The 50 most influential people in the Dreamforce community #DF14

Last year we published a list of the most influential 2013 Dreamforce attendees, and it generated a ton of discussion as well a little bit of controversy. Some of the smartest Salesforce users didn’t make the list, and others who claimed enormous networks of followers were left off as well.

So, of course, we decided to do it all again this year. Thanks to our friends at Little Bird, below is a ranking of the most influential people in the Dreamforce community. It’s compiled not by measuring likes and followers and activity, but rather is based on how active, influential and interactive these people are within the Dreamforce community itself.

This is an important distinction, and particularly valuable if you’re developing your own influencer strategy. You don’t want to just engage those with high follower counts. You want to engage those who have true credibility with their peers, who not only publish but respond and interact with others. You’re looking for those who have been authenticated and endorsed (by proxy of direct engagement) by others on the same list of influential people.

That’s why some of the brightest Salesforce.com MVPs aren’t on the list. It’s why high follower counts but low participation and “give back” scores won’t help you rank either.

The Little Bird platform has evolved significantly since we did the first version of this list last year. I encourage you to check out the short report from Heinz Marketing and Little Bird via SlideShare below for more detail on this year’s top 50 most influential Dreamforce attendees, which also details more of the methodology behind the list.

Interested in seeing how your personal or corporate brand relates to this list, and where you sit within the Dreamforce community directly? Click here and Little Bird will create your own personalized report highlighting where you’re likely to get the most traction among Dreamforce influencers & attendees this week.

The full “top 50” list is below (you can also follow them all at once via the Twitter list here).

1. Marc Benioff @Benioff
2. Jeremiah Owyang @jowyang
3. R Ray Wang @rwang0
4. Charlie Isaacs @charlieisaacs
5. Peter Coffee @petercoffee
6. Jeff Grosse @CRMFYI
7. Ann Handley @MarketingProfs
8. Dan Darcy @dandarcy
9. Christopher Penn @cspenn
10. Mike Gerholdt @MikeGerholdt
11. Paul Greenberg @pgreenbe
12. Erica Kuhl @ericakuhl
13. Geraldine Gray @GeraldineGray
14. Marcus Nelson @marcusnelson
15. Matt Heinz @heinzmarketing
16. Michael Farrington @michaelforce
17. Jill Rowley @jill_rowley
18. Charlene Li @charleneli
19. David Schach @dschach
20. Becka Dente @sfdc_nerd
21. Nick Hamm @hammnick
22. Parker Harris @parkerharris
23. Reid Carlberg @ReidCarlberg
24. Matthew Lamb @SFDCMatt
25. John Taschek @jtaschek
26. Koka Sexton @kokasexton
27. George Hu @GeorgeHuSF
28. Narinder Singh @singhns
29. Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar
30. Zachary Jeans @ZacharyJeans
31. Jon Miller @jonmiller
32. Brandy Colmer @forceDotMom
33. Michael Krigsman @mkrigsman
34. Marcel LeBrun @lebrun
35. Matt Brown @mattybme
36. Adam Seligman @adamse
37. Amber Boaz @amber9904
38. Tristan Bishop @KnowledgeBishop
39. Dave Carroll @dcarroll
40. Kraig Swensrud @kswensrud
41. Pat Patterson @metadaddy
42. Jeff Douglas @jeffdonthemic
43. Gordon Evans @GordonEvans
44. Kevin Swiggum @KevinSwiggum
45. Natalie Petouhoff @drnatalie
46. Eric T. Tung @EricTTung
47. Dharmesh Shah @dharmesh
48. Kyle Lacy @kyleplacy
49. Joshua Hoskins @jhoskins
50. Laura Fitton @Pistachio