Influencer marketing is nothing new, people have always considered the opinions of their peers as a part of their decision making process. However, the constant rise of social media has caused brands to increase their influencer marketing efforts in recent years, with a 1500% increase in the number of Google searches for “influencer marketing” over the last three years.
The rise in popularity of all social media platforms has meant finding the right people to work with on social media can be a long and time-consuming task. Thankfully BuzzSumo’s extremely handy influencer reports make the whole process a lot easier. I’ve previously spoken about BuzzSumo on multiple occasions before and the Browser Media blog is full of love for their various tools.
What are BuzzSumo influencer reports?
BuzzSumo’s influencer tool allows you to search for topics, domains, or specific users to find the key influencers from within your industry. These individuals, or companies, are then ranked depending upon their ‘influence’ on the specific area you are searching for.
You are able to further refine your list by selecting the type of influencers you want to find (e.g. companies, bloggers, journalists etc.), selecting the locations they are from, and to ensure they are active and engage with their audience.
The influencer reports rank these users based on several factors such as the content they create and share, along with the average number of retweets they receive, and the relevancy of their content. In order words how much they are likely to affect, or influence, a piece of content’s reach.
BuzzSumo is a tool that I use on a regular basis, however, the influencer reports don’t always receive the love they deserve. Therefore, I decided to utilise BuzzSumo’s influencer reports to their full potential and take a deep look into the key influencers in the world of digital marketing.
One important thing to note when looking through the findings below is that I chose to remove any companies and focus purely on the individuals within the industry. While this does run the risk of missing out potential companies who will potentially interact with your content, it also helps to cut out the huge brands who frankly aren’t likely to notice you. For example, Google Analytics and Twitter Marketing both get cut from the list but with approximately 1 millions followers each, the likelihood of them engaging with you is slim. Additionally, in my opinion, a true ‘influencer’ is the specific individual and not the brand as a whole.
What I learnt from BuzzSumo’s influencer reports
Here are some of the key takeaways I found from spending a bit of time getting to know everything BuzzSumo’s influencers tool has to offer.
The first thing that I found interesting is the fact that BuzzSumo’s tool looks at more than just the follower count when analysing the top influencers. Obviously, following plays a big role, but the tool looks past just highlighting those with the largest following. When looking at the top 100 digital marketing influencers this stood out, as the average number of followers was approximately 65,000. Of course, this is still a significant amount compared to your average Twitter user but when the data ranges from users with over 800,000 to users with just over 3,000 it shows that it’s not all about follower count. This is a lesson that a lot of brands can learn when carrying out an influencer marketing campaign. Often people just look for the influencers with the most followers but it’s also important to look at the relationship they have with their audience and the influence they have on your specific industry. You are far more likely to see positive results from someone with an actual interest in your product or industry in comparison to just going for the biggest following.
Additionally, the influencer reports take a deep look into how individuals use Twitter to help truly understand their influence on the industry. By looking at the average number of retweets each ‘influencers’ post receives the tool helps to determine an approximate level of engagement they receive as well as estimated reach. In addition to this, the reports take a look at the percentage of each user’s tweets that are replies, retweets, and contain URLs. This further breaks down the type of content that users are sharing, whilst also helping identify potential collaboration or outreach targets. By highlighting individuals with a higher retweet ratio then you are able to understand who is more likely to potentially share a piece of content or retweet your posts.
It is impossible to create a definitive list of the top influencers for any industry as it’s relatively opinion based, and ultimately social media and influencer marketing is a constantly evolving industry. BuzzSumo’s influencer reports are the perfect tool for those who are looking to kick start their influencer marketing strategy but aren’t quite sure where to start.
