketing has helped countless brands and businesses improve their marketing efforts on the web. Bullas' social media marketing philosophy hinges on creating fantastic multimedia content and expanding a brand's network into an engaging, active platform. He integrates social media marketing with email marketing, SEO, and content marketing into a multifaceted approach suited to any company's digital marketing needs.
Jay Baer - Aside from being a New York Times bestselling author and well-known keynote speaker, Baer is also a respected marketing consultant who helps business owners leverage social media as a marketing tool. Baer's philosophy is all about creating a massive advantage over your competition using social media marketing and customer service. Since 1994, Baer has advised more than 700 companies and organizations in his time working as a consultant, from Nike to the United Nations. His strategy consulting firm Convince & Convert helps clients grow their customer bases and keep the customers they already have.
Brian Clark - The founder of Copyblogger and a leading expert in content marketing and social media, Clark is also a serial entrepreneur. He founded Copyblogger entirely on his own in 2006, but has been helping businesses with content marketing since 1998 - before content marketing was even a known phrase. Copyblogger is now under the umbrella of Rainmaker Digital, an incredibly successful digital commerce company that has served over 200,000 clients. Clark believes marketing professionals need to always have a firm grasp of the bigger picture, rather than obsessively fussing over one facet of a campaign at a time, and this philosophy has helped thousands of clients find better social media marketing success.
Ian Cleary - The founder of RazorSocial, a popular marketing and technology blog that has won several "Top Blog" awards, Cleary is known in the social media marketing world as a leading influencer, not only for his knowledge, but also because of his friendly, approachable, and enthusiastic personality. Aside from his break-dancing skills, Cleary has more than 15 years of experience working in the technology industry in a variety of roles, and this makes him incredibly well-versed in the technical end of digital marketing. He uses these skills to create more streamlined social media marketing campaigns and processes that yield better returns on investments.
Matthew Toren - A serial entrepreneur and co-founder of YoungEntrepreneur.com - the largest networking platform for entrepreneurs in the world - Toren has authored several books, as well as co-authoring Kidpreneurs and Small Business and several other books with his brother, Adam. Over the past two decades Matthew has built dozens of businesses, turned them into profitable successes, and sold them to investors. His philosophy is all about action and work ethic, and he uses his experiences and past successes to the benefit of burgeoning entrepreneurs as a consultant and speaker for social media marketing.
Scott Lazerson - Founder and CEO of the Interface Foundation, with experience as Executive Director of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation and the Rose Foundation, and Chairman of the Board for Friends of the Arts. Lazerson is well-versed in connecting business to celebrities with his networking skills, to the benefit of a lot of companies and charities. He's driven to connect the best talent with organizations in which they'll truly make a difference, through social media and public relations. Lazerson paves the way for being a guy that can drive links through influencer programs.
Sujan Patel - Co-founder of the growth marketing agency Web Profits, Patel uses his 13 years of digital marketing experience to help several Fortune 500 companies grow their digital marketing campaigns. He's known as energetic, passionate, and fearless, and is one of the most influential consultants today. Patel works an average of 80 hours per week helping companies of all sizes streamline and optimize their social media marketing strategies.
Up & Coming Social Media Stars in 2017
As we move into the new year, and you look to formulate your latest social media marketing strategies, here are a couple of additional experts worth paying attention to:
Ehsan Jahandarpour - Recently featured in Forbes as one the top 20 growth hackers in 2016, Jahandarpour is a startup coach and growth hacker who has helped Microsoft, BBDO, PETRONAS, and other brands grow their business. He created the Advanced Growth Hacking program, a 10-week master class. Jahandarpour owns a successful influencer marketing company and has ties to over 270 authoritative journals around the world. His growth hacking strategies have been featured in Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur.
Dustin Williams - Owner and founding partner of A2Z SEO, Mr. Williams is a seasoned web developer and SEO expert. He's also a leading social media marketing practitioner, and uses his wealth of experience to create robust, comprehensive digital marketing strategies for clients. Williams leverages his SEO expertise to capitalize on the impact of a great social media marketing campaign. He's gained a reputation for going above and beyond clients' expectations and staying up to date with every change in the SEO and social media worlds.
Syed Balkhi - Recognized by the United Nations as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 30, Mr. Balkhi is known for his work with WPBeginner, List25, OptinMonster, SoliloquyWP, Envira Gallery, and Easy WPForms. WPBeginner is the largest WordPress resource site. List25 is a popular entertainment site with over 1.9 million YouTube subscribers. Balkhi has leveraged his entrepreneurial expertise into several 7-figure online businesses. He also writes for The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur.
Top Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Gurus to Follow
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an ever-changing game between search engines and marketers. The SEO industry has boomed into an essential piece of every marketing campaign - and online marketing hinges on SEO. It doesn't matter what kind of company you are or what you have to offer - no one will be interested if they can't find you online.
SEO marketers constantly look for an edge to ensure their sites and content rank well in searches. Search engine companies constantly tweak their algorithms to ensure a level playing field. This means no matter how savvy your online marketing skills, there's always room for improvement.
That's why you need to learn from the best. I've compiled a list of the top SEO gurus to follow on Twitter so you know where to turn for great online marketing advice. These gurus have been around the block and are trusted and respected by their peers. They get results - and by following them, so will you.
