10 Top Influencers to Guide You through the Social-Media Jungle in 2016

Post by Adi Englander

adi-englander

Social media, like life, is a rollercoaster of ups and downs. It’s full of supporters and fans, as well as friction, surprises and risks.

A marketing manager could wake up to discover worldwide approval for a witty tweet, only to face a tidal wave of bad press an hour later because of a hashtag that went wrong. Even worse, the bright spotlight of social media could turn a minor mistake into a potential legal disaster.

Also, care needs to be taken when switching from platform to platform. Every social network is a unique world of its own, with separate sets of best practices. An image or advertisement that works spectacularly well on Facebook might not work in the slightest on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Besides all the pitfalls that can happen in the untamed land of social media marketing, many small brands face an even tougher challenge: gaining fans and followers in the first place. With so many millions of campaigns, ads, products and personalities shouting for attention, what can a new business do to be seen through all the chaos?

Fortunately, plenty of expert advice is available. While you may not have the resources to hire a social-media firm to take the helm, you can certainly learn from the blogs, articles and tweets of experienced social influencers.

What follows is a list of 10 such influencers. If you’re looking for trustworthy guidance that’s sure to get results, consider these marketing leaders to be your mentors. Start checking in with them today!

Neil Patel

Twitter
com blog
Kissmetrics blog
Neil’s column at Entrepreneur

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, Neil created one of the 100 most brilliant companies in the world. He was named one of the top ten online marketers by Forbes, and a top influencer on the web by the Wall Street Journal.

There aren’t many marketers or entrepreneurs who don’t know of Neil Patel. A knowledgeable social-media leader and entrepreneur from his youth, Neil is trusted worldwide as a source of inspiration and practical advice that always gets results.

The resources Neil founded – Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, Quick Sprout, and KISSmetrics – have been influential in the marketing world. His contributions to Inc.com, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Huffington Post have been indispensable to entrepreneurs and marketers alike.

Some of the brands Neil has worked with include giants like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom.

A quote to remember:

“Visuals are the currency of sharing on social media. Text-only updates can only convey so much and get so far. Here are 3 stats that prove the worth of creating graphics.

First, 66% of all social media posts are or include images.

Second, forget native visual platforms, like Instagram and Pinterest, that allow photo sharing. In 2013, Facebook became the largest photo sharing website, with its users uploading 350 million photos every day.

Third, use of images was rated as the most important social media optimization tactic, in a 2014 survey by Adobe and Software Advice.” (Read more)

Rebekah Radice

Twitter
Imagine WOW blog
Rebekah’s blog

A seasoned marketer with over 17 years of experience, Rebekah Radice’s website has been voted a “2015 Top 10 Social Media Blog” by Social Media Examiner. She was also recently named an Inman Top 100 Most Influential Leader for the second year in a row, and was one of the Top Ten Most Shared Content Marketers of 2014.

Rebekah is the CMO of the social-media engagement app Post Planner, and she co-founded the digital marketing agency Imagine WOW. She also co-founded Social Success Academy, a digital marketing agency and social media training platform designed to help businesses and brands build a vibrant online presence.

Rebekah is the author of a free resource called “How to Use Social Media to Virtually Crush the Competition.” This ebook includes ten steps to use social media to position your business or personal brand as the go-to leader within your industry or niche.

A quote to remember:
“If there’s one social media question I receive more than any other it’s this…

With over 4.75 billion pieces of content shared daily on Facebook alone, how do you get seen? And more than that, how do you encourage your audience to take action?

While visibility and engagement are tough nuts to crack, my answer is simple. Get specific. Because without a clear call to action, your fans and followers have no directive.” (Read more)

Mari Smith

Twitter
Mari’s blog
Contributor to Social Media Examiner

Mari Smith is one of the world’s foremost experts on social media marketing. She has been so influential that she’s rightfully earned the title “The Queen of Facebook.” In fact, Facebook has selected to partner with her as their leading Facebook Marketing expert.

Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp has said that Mari is one of the top ten Most Influential Small Business People on Twitter. Fast Company called her “A veritable engine of personal branding, a relationship marketing whiz and the Pied Piper of the Online World.” And Forbes named her one of the Top Ten Social Media Power Influencers.

