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Who And What When It Comes To CMOs And Twitter In 2015

This article is more than 8 years old.

Yes I realize it's already February so perhaps the statute of limitations has worn off when it comes to looking back at the previous year but allow me to share with you some fascnating insights from 2015 when it comes to CMOs.

The insights come courtesy of Leadtail, a company that provides ideas and insights into the world of online marketing and social media. The insights were collected and amassed via a panel of over 1,200 B2B and B2C CMOs and marketing executives located in North America and active on Twitter in 2015 and via over 640,000 tweets including over 350,000 shared links.

The social media insights via Leadtail are broken into three categories:

  1. Top 50 most popular hashtags (which hashtags were used the most on Twitter)
  2. Top 50 publications shared (which publications were shared the most on Twitter)
  3. Top 50 influencers (defined as those who were most retweeted and mentioned by CMOs on Twitter)

In reviewing all the data from 2015, Carter Hostelley, CEO of Leadtail believes, generally speaking, "CMOs are looking for strategic insights from peers, thought leaders, publications and vendors to cope with the explosion of technology and data-driven marketing."

Each insight is followed by some thoughts from Karri Carlson , VP of Social Insights at Leadtail.

Top 50 Most Popular Hashtags

  • #ContentMarketing: Are we experiencing "Peak Content Marketing"? Or is content marketing here to stay? #Content and/or #ContentMarketing floated around the top 10 hashtags for CMOs throughout 2015 and shows no signs of slipping or slowing.
  • #innovation + #IoT: We've heard a lot in 2015 about the CMO + CIO working together. The relatively high ranking for these hashtags would seem to indicate that the Internet of Things is where this all starts to come together.
  • #Twitter, # Facebook #Google, #Apple: Despite what's new or hot or sexy, there's always just the basics: keeping up on the moves and motives of the powers that shape the digital marketing landscape.

Top 50 Publications Shared

  • Forbes: Contributor model + credible brand. Almost always at or near the top of the most shared pubs list for all the c-suite decision makers.
  • Medium: Definitely gaining momentum and credibility with digital professionals. Reasons: great for infrequent/periodic publishers who don't want to commit to a blog or byline; taps into social graph to get content in front of the people most likely to read/share/comment on it; creates new mechanisms for feedback to authors (highlights show what resonates with readers, comments are attached to specific text vs. chronological at the bottom of the page, etc.)
  • CIO.com: Again, evidence keeps piling up that CMOs are embracing collaboration with their CIO partners and making a solid effort to understand and leverage technology.

Top 50 Influencers

Top Three Influencers (each represents a distinct "style" for being influential):

  1. @ValaAfshar (Vala Afshar): Crushes it across the board with the C-Suite by delivering an exceptionally curated mix of high-value content and succinct-but-thought-provoking insights
  2. @jaybaer (Jay Baer): Has truly embraced becoming a publisher. Convince and Convert publishes high-quality blogs and podcasts, Jay has authored several books, and all of it speaks directly to digital marketing leaders (current and future).
  3. @TedRubin (Ted Rubin): All about "return on relationships." Person to person, brand to consumer--it doesn't matter. He's engaged with his audience nearly 24/7, across multiple social platforms (and backs it all up by being a real-life guy you can grab a coffee with, to boot).

Okay, so there you have it when it comes to some insights into the mind of a CMO, as it relates to social media, in this case specifically Twitter.

Were there any surprises?

Of course I was not surprised at all to see Forbes as the #1 publication most shared by CMOs. Yes I am biased naturally, but to me Forbes is absolutely the best place or site for a CMO to go when it comes to getting the latest news and trends, learn what other CMOs and brands are doing, and so on.

In terms of hashtags, as Karri alluded to, #contentmarketing and #innovation + #IoT are not only here to stay re: the former, but a shape of things to come re: the latter. However, I would add to Karri's thoughts that the reason that #innovation is so high is not just because of the Internet of Things but also because more and more CMOs are realizing that they need to be closely aligned with their CIO or CTO to ensure success across the board for the brand at large.

What are your thoughts on all this?

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