First a quick word about ranked lists. There is no such thing as a definitive, “handed down from above” list. Every list I’ve seen has some kind of bias baked into it. And no matter how strong the methodology, you can always debate the details. That’s part of what makes “most influential” and similar lists so much fun to read and discuss.
So, to Dreamforce. Many of you will join 90,000+ of your closest friends next week among the masses in and around Moscone Center in San Francisco. But who are the most influential people in the Dreamforce community? Which 50 individuals are the most powerful connectors at the show? If you really want your message or product or story to amplify, who should you target?
This is another reason why services like Little Bird are so valuable. It may not be definitive, but directionally it can still be incredibly valuable.
How was this list built? Fairly simple. We started with Dreamforce, and Little Bird scoured the Web for anybody who talked about the show. Little Bird then stack-ranked those individuals against each other, based on which individuals were followed by the most other individuals (Little Bird calls this their “insider score“, and it’s a far more accurate way of measuring influence than follower or tweet volume).
We also eliminated companies from the rankings. Some company Twitter accounts had higher insider scores than people on this list, but we intentionally wanted to focus on individuals.
What’s also exciting about a list like this is how many people you probably didn’t know. Benioff? Not a surprise he’s at the top. Not surprising to see people like Jeremiah Owyang, Ann Handley and Jon Miller highly ranked as well. But do you know Jeff Grosse? He’s #2 on the list, and followed by 290 other insiders. That means he has the attention of nearly 300 other Dreamforce influencers, which means his tweets and ideas go far and wide.
So, without further adieu, below in ranked order are the most influential people at Dreamforce 2013, including their name, Twitter handle and Twitter bio/description.
- Marc Benioff, @benioff, ceo@salesforce.com
- Jeff Grosse, @crmfyi, Salesforce MVP, Cloud fanatic, Salesforce admin turned consultant, and Disney freak.
- Jeremiah Owyang, @jowyang, Chief Catalyst, Crowd Companies
- Richard Branson, @richardbranson, Tie-loathing adventurer and thrill seeker, who believes in turning ideas into reality. Otherwise known as Dr Yes at @virgin
- Mike Gerholdt, @mikegerholdt, Salesforce MVP blogger & podcaster | Multi-session Dreamforce presenter. Certified Admin/ Developer/ Sales Cloud Consultant. Beer fan.
- Dan Darcy, @dandarcy, Product builder @Salesforce. Run UX and technical product marketing teams. SF Native #GoGiants. Geek. Winemaker. Ice cream lover
- Peter Coffee, @petercoffee, I work with app developers and CIOs to build a global community around cloud-based platforms as a service
- David Schach, @dschach, Salesforce certified Advanced Developer, Advanced Administrator, and more. I call it the way I see it.
- Michael Farrington, @michaelforce, Chief Product Officer @RingLead, Founder @Qandor, Salesforce.com MVP, philanthropist, class clown
- Geraldine Gray, @geraldinegray, Salesforce MVP, CRM Solutions & Strategic Roadmaps
- Marcus Nelson, @marcusnelson, CEO at @addvocate • #Marketing #EmployeeAdvocacy #Startup • SAP’s Top50 #B2B Marketer • Former @salesforce @uservoice
- Matthew Lamb, @SFDCmatt, 6x certified Salesforce MVP. Technical Architect at @Appirio. Usability researcher. Craft beer, running, SCUBA diving, travel. Texas A&M grad.
- Garry Polmateer, @darthgarry, Half mountain man, half tech fiend. Managing Partner at Red Argyle. Salesforce MVP, coffee lover and gratuitous user of the word AWESOME.
- Eric Schmidt, @ericschmidt, Executive Chairman & former CEO
- Nick Hamm, @hammnick, Public cloud pusher, Salesforce MVP, biz transformer, drummer. Loved by few, hated by some, misunderstood by the rest.
- John Taschek, @jtaschek, Marketing strategy @salesforce. Author ~ Speaker ~ Blogger: Social. Enterprise. Described by at least one person as a seething mass of enlightenment.
- Reid Carlberg, @reidcarlberg, Flyover State Enthusiast. Reader. Occasional gardener. Non-musician. #movember. Glass. Dev Evangelist for @salesforce
- Brandy Colmer, @forceDotMom, Christian, wife, mom, Salesforce.com MVP, and longtime Force.com geek. Work: @arrowpointe and @dfguide. These tweets are my own.
