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15 industry influencers worth following on Twitter

By Emi Gal

October 14, 2014 | 7 min read

As those working in the creative industries, we are expected to be on top of the latest trends and come up with ideas that will benefit our clients. Whether that’s through an innovative new product or using a new technology in our marketing, our insights and knowledge matter.

More often than not Twitter is the go-to source for researching the latest information from your industry, and it is a great tool for connecting with key influencers working in your space. The 140 word limit forces us to communicate clearly and concisely – or decide immediately whether a tweet is worth investigating further.

What’s more, your entire Twitter feed can tell you all you need to know in a short snapshot, as long as you’re following the right people.

So, with a focus on quality not quantity, I’ve pulled together a list of 15 influencers I recommend following to stay on top of the latest innovations and industry buzz.

(In no particular order...)

Paddy Cosgrave

@paddycosgrave

19.2k followers

Paddy Cosgrave is the founder of the highly acclaimed F.ounders and runs the Dublin Web Summit. An entrepreneur himself, his tweets focus on the latest in the start-up space. Expect more lists of people you should know, insightful retweets from the Web Summit blog and opinions on the future of tech.

Mike Butcher

@mikebutcher

87.9k followers

Mike is the editor of TechCrunchEurope, one of the most respected tech blogs and is certainly an influencer to follow. He is also co-founder of TechHub, Coadec and the popular Europas event. Mike tweets about everything start-up and tech so you should be following him if your work involves any of these areas.

Andrew Chen

@andrewchen

80.5k followers

Andrew Chen is an ex-VC with tons of knowledge and expertise which he imparts through Twitter and his weekly newsletter. He regularly posts about tech, start-ups and marketing. Expect infographics, videos, opinions and retweets from others saying valuable things.

Bryan Adams

@Bryan_phc

17.6k followers

Bryan Adams is chief executive of digital agency Ph.Creative. Bryan’s Twitter feed is a great assortment of helpful articles, guides and tips for anyone interested in SEO, social media and content marketing.

Colin Dixon

@nScreenMedia

1,148 followers

Interested in multiscreen media? Follow Colin Dixon, owner of nScreenMedia, for a daily update on the latest on broadcast consumption patterns.

Nicole Simon

@nicolesimon

14k followers

Nicole Simon helps start-ups understand and use digital tools to improve their online presence. Perhaps it’s no surprise that her tweets will have you opening countless tabs since she tweets such interesting articles. Though very involved in the Berlin start-up scene, agencies will find her insightful and entertaining regardless of field or location.

Chris Dixon

@cdixon

141k followers

Chris is a super connector in the tech world and lists Kickstarter, Foursquare, Stripe and Pinterest as just a few of his very successful investments. His ‘tell it as you see it’ style, knowledge and interests makes for amusing yet informative reading.

David Tisch

@davetisch

33.7k followers

David is an angel investor and co-founder of TechStars NYC. Take a look at his Twitter feed and you will learn about a lot of cool start-ups that are helping businesses as well as more consumer focused start-ups. His tweets are also quite entertaining to read.

Ed Dale

@Ed_Dale

57.5k followers

Ed Dale is the founder of Ultimate Product System and Digital Publishing Blueprint. This guy is an internet marketing guru and you’ll be surprised at the quality of information he gives out for free on Twitter – infographics, videos, blog posts... the whole lot.

David Sifry

@dsifry

12.6k followers

A serial entrepreneur, David’s Twitter feed contains helpful links to articles and mentions of start-ups making things that would be useful for any business. You can trust his opinion as the founder of several companies including: Technorati, Offbeat Guides, Linuxcare and others.

Richard Ting

@flytip

11.3k followers

Self-described lover of design/tech/mobile/social and also the EVP of R/GA, a connected devices accelerator, Richard’s tweets are a goldmine of posts, useful to anyone working within the things he loves.

Nick Bilton

@nickbilton

231k followers

Nick Bilton is a columnist for the New York Times and tweets generally about the bigger stories happening in the start-up world. Interestingly enough he’s also the author of ‘Hatching Twitter’, a highly rated book following the story of how Twitter came to be.

Dave Berkowitz

@dberkowitz

25.7k followers

Dave is chief marketing officer at creative agency MRY and sometimes contributes to Ad Age. His tweets will be insightful to those working in advertising in particular, but all agencies will be able to find some value in his twitter feed.

Steve Strauss

@SteveStrauss

22.5k followers

Steve Strauss is a small business columnist and spokesperson at USA Today. Almost all of his tweets are business advice-led and so all agencies will find something useful from his feed.

Anita Campbell

@smallbiztrends

121k followers

Anita is chief executive of Small Business Trends and BizSugar. She was also described by Forbes as a top influential woman for entrepreneurs. I can’t imagine any agency not getting value from several of her tweets based around anything from CRM to productivity tools to branding. Add her to your list now.

Emi Gal is the founder and chief executive of Brainient. You can find Emi on Twitter @emigal.

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