With so many people now taking to the Twittersphere to give their opinion on the latest hot topic, it can be hard to know who to follow. Nobody wants their newfeed clogged up with bores and ranters.
CBR has come up with a list of who we think is worth following. These people are top of their game when it comes to IT, so they know what they’re talking about. And more to the point, can say it in under 140 characters.
Aaron Levie
CEO, Box
Followers: 87.9K
Levie is famed in the tech industry for his eccentricity and his Twitter feed is no exception. Aside from his job as CEO of cloud storage company, Box, Aaron finds a lot of time to dedicate to Twitter to share his witty one-liners on tech with the world. His jokes are always on topic. Look at what he had to say about Flappy Bird’s vanishing act.
James Governor
Co-founder and analyst, RedMonk
Followers: 17.8k
Prior to his work with Illuminata and RedMonk, Governor worked as a tech journalist, so he has a way with words. Like Levie, he enjoys a joke on Twitter and he’s not afraid to speak his mind. This results in some highly entertaining (often critical) tweets about the tech industry.
Reshma Saujani
Founder, Girls Who Code
Followers: 13.2K
As well as being in the know when it comes to computing, Saujani is a great advocate for women in the tech industry. As well as being the founder of Girls Who Code, she is also a lawyer and politian, so her Twitter feed is always full of insightful comment. Just to prove that coding is cool, she tweeted an endorsement from ‘it girl’ of the moment, Lena Dunham.
Robert Scoble
Startup liason officer, Rackspace
Followers: 382K
As a former technical evangelist for Microsoft, Scoble knows his stuff. His blog, Scobleizer, is one the most read tech blogs on the web, so following his Twitter feed is a good way to keep up-to-date with what he is saying. Startups are his business, literally, so Scoble always has his finger on the pulse of the latest trends. And he’s not afraid to go against popular opinion, which always makes for a good read…
Padmasree Warrior
CTO, Cisco
Followers: 1.45M
As CTO of Cisco, Warrior obviously has a lot to say about her company. But her tweets go beyond promtional content. She is very good at engaging with other tweets, frequently asking questions, starting discussions and retweeting responses, so get involved. Warrior is a huge fan of the Dalai Lama, so is also often tweeting about how to remain calm and centred, as well as what is happening at Cisco.
Michael Dell
CEO, Dell
Followers: 578K
Dell is one of the biggest names in the computing industry, so it’s only right to want to know what the man himself, Michael Dell, has to say. While Dell’s Twitter feed is more self-promotional than some, it’s very visual with lots of photos and retweets. He’s also good at praising his staff – what better way to be congratulated than it being announced to half a million people!
Matt Cutts
Google engineer
Followers: 318K
Cutts is a big tweeter: he has sent over 22,000. This resulted in his self-assigned 30 day challenge in January being to not use social media so much. But fear not, he has fallen off the anti-Twitter wagon and is back to tweeting about the three things he knows best: gadgets, Google and SEO. He’s good at keeping people in the know and provides lots of helpful links to his faithful followers.
Rand Fishkin
Founder, Moz
Followers: 154K
Fishkin, or ‘The Wizard of Moz’ as he likes to be known, is an expert on digital marketing, and thankfully, he likes to share his wealth of knowledge. If you’re a marketer want to know your way around the web, then Fishkin makes a great guide.
Biz Stone
Co-founder of Twitter
Followers: 2.13M
It would be wrong to have a list of Twitter techies without a Twitter co-founder on it. Stone is one of the more Twitter-active co-founders. A lot of his tweets at the moment are focussed on his latest social platform: Jellyfish, a crowdsourcing Q&A app. But at least he acknowledges the negatives as well as the posititives. And it’s strangely addictive to see what people are asking on Jelly, from suggestions for baby names to how to open a locked door…
Gina Trapani
Founder, Thinkup
Followers: 309K
As the founder of social media insights engine, Thinkup, Trapani knows her way around Twitter. She provides a good insight into running a tech company and she’s not afraid to ask questions to her followers, "Is there anything I can do to stop a 2010 MacBook Pro battery from going from 100% to 20% in under 2 hours?" as well as answer them. It’s nice to know that even the ‘techies’ can have trouble with their gadgets!