- Matt Brown, @mattbme, Huge online community believer & proud Advocacy Program Manager at Salesforce #MVPs #UserGroups
- George Hu, @georgehusf, Chief Operating Officer
- Ann Handley, @marketingprofs, Head of Content here at ‘Profs. People seem to like my writing:
- Christopher Penn, @cspenn, VP Marketing Technology @shiftcomm, ninja, PodCamp cofounder, Marketing Over Coffee cohost, speaker, author, marketing professor.
- Amber Boaz, @amber9904, Aunt, runner, volunteer, Salesforce MVP, & Director of Cloud Success with @cloud4good
- Parker Harris, @parkerharris, Salesforce.com co-founder
- Kevin Swiggum, @kevinswiggum, Owner/IT Consultant at Radial Web.
- Marcel LeBrun, @lebrun, Husband/Father, Entrepreneur, and SVP/Chief Product Officer of Salesforce Marketing Cloud (was CEO of Radian6)
- Dave Carroll, @dcarroll, Developer Evangelist at http://t.co/CrepYPGn9F. Always looking at innovative ways to use Cloud Computing.
- Gordon Evans, @gordonevans, Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Buddy Media + Radian6) by day. Rocknroll by night.
- Jared Miller, @jaredemiller, Salesforce MVP, Certified Developer, Advanced Admin, Consultant – Tampa Salesforce User Group. Husband, photographer, hockey fan, and F1 early riser.
- Mina, @idaapps, Tech geek at heart and soul, running a lean self-funded startup to develop apps on Salesforce AppExchange. High on Clouds/SaaS.
- Jeff Douglas, @jeffdonthemic, Platform Architect @ CloudSpokes & Sr. Tech. Consultant @ Appirio. Cloud + JavaScript == #AWESOME. Foster & adoptive dad.
- Pat Patterson, @metadaddy, Dad, Husband, Runner, Principal Developer Evangelist @Salesforce
- Zachary Jeans, @zacharyjeans, Keep it Simple, Social, Mobile & Cloud.
- Michael Krigsman, @mkrigsman, Analyst and advisor on CIO / CMO innovation, ZDNet columnist, Wall Street Journal contributor. Co-founder of CxOTalk:
- Darren Cunningham, @dcunni, Interested in all things cloud, analytics, integration, innovation. Work for SnapLogic
- Alex Sutherland, @apexsutherland, A Salesforce guru, geek, and community activist
- Justin Edelstein, @justedelstein, Co-Founder & CIO of @ArkusInc, a @Salesforce partner and service provider. Salesforce.com MVP, certified Salesforce Advanced Admin, Developer, and Consultant.
- Jon Miller, @jonmiller, VP Marketing & co-founder of Marketo, a leader in powerful & easy marketing software. Tweeting about email marketing, marketing automation, & demand generation.
- Will Nourse, @wnourse, Director of Cloud Solutions, Cloud For Good.
- Jenna Weiner, @rathergeeky, Girl, rather geeky. Loves: @salesforce, @googleapps, @evernote @ifttt, husband. (Oh, and it’s pronounced ‘whiner’, not ‘weeeeener’.)
- Tim Barker, @timbarker, I head-up products @ DataSift, the Big Data Platform for Social Businesses. Prev Salesforce VP. Like: social marketing, cloud, big data, startups
- Rhonda Ross, @crmdr, Salesforce.com MVP with PhD in Psychology. Able to address the people and technology sides of CRM projects and other enterprise systems.
- Andy Ognenoff, @aognenoff, Husband | Father | Technical Architect | Salesforce MVP
- Elizabeth Davidson, @eliz_beth, Geek mom who loves Star Wars, Salesforce & learning something new each day. Certified Admin & Three time Salesforce MVP
- Andrew Hill, @andrew_sf, @salesforce customer since 03, employee [ae] since 05
- Rob Cheng, @robcheng, Head of Product Marketing at Elementum (SaaS Supply Chain Mgmt). Fan of the NBA, Geek Culture, and Snark.
- Brad Gross, @imperialstout, Salesforce.com Expert, 2 wheel enthusiast, cook, musician, traveler, Director for BCEhealthcare.com and Prez of info-logistics.com.
- Jason Venable, @tehnrd, Director of Application Development for Arrowpointe. Part time race car driver.
- Mike Leach, @dlog, Founder/CEO of @Logalytics. Salesforce MVP. Cloud computing. Operational Intelligence and Governance for Salesforce.
- Kelly Walsh, @thekellywalsh, That’s what she said
For a full list of the top 100 Dreamforce influencers/insiders according to Little Bird (saved as a Twitter list), click here.
