Selecting the top 100 Twitter accounts that every business, technology, and leadership person should follow on Twitter was not an easy task. To ensure proper due diligence I decided to ask my nearly 11,000 Twitter followers for their input. I was pleasantly surprised by the commonality of their suggestions to my list. My criteria for selecting the very best Twitter accounts was based on three factors:
- Content quality: Intelligent, current, thought provoking, forward looking, and inspiring commentary that makes you challenge your own assumptions.
- Contribution frequency: Thought leaders who are highly active social networkers and produce daily content that benefits their network.
- A willingness to engage:: A willingness to engage the network is what social is all about. Leadership is conversations and the willingness to converse with your network is a very important element of collaboration.
Our list will start with media companies and organizations that produce amazing daily content, covering a very rich and diverse set of business, leadership and technology news. [Lists sorted alphabetically by Twitter account]
- All Things D - @allthingsD
- Alltop - @alltop
- Business Insider - @businessinsider
- CIO Online - @cioonline
- FastCompany - @FastCompany
- Forbes - @Forbes
- Gigaom - @gigaom
- Harvard Business Review - @HarvardBiz
- Hubspot - @hubspot
- Huffington Post - @huffingtonpost
- INC Magazine - @Inc
- InformationWeek - @informationweek
- Mashable - @Mashable
- MIT Sloan Management Review - @MITsmr
- New York Times - @NYtimes
- TechCrunch - @techchrunch
- Techmeme - @techmeme
- The Atlantic - @theAtlantic
- Wall Street Journal - @WSJ
The next group consists of absolutely brilliant thought leaders who are experts in the fields of business, management, leadership, politics, economics, education, and personal development. They frequently produce inspiring content that enable us to reach our full potential. Most importantly, they are thought leaders who are willing to truly engage via Twitter; they are thankful, humble, and ideal mentors. These thought leaders are truly brilliant, accomplished and mindful of their social networks.
- Robin Sharma - @_robin_sharma
- Sean Gardner - @2morrowknight
- Angela Maiers - @AngelaMaiers
- Ann Tran - @anntran_
- Cheryl K. Burgess - @ckburgess
- Clay Christensen - @claychristensen
- Cory Booker - @corybooker
- Daniel Newman - @danielnewmanUV
- Daniel Pink - @DanielPink
- Dorie Clarck - @dorieclark
- Deb Mills-Scofield - @dscofield
- Don Tapscott - @dtapscott
- John Jantsch - @ducttape
- Erika Andersen - @erikaandersen
- Gianpiero Petriglieri - @gpetriglieri
- Heidi Grant Halvorson @hghalvorson
- Shep Hyken - @Hyken
- Jeff Bullas - @jeffbullas
- Jesse Lyn Stoner - @JesseLynStoner
- Kare Anderson - @kareanderson
- Tristan Bishop - @knowledgebishop
- Dan Rockwell - @leadershipfreak
- Steve Keating - @leadtoday
- Liz Strauss - @lizstrauss
- Lolly Daskal - @LollyDaskal
- Ann Handley - @marketingprofs
- Mari Smith - @marismith
- Marsha Collier - @MarshaCollier
- Mike Myatt - @mikemyatt
- Pam Moore - @PamMktgNut
- Paulo Coelho - @paulocoelho
- Petteri Tarkkonen - @ptarkkonen
- Richard Branson - @richardbranson
- Rosabeth Moss Kanter - @RosabethKanter
- Shawn Murphy - @shawmu
- Simon Sinek - @simonsinek
- Martin Zwilling - @startuppro
- Steve Denning - @stevedenning
- Ted Coine - @TedCoine
- Ted Rubin - @tedrubin
- Tom Peters - @Tom_Peters
- Tony Robbins - @tonyrobbins
- Tony Schwartz - @tonyschwartz
- Umair Haque - @umairh
The final group of social leaders actively share innovation, startups, technology, and business transformation thought leadership content on Twitter. This group of entrepreneurs, authors, CXO business executives, venture capitalists, analysts, pundits, and futurists are engaging, super smart, and are shaping future business and technology trends.
- Amy Jo Martin - @amyjomartin
- David Armano - @armano
- Marc Benioff - @benioff
- Bill Gross - @bill_gross
- Brian Solis - @briansolis
- Chris Brogan - @chrisbrogan
- Dave Gray - @davegray
- Dave McClure - @davemcclure
- Alex Howard - @digiphile
- Ekaterina Walter - @ekaterina
- Fred Wilson - @fredwilson
- Gary Vaynerchuk - @garyvee
- Guy Kawasaki - @guykawasaki
- Jason Falls - @jasonfalls
- John Gallant - @johngallant1
- John Nosta - @johnnosta
- Whitney Johnson @johnsonwhitney
- Jon Ferrara - @jon_ferrara
- Jeremiah Owyang - @jowyang
- Krishnan Subramanian - @krishnan
- Aaron Levie - @levie
- Mark Fidelman - @markfidelman
- Meghan M. Biro - @meghanmbiro
- Mark P McDonald - @markpmcdonald
- Mitch Lieberman - @mjayliebs
- Michael Krigsman - @mkrigsman
- Mark Suster - @msuster
- Nilofer Merchant - @nilofer
- Om Malik - @om
- Paul Greenberg - @pgreenbe
- Raj Setty - @rajsetty
- Roman Stanek - @romanstanek
- Ray Wang - @rwang0
- Robert Scoble - @scobleizer
- Scott D Anthony - @scottdanthony
- Steve Case - @stevecase
- Tim O'Reilly - @timoreilly
I know that as soon as I submit the list, I will be reminded of the names that I omitted. There are so many more amazing people that I learn from on Twitter. I did carefully review all of the input that I received from my Twitter network and I included most of the recommendations.
I hope you connect with these 100 amazing Twitter accounts and learn from them as much as I have. Happy networking!
This post is part of a series co-produced by The Huffington Post and Blogworld, in conjunction with the latter's BusinessNext Social 2013. That event will feature some of the world's leading social-business luminaries and influencers, each of whom will be speaking at the event to provide an up-close look at how the world's most successful businesses harness the power of social.