Mari is the co-author of a popular book called Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day, as well as the author of The New Relationship Marketing: How to Build a Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web.

A quote to remember:

“Facebook Live is growing in leaps and bounds. Companies that want to be on the leading edge would do well to integrate Facebook Live video into their marketing strategies. Not just content marketing, but also looking ahead into the not too distant future for how you can integrate live video into your social customer care.” (Read more)

Sujan Patel

Twitter
Web Profits blog
Contributor to Entrepreneur
Contributor to Forbes

According to social-media marketing guru Sujan Patel, “When I’m not working 13.3 hours a day, 6 days a week, you can find me racing cars or motorcycles. If you look up, you may even see me jumping out of a plane.” Sujan puts this much passion into everything he does and writes.
The co-founder of Web Profits, he has worked with such well-known brands as KitchenAid, Sales Force, Yahoo!, Inuit, Zillow, and many others. Web Profits has established offices in the U.S., Singapore, Romania, and Australia.

Sujan is a key partner in software companies Mailshake, Narrow, Quuu and ContentMarketer.io.

He’s also the VP of Marketing at When I Work, which is “the easiest way to schedule and communicate with your hourly employees.”

A quote to remember:
“It’s important to take a break from ‘serious’ once in a while. It helps if that break is part of your brand/personal identity. Your followers are people, and people love to laugh. If you’re short on content ideas, work on drafting updates with some kind of emotional connection — especially if they’re funny. Emotion, stories and general levity can increase engagement and create positive association with brands.” (Read more)

Andy Crestodina

Twitter
Column in Social Media Examiner
Andy’s blog

Andy is a sought-after content marketer, speaker and a web design guru who founded Orbit Media, a web design company out of Chicago that helps companies develop SEO friendly and ROI positive websites.

Andy was recently named #3 on a list of “10 Online Influencers in 2015” by Forbes. He’s also known as a top-rated speaker and a contributing blogger for many high end websites, where he shares his knowledge on topics such as content marketing, online marketing and web design.

Recently, Andy wrote a book called Content Chemistry, where he analyzes conversations with thousands of company on a journey to the ultimate content marketing strategy. The book has a theory based part, as well as actionable tips and marketing in practice chapter that ought to help any aspiring content marketer.

A quote to remember:

The “funnel” is just a metaphor for the path that visitors take on their way to becoming leads, starting with awareness and ending with action. If you’re not getting leads, it’s because there’s a weakness in your funnel.” (Read more).

Ian Clearly

RazorSocial blog
Twitter

Ian has spent the past 20+ years in technology and digital marketing. He founded RazorSocial, a leading site on Social Media tools. Ian says the following about RazorSocial: “Most people are afraid or unsure how to go about making online marketing work for them. We’re here to help set the record straight so you don’t waste precious time.”

Ian has been listed as owning one of the top internet marketing blogs globally by Inc. in 2016, and listed as one of the top 50 content marketing influencers globally in 2015. Also, he’s been included in the Top 40 Digital Strategists in a recent annual report by Online Marketing Institute, and a Top 10 Twitter Maverick in a recent Huffington Post article.

He has been published in Entrepreneur.com, VentureBeat, MarketingProfs, Huffington Post, Social Media Examiner, and many other well-known online resources. He’s also a speaker at many international events, including Martech, Social Media Marketing World, Content Marketing World and Tbex.

A quote to remember:
“Imagine if you owned a shop and you could follow up everyone who walked into your shop with an advertisement. You could even change your ad based on what aisles they visited…
…the products they picked up

…the part of the shop they visited

…which cash register they went to

…or didn’t go to.

Powerful?

Yes!!!

Facebook custom audiences are this and much more.” (Read more)

Eve Mayer

Eve Mayer is the CEO of Social Media Delivered – “a communications company leveraging social media tools to get business done using proven strategies.”

Eve was recognized by Forbes as 5th most Influential Woman in Social Media. CNN named her one of the Eight Women to follow on Twitter, and Inc. Magazine said she is one of 21 social-media marketers to follow on Twitter.

