It’s that time of year again. The moment we dive back into Buzzsumo to look at the top 100 digital marketing influencers for 2022. What started as a one-off blog post in 2019 has now become an annual event on the Browser Media blog as we now approach the third anniversary and our 4th edition. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at what has changed in the world of digital marketing influencers over the past 12 months.
For a quick overview of the influencer marketing landscape and how it has evolved over the past 12 months, we returned to Influencer Marketing Hub State of Influencer Marketing Report to discover their 2022 edition. As it has been the case for the past few years, influencer marketing has once again gained momentum and this momentum does not seem to be waning. Over 75% of brands plan to spend some kind of budget on influencer marketing in 2022, while 68% of marketers plan to increase their spending. This once again shows that influencer marketing is still a growing industry and all brands should use it.
Therefore, it is important to identify the best influencers that brands can partner with in the desired industry. Once again I turned to Buzzsumo Influence Reports because that’s usually my starting point when it comes to influencer research.
How do Buzzsumo influencer reports work?
I’m starting to feel like a broken record and have explained these reports in every edition of our Top 100 Influencers lists, however, it’s important to understand where the data comes from. If you want a more detailed look at why Buzzsumo is the perfect tool for content marketers I have already covered it on the blog.
Buzzsumo’s influencer reports highlight top influencers based on multiple search options; their association with a specific search term, whether their biography includes the search term, whether they tweeted articles about a search term, or whether they tweeted articles from a specific site. For this research, I highlighted influencers associated with digital marketing. This will include influencers who have used digital marketing in their bio or those who appear on relevant Twitter lists.
These Twitter accounts are then ranked according to their “influence” on the specific search term. Buzzsumo previously explained that a person’s influence is measured by their impact on the reach of a post or article.
Influencer reports search results can be further refined based on many factors such as type of influencer (businesses, bloggers, influencers), whether they are a journalist or not, level of activity and location .
For these lists, I’m only focusing on bloggers and influencers, which means all companies have been removed. Therefore, some of the big names such as Econsultancy, Moz and Ahrefs are not included. However, this is the only way the data is manipulated, all data and influencers included were pulled directly from Buzzsumo. Neither I nor anyone else at Browser Media influenced (pardon the pun) any of the posts.
Key Digital Marketing Influencer Statistics for 2022
- As has been the case in all previous years, the average subscriber count shows that it’s not about having the biggest audience, it’s about having the most engaged. At 83,017, the average number of subscribers among the top 100 fell 7% from a year ago. Again, I’m not saying over 83,000 followers is a small number of followers, but the fact that we’re seeing accounts with millions of followers not on this list shows the importance of having a base engaged subscribers.
- The way these influencers interact with other people’s content has changed very little over the past 12 months. The average response rate, retweet rate, and URL share rate all saw very little change. Again, this underscores the fact that not only is their own engagement important, but it’s also important to consider how often influencers interact with other accounts.
- While this doesn’t impact the state of the industry, one thing I wanted to note is that Buzzsumo seems to have changed the way some influencers are listed. Neil Patel, for example, is now listed as a business, hence its omission from the list below. I only noticed Neil because he’s always been in the top 3, however, it’s not unlikely that other big influencers have been listed as companies. For the sake of consistency, I have not removed these people, even though they are not companies per se, because I want the data to be as unbiased as possible. While major influencers missing from the list may impact the average number of followers in the top 100, this is unlikely to change the outlook for the industry.
Buzzsumo’s Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers for 2022
- Sorav Jain – @soravjain
- Rand Fishkin– @randfish
- Eric Enge – @stonetemple
- Amber Naslund – @ambercadabra
- Mandy Edwards– @memktgservices
- Barry Schwartz– @rustybrick
- Rahul Wadhawan – @rahul_wadhawan
- JJ De la Torre – @delatorrejj
- Douglas Karr – @douglaskarr
- AJ Gherguich – @seo
- Amit Panchal – @amithpanchal
- Robert Jones – @exodusanalytics
- Dan Knowlton– @dknowlton1
- Avinash Kaushik – @avinash
- Janet Machuka– @janetmachuka_
- Warren Whitlock – @warrenwhitelock
- Derek Edmond– @derekedmond
- Ciamhie McRory – @ciamhiemc
- Ryan Deiss – @ryandeiss
- Andrew Hutchinson– @adhutchinson
- Bill Sebald– @billsebald
- Ammar Mohammad – @ammr
- John Lincoln- @johnelincoln
- Shashi Bellamkonda – @shashib
- Gareth O’Sullivan – @_garethg
- Alex Jimenez – @ralexjimenez
- Fadhila Brahimi – @fbrahimi
- Ian Schäfer – @ischafer
- Oli Gardner– @oligardner
- André Grill – @andrewgrill
- AJ Kohn– @ajkohn
- Marc Cortes – @marccortes
- Duan Forrester- @duaneforrester
- Jon Henshaw– @henshaw
- Dr. Marie Haynes – @marie_haynes
- Andrew Hickey– @andrewmhickey
- Stoney of Geyter – @stoneyd
- Paddy Moogan- @paddymoogan
- Craig Campbell– @craigcampbell03
- Ned James– @ned_james2
- Jamie Riddell- @jamieriddell
- Geoff Desreumaux – @geoffdx
- Jonathan Lacoste – @lacostejonathan
- Winston Binch– @winstonbinch
- Russman- @mktgmann
- Herve Kabla – @hervekabla
- Saul Colt – @saucolt
- Grant Simmons– @simnet
- Atef– @atef
- Alex Moss – @alexmoss
- Dan Sodergren– @dansodergren
- Minter dial – @mdial
- Mark Silva – @marksilva
- Jerry Daykin– @jdaykin
- Jaime Turner- @askjamieturner
- Brian Hart– @brianhartpr
- Ashwini Dodani – @ashwinidodani
- DTong- @dtongsports
- Tom Bedecarre – @tombed
- Tim Ash – @tim_ash
- Erik Huberman – @erikhuberman
- