We are approaching the second anniversary of our top 100 digital marketing influencer report, according to Buzzsumo, so let’s dive back into Buzzsumo and take a look at what has happened over the past 12 months.
Influencer marketing has been going from strength to strength in recent years with brands now seeing it as a core element of their marketing strategy. While the past 12 months have been uncertain due to the pandemic, the popularity of influencer marketing has continued to grow. According to the 2021 Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report from Influencer Marketing Hub, 75% of respondents intend to have a dedicated budget for influencer marketing in 2021.
Therefore, it’s important for these brands to ensure they are working with the ideal influencer for their audience and campaign. There are countless tools online that help identify key influencers and for this report, I am using Buzzsumo’s influencer reports.
What are Buzzsumo’s influencer reports?
If you have read the last two instalments of our top 100 digital marketing influencer reports you will be well aware of Buzzsumo’s influencer report. But, here is a quick overview, or you can find out more about why Buzzsumo is the perfect tool for content marketers here.
BuzzSumo’s influencer tool identifies key influencers based on various search options such as a certain topic, domains, or searching specific users. These individuals, or companies, are then ranked depending upon their ‘influence’ on the specific search term. Influence is often a difficult thing to define, however, Buzzsumo states that someone’s influence is measured by how much they can impact the reach of a post or article.
The influencer report can then be altered to sort results depending on various factors including the content they create and share, the average number of retweets they receive, and the relevancy of their content.
For the following list, I have removed any companies that were included, to help highlight specific influencers. As a result, some large brands such as Moz, Econsultancy, and Google Analytics have been removed in order to highlight individuals, not companies. Other than that the list has not been manipulated, it has been pulled directly from Buzzsumo, meaning neither myself nor Browser Media has had any impact on individual positioning.
Key digital marketing influencer stats for 2021
- Once again, this list shows that having a lot of followers doesn’t necessarily mean that an individual has the greatest influence. The average number of followers is approximately 88,000, and while that is still a relatively large following, the range varies from just over 3,000 to over 3 million.
- The average number of followers has dropped slightly from 2020 where it was approximately 94,000, however, the number of accounts these users are following has also decreased over the past 12 months (39,000 vs 17,000). This points to the fact that these individuals are more selective on who they are following, and could point to a rise in working with smaller influencers who may have a more engaged following.
- On average these individuals get 18 retweets per post which highlights the fact that their audience is constantly engaging with their posts. Additionally, 40% of all tweets shared by these influencers are replies, further pointing to the fact that they are engaging with their audience, which in turn boosts their influence.
- Following on from the above point, on average 17% of all tweets shared from these 100 influencers are retweets. Again, this shows that they are engaging with their audience and sharing content posted by other users, another example of how they are influencing the reach of a post.
Buzzsumo’s Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers for 2021
- Sorav Jain – @soravjain
- Neil Patel – @neilpatel
- Rand Fishkin – @randfish
- Eric Enge – @stonetemple
- Amber Naslund – @ambercadabra
- Barry Schwartz – @rustybrick
- Rahul Wadhawan – @rahul_wadhawan
- J.J. De la Torre – @delatorrejj
- Douglas Karr – @douglaskarr
- Amit Panchal – @amithpanchal
- AJ Ghergich – @seo
- Brian Dean – @backlinko
- Robert Jones – @exodusanalytics
- Ciamhie Mc – @ciamhiemc
- Mandy Edwards – @memktgservices
- Dan Knowlton – @dknowlton1
- Tod Maffin – @todmaffin
- Nathan Allen Pirtle – @workwthecoach
- Bob Hutchins – @bobhutchins
- Ammar Mohammed – @ammr
- Bill Sebald – @billsebald
- John Lincoln –@johnelincoln
- Shashi Bellamkonda – @shashib
- Dennis Yu – @dennisyu
- Jay Feitlinger – @jayfeitlinger
- Avinash Kaushik – @avinash
- Franz Russo – @franzrusso
- Clo Willaerts – @bnox
- Derek Edmond – @derekedmond
- Gareth O’Sullivan – @_garethg
- Alex Jiménez – @ralexjimenez
- Ryan Deiss – @ryandeiss
- Oli Gardner – @oligardner
- Ian Schafer – @ischafer
- Fadhila Brahimi – @fbrahimi
- Cyril Coste – @cyrilcoste
- Jon Henshaw – @henshaw
- AJ Kohn – @ajkohn
- Marc Cortes – @marccortes
- Andrew Grill – @andrewgrill
- Marie Haynes – @marie_haynes
- Mordecai Holtz – @mordecaiholtz
- Paddy Moogan – @paddymoogan
- Andrew Hickey – @andrewmhickey
- Stoney deGeyter – @stoneyd
- Ned James – @ned_james2
- Jamie Riddell – @jamieriddell
- Dan Sodergren – @dansodergren
- Winston Binch – @winstonbinch
- Kristi Kellogg – @kristikellogg
- Mike McGrail – @mike_mcgrail
- Samuel Scott – @samueljscott
- Minter Dial – @mdial
- Alex Moss – @alexmoss
- Mark Silva – @marksilva
- Jamie Turner – @askjamieturner
- Ashwini Dodani – @ashwinidodani
- Jerry Daykin – @jdaykin
- Jonathan Lacoste – @lacostejonathan
- Geoff D. – @geoffdx
- Chris Harrington – @chrisharrington
- Linda Boff – @lindaboff
- Derek Halpern – @derekhalpern
- Gabriele Carboni – @gabbariele
- Donald Miller – @donaldmiller
- Peep Laja – @peeplaja
- Bryan Eisenberg – @thegrok
- Chris Winfield – @chriswinfield
- Matt Cutts – @mattcutts
- Eric Siu – @ericosiu
- Lisa Barone – @lisabarone
- Cameron Conaway – @cameronconaway
- Alan K’necht – @aknecht
- Bryan Adams – @bryan_phc
- Mike Ramsey – @mikeramsey
- Yehoshua Coren – @analyticsninja
- Andrew Medal – @andrewmedal
- Amy Landino – @schmittastic
- Sean Ellis – @seanellis
- Gary Vaynerchuk – @garyvee
- Roberto Blake – @robertoblake
- Chad Pollitt – @chadpollitt
- Syed Balkhi – @syedbalkhi
- Kristi Hines – @kristileilani
- Lara O’Reilly – @larakiara
- Gary Illyes – @methode
- Michael Litman – @mlitman
- Laurent Bour – @laurentbour
- Christina Nicholson – @christinaallday
- Christine Gritmon – @cgritmon
- Iain Tait – @iaintait
- Brittany Berger – @thatbberg
- Jonathan Long – @long
- Steven Bartlett – @stevebartlettsc
- Tarcizio Silva – @tarciziosilva
- Hrish Thota – @dhempe
- Mayur Gupta – @inspiremartech
- Brandon Berger – @brandonberger
- Jeet Banerjee – @thejeetbanerjee
- Matthew Howells-Barby – @matthewbarby
Congratulations to all the new entries to the top 100, and congratulations to everyone how feature in either of the previous editions!!
** Disclaimer – Browser Media has had no influence or impact on this list, it is solely based on Buzzsumo’s influencer reports. To ensure the data remains fair and impartial there has been no alteration from any other sources. **