Browse the full list of the top 100 digital marketing influencers, according to BuzzSumo, below:
BuzzSumo’s Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers
- Rand Fishkin – @randfish
- Brian Solis – @briansolis
- Dan Knowlton – @dknowlton1
- Eric Enge – @stonetemple
- J.J. De la Torre – @delatorrejj
- Douglas Karr – @douglaskarr
- Barry Schwartz – @rustybrick
- Sorav Jain – @soravjain
- AJ Ghergich – @seo
- Robert Jones – @exodusanalytics
- Ammar Mohammed – @ammr
- James Gurd – @jamesgurd
- Bill Sebald – @billsebald
- Ginny Marvin – @ginnymarvin
- Shashi Bellamkonda – @shashib
- Gareth O’Sullivan – @_garethg
- Jeet Banerjee – @thejeetbanerjee
- Brian Hart – @brianhartpr
- Hrish Thota – @dhempe
- Mack Collier – @mackcollier
- Bonin Bough – @boughb
- Avinash Kaushik – @avinash
- Erik Huberman – @erikhuberman
- Casie Gillette – @casieg
- Gianluca Fiorelli – @gfiorelli1
- Mark Traphagen – @marktraphagen
- Derek Edmond – @derekedmond
- Alex Jiménez – @ralexjimenez
- Patrick – @denmark98
- Fadhila Brahimi – @fbrahimi
- Marc Cortes – @marccortes
- Ian Schafer – @ischafer
- Andrew Grill – @andrewgrill
- AJ Kohn – @ajkohn
- Jon Henshaw – @henshaw
- Greg Gifford – @greggifford
- Paddy Moogan – @paddymoogan
- Mordecai Holtz – @mordecaiholtz
- Tom Goodwin – @tomfgoodwin
- Stoney deGeyter – @stoneyd
- James Malone – @jmalonepr
- Steve Bartlett – @stevebartlettsc
- Randy Milanovic – @kayak360
- Winston Binch – @winstonbinch
- Michael Litman – @mlitman
- Jonathan Long – @long
- Iain Tait – @iaintait
- Kassy Pajarillo – @kassypajarillo
- Jerry Daykin – @jdaykin
- Mark Silva – @marksilva
- Gerry Moran – @gerrymoran
- Dave Knox – @daveknox
- Yann Gourvennec – @ygourven
- Tamar Weinberg – @tamar
- Rae Dolan – @sugarrae
- Adam Sherk – @adamsherk
- Elisabeth Osmeloski – @elisabethos
- Simo Ahava – @simoahava
- Chris Ducker – @chrisducker
- Matt McGee – @mattmcgee
- Lisa Myers – @lisadmyers
- Oli Gardner – @oligardner
- Frederick Vallaeys – @siliconvallaeys
- Mel Carson – @melcarson
- Maria Johnsen – @imariajohnsen
- Scott Galloway – @profgalloway
- Ross Simmonds – @thecoolestcool
- Martin MacDonald – @searchmartin
- Vanessa DiMauro – @vdimauro
- Brian Clark – @brianclark
- Ann Tran – @anntran_
- John Mueller – @johnmu
- Manuel Diaz – @manueldiaz
- Tamara McCleary – @tamaramccleary
- Alex Moss – @alexmoss
- Minter Dial – @mdial
- Brandon Berger – @brandonberger
- Nate Dame – @seonate
- David Griner – @griner
- Graham Charlton – @gcharlton
- Andrew Girdwood – @andrewgirdwood
- Joe Hall – @joehall
- Sean Gardner – @2morrowknight
- Will Francis – @willfrancis
- Matthew Howells-Barby – @matthewbarby
- Will Critchlow – @willcritchlow
- Jenny Halasz – @jennyhalasz
- Dorie Clark – @dorieclark
- Nick Westergaard – @nickwestergaard
- Angie Schottmuller – @aschottmuller
- Ashwini Dodani – @ashwinidodani
- Kent Lewis – @kentjlewis
- Dan Gingiss – @dgingiss
- Kevin Gibbons – @kevgibbo
- Christoph Trappe – @ctrappe
- Duane Forrester – @duaneforrester
- Hernán Rodríguez – @rodriguezhernan
- Scott Brinker – @chiefmartec
- Arnie Kuenn – @arniek
- Amber Naslund – @ambercadabra
Congratulations to everyone who made the top 100, keep up the good work!!