Eve is the Author of The Social media Business Equation, and Get It Girl Guide to Online Dating. She is currently working on her fourth book due out in early 2017 – Hypertransparency, The Commitment to Truth in a Company Culture and in Social Media that Leads to Joy and Profit.

She’s also a professional speaker, having spoken in over 50 cities and 6 countries for corporations, universities, nonprofits, associations and government organizations. Her speaking topics include Social Media, LinkedIn for Sales, Twitter for Business, Women Empowerment, Marketing to Millennials, Company Culture, and many others.

A quote to remember:

“There is no way to avoid failure. It’s going to happen, it has always happened, it will still happen. One of the great things about social media is that we can pivot and we can shift what we’re doing. So, if we go along and we measure; we see that things aren’t working, we can make some changes to see if they will work. Then, we have to be ok with letting things go that don’t work. And being ok with failing.”
(Read more)

Krishna De

A highly regarded social-media influencer, Krishna De is also respected as a personal branding expert, live-stream strategist, mobile brand journalist, and a well-known keynote speaker.

In her practice, Krishna works with agencies to help them effectively integrate their inbound marketing. She also helps her agency clients communicate social-media frameworks and deliver social-media communications programs.

Because Krishna has lived and worked in Asia, North America, Western Europe and Eastern Europe, she has a breadth of experience in growing businesses internationally.

Krishna offers several free resources to spread her knowledge of effective social media practices. One of these resources is a live streaming interview series called The Live Stream Insiders Show.

A quote to remember:

“…Paying no attention to comments for your Facebook Live stream either by responding in the comments (which I do for the Live Stream Insiders show) or verbally referencing comments from the audience demonstrates that you do not value their attention and the time they spend with you.

The comments from viewers can also fundamentally change the tone and content of your live stream and even influence areas such as new product development, business processes and marketing communications of your products and services.” (Read more)

Mike Allton

An award-wining social media blogger, Mike is the editor at The Social Media Hat – an informative resource for small businesses and organizations. Through the Social Media Hat, Mike regularly shares articles discussing Social Media, SEO, Blogging, Internet Marketing and Business Technology.

According to Mike, “My goal is to ensure that businesses are able to leverage the power and connectivity of the Internet to promote and grow their business.”

Mike’s consulting services include Social Media, blogging and SEO. He also helps clients use content to increase web traffic, generate leads, nurture leads through the sales cycle, and convert those leads into sales and customers.

He is also a HootSuite Certified Professional, and the author of The Unofficial Book on HootSuite: The #1 Tool for Social Media Managemen.

A quote to remember:

“Facebook Reach has been going down for brands, and will likely continue to go down to as little as 1% in the coming years. To ensure the effectiveness of your Facebook activity, it’s critical that you create the kind of activity that your audience craves and Facebook rewards.

Right now, that means sharing images and video content. Even when you have an article you want to share, that share must be created as an image or video post rather than a link preview.” (Read more.)

Peg Fitzpatrick

Twitter
Peg’s website

Peg Fitzpatrick is a popular social media speaker, trainer and author. Along with Guy Kawasaki, she’s co-author of The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users.

Peg has a total social media following of over 1.3 million followers on multiple channels, and manages a total social platform of 13 million followers. Covering all the major social media platforms, she frequently hears, “You’re everywhere!”

Working with global brands and leaders in the social media sphere, Peg has spearheaded successful campaigns with Motorola, Audi, Google, Kimpton Hotels, McDonald’s, Poo~Pourri, and Virgin. In her words, “I work with the best brands and make them even better!”

Peg has spoken at some of the largest conferences and events, such as a keynote at SXSW, International Association of Business Communicators, Social Media Marketing World, INBOUND, Blogher and Blogher Pro, Altitude Design Summit, and others.

A quote to remember:

“Every single community that grows on social media has its own unique DNA. While they may share some similarities, they will have different personalities based on the people, tone of voice for the people running the community, and rules – written or unwritten.

These unique elements make social media communities successful and sometimes fail. Understand that you’ll need to spend time actively engaged with your social media accounts to find out: