Advertising

The 25 Most Influential Ad Execs On Twitter

Jim Edwards

2013-06-29T16:00:00Z

Gini Dietrich is the 11th most influential ad exec on Twitter. Gini Dietrich / YouTube

When we asked our friends at PeekAnalytics to tell us who the most influential ad execs on Twitter are, we expected to get back a list of the usual suspects. You know, the most famous CEOs at the biggest agencies, plus Seth Godin, Lee Clow's Beard, and perhaps KBS+'s Lori Senecal, who once bought promoted tweets for herself.

In fact, none of the huge names of advertising are influential on Twitter, according to PeekAnalytics. The company ranked our Twitterers by "social pull" as opposed to mere total followers. Social pull is a "metric which takes into account not only the quantity of each audience's connections across 60 social networking sites, but also how active and connected, and therefore influential, those connections are."

One of the names on our list has an amazing 313,000 followers. Most have more than 10,000, with many in the mid five figures.

We learned that to be successful on Twitter as an ad exec, you have to be positive and upbeat. No Debbie Downers here.

The way to get retweeted is to give advice, and offer a lot of aphorisms about success in business.

The medium also lends itself to specialists like John Sonnhalter. He has nearly 14,000 followers on Twitter but few on Madison Avenue will recognize his name — he specializes in ads and sales for the construction business.

24. Jeffrey Zeldman of Happy Cog, a design agency that has MTV and Zappos as a client.

Social Pull: 409

Followers: 313,152

Typical tweet: "What knitting was to our grandmothers, unbuggering iCloud is in our time." (Zeldman's tweets tend to be personal, stream of consciousness stuff.)

23. Bruce Turkel of Turkel Brands, a branding agency for Miami travel and tourism clients.

Social Pull: 416

Followers: 9,794

Typical tweet: "'Advertising doesn't create product advantage. It only conveys it.' Bill Bernbach #brandisms 126/365 "

22. Mitch Joel, president of Twist Image, a digital marketing agency that has Walmart and TD Bank as clients.

Social Pull: 424

Followers: 50,421

Typical tweet: "An amazing (and new!) 20 minute video of Seth Godin talking about creativity and theme is backwards: http://bit.ly/11PrB8A "

19. Pablo Hernandez O'Hagan, CEO of the Ingenia Group, a digital ad agency based in Mexico City and New York that has Diageo and Visa as clients.

Social Pull: 440

Followers: 31,980

Typical Tweet: 5 Email Habits That Can Destroy Your Productivity | The New OPEN Forum http://goo.gl/vqZN1

18. Steven De Costa, executive director at Link Digital, an Australian digital agency.

Social Pull: 490

Followers: 10,797

Typical tweet: "You know you are a geek when you setup Atlassian OnDemand for your family to manage 'projects' at home. #sadbuttrue"

17. Stephanie Agresta, global director of digital at MSL Group, the fourth largest PR agency network in the world.

Social Pull: 499

Followers: 20,857

Typical tweet: "Watching @CarolynEverson More people now access Facebook on phones than desktops!! 350 MM photos are uploaded every day. #SignalPG"

15. Jonny Longden, director of analytics at R/GA, a digital ad agency whose clients include Nike and Verizon.

Social pull: 570

Followers: 21,182

Typical tweet: "How to Audit Your Facebook Advertising Account to Improve Campaign Performance http://bit.ly/18AD9lj - #seo"

13. David Armano, managing director of Edelman Digital Chicago. He also writes the Logic+Emotion blog.

Social Pull: 578

Followers: 60,661

Typical tweet: "(Great headline) Design, And Insecurity, Is Back At Apple http://bit.ly/13z6F5y"

11. Gini Dietrich, CEO at Arment Dietrich, writer of the SpinSucks.com blog and an eponymous YouTube channel of advice for PR people.

Social Pull: 612

Followers: 29,526

Typical tweet: "This is hilarious! RT @prdaily Is this the worst corporate photo ever? http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/46866.aspx …"

10. Matt Singley, founder of Singley + Mackie, a digital agency whose clients include Microsoft and EA.

Social Pull: 629

Followers: 33,086

Typical tweet: "Sometimes you have to break something before you can fix it. Though this can have deep meaning, in this case I'm just talking Wordpress."

9. Jeremy Goldman, founder of the Firebrand Group, a brand engagement consultancy whose clients include Unilever.

Firebrand Group

Social Pull: 636

Followers: 44,009

Typical tweet: "Sometimes Klout is so entertaining - it's telling me the top influencers of @DrOz are @Spotify, @HowardU, & @kirstiealley. Huh?"

8. John Sonnhalter, founder of Sonnhalter, a marketing communications firm for the construction and industrial markets.

Social pull: 654

Followers: 13,576

Typical tweet: "Increase Your Sales Revenue by 20% Using Your Existing Inquiries http://wp.me/ptRHr-qp"

7. Steve Rubel, chief content strategist for Edelman.

Social Pull: 668

Followers: 80,404

Typical tweet: "Great advice on trusting your gut - Life’s Work: Arnold Palmer http://bitly.com/13Rsjk5"

5. Cameron Gawley, cofounder at Buzzshift, a digital strategy agency.

Social Pull: 721

Followers: 16,068

Typical tweet: "SkyMall: The Strange Story of America's Most Delightfully Weird Magazine http://prsm.tc/O6p1zN"

3. Danny Devriendt, managing director, Universal McCann Belgium.

Social Pull: 1,193

Followers: 36,516

Typical tweet: "Short but good: -- Superfans: The Secret Weapon In Marketing http://zite.to/13EJpTR (Forbes)"

2. Myles Bristowe, CMO of CommCreative, a lead generation marketing agency with a focus on ROI. His clients include GE Healthcare Financial Services and John Hancock.

Social Pull: 1,243

Followers: 62,656

Typical tweet: "What marketers can learn from the movie "office space". #marketingcookie http://gag.gl/109yE"

1. Jeff Barrett, CEO at Status Creative, a media content and PR agency. He is also a columnist for Mashable.

Social Pull: 1,351

Followers: 93,547

Typical tweet: "That was an uncomfortable 30 seconds with Miss Utah. #ThatsWhatISaid #missusa2013"

SC created the YouTube video, "Kids tasting ice cream for the first time," for the Moose Tracks ice cream company. It's been seen by half a million people.

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