Christoph Cemper - Cemper changed the game for SEO with his adaptive software. Cemper developed this reliable and accurate SEO software that adapts to the changing requirements of SEO. In 2009, LinkResearchTools was a Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) suite of four SEO-focused tools. Today, there are 21 different tools that constantly adapt to new developments in SEO. Another notable innovation of Cemper's was Link Detox, a software package that was built on helping websites polish their backlink profiles after the infamous Google Penguin update in 2012. Just last March, he won the award for Best Special SEO Tool for LinkResearchTools at the Semy Awards.
Annie Cushing - Founder of Annielyctics, an analytic consulting and training firm, Cushing makes our list because she staya true to her slogan to make data sexy. Winner of the Raven Tools Best Hashtag Award, Cushing leverages personality and experience for top-tier marketing. Annie is a tender-hearted SEO who's always willing to help anyone in need. She's raised her daughters to follow her footsteps in the world of SEO as well.
Aleyda Solis - A specialist in international SEO and founder of Orainti, Solis also blogs for Moz and SearchEngineLand, and is considered a leading influencer in marketing and SEO. She's been a speaker at over 60 marketing conferences in 15 countries, and provides independent SEO consultations at Orianti. Solis also teaches at Pompeu Fabra University, ISDI Online, and KSchool in Madrid, Spain. Her methods focus on SEO audits and driving organic search engine visibility - she brings new insight into how we think about SEO.
Eric Enge - Named Search Marketer of the Year for 2016 for both US Search Award and the Landy Award. Enge's company, Stone Temple Consulting, is making a name for itself, after winning the Best Large SEO Agency at the US Search Awards. Stone Temple Consulting grew under Enge's leadership from a solo consultancy enterprise into a 70+ employee agency that provides SEO guidance to businesses of all sizes, including many Fortune 500 companies. Enge also co-authored The Art of SEO with Moz.com founder Rand Fishkin in 2009, and this book is now a staple of countless university marketing courses.
Rand Fishkin - Founder of Moz.com and co-founder of Inbound.org, his official title at Moz is the "Wizard of Moz." Fishkin's success with Moz.com is somewhat legendary. He's considered a leading voice in the SEO world and speaks at conferences about SEO, entrepreneurship, and digital marketing. His marketing philosophy is based around making the web a better place, and he does so by helping companies perfect their SEO practices and drive search engine conversions. Chat with Fishkin at a conference and you'll see zero hubris.
Bill Slawski - A former Superior Court manager in Delaware, Slawski is now considered one of the most influential SEO experts and specialists in Google patents. Slawski's SEO blog "SEO by the Sea" uses data directly mined from search engines to see which way the wind will blow in the SEO world. Slawski is a prominent speaker for SEO and marketing best practices, and his expertise stems from years of experience as a marketer, thorough and extensive research, and carefully crafted SEO experimentation.
Jennifer Johnstone - A Landy award winner, Johnstone's work has been awarded time and again. She was named Search Marketer of the Year for 2016 by SearchEngineLand, won the UCF 30 Under 30, and was a finalist for 2016's Women Who Mean Business. We think she'll mean business for the future, too.
Ann Smarty - Smarty is a member of the Internet Marketing Ninjas and has worked as an online marketing consultant for 10 years. Her work has been featured in several respected publications, including SearchEngineLand and Entrepreneur. She's also a community manager for SEOchat, a forum for SEO experts to share their thoughts and expertise, and has contributed to several publications such as Social Media Examiner, Mashable, Lifehack, and Epoch Times.
Adam Torkildson - Founder of Tork Media and owner of Customer Hook and A2Z SEO, Torkildson has spoken at length about the impending death of the SEO industry and is considered an expert in his field. Tork media is centered on thought leadership and content marketing, and has been featured in Forbes, U.S. News, Entrepreneur, and Inc.com. Torkildson works to leverage content to improve SEO results for clients, and specializes in multimedia content built for SEO.
Up & Coming SEO in 2017
2017 is sure to bring exciting (and quite possibly disruptive) changes to the SEO world, so be sure to keep an eye on the thoughts and developments from these individual's tweets in the coming year:
Angela Ruth - Director of marketing and blogger at Due.com, a company focused on digital payment options for businesses that deal in a variety of invoice and currency types, Ruth is also a writer, journalist, and Silicon Valley consultant. Her philosophy is built around the desire to help clients succeed tremendously in their marketing efforts through construct detailed SEO strategies. Her thoughts and experience leave her poised for remarkable contributions to the SEO world in the coming years
Nadav Dakner - Mr. Dakner is the founder and CEO of InboundJunction, an Israeli content marketing company. Dakner's work focuses on increasing a company's visibility through efficient use of content, public relations, and SEO best practices. InboundJunction offers clients the opportunity to grow brand awareness and generate more conversions through thoughtful use of content marketing and increasing traffic.
Conclusion
Almost all of these individuals have built incredibly successful careers by staying in touch with the changes and trends in the technology, marketing, and business worlds. These individuals are poised to lead the way in 2017 and beyond in the world of social media marketing and SEO.
If you're struggling with your own brand's social media or SEO efforts, follow these influencers for inspiration and pointers for how you can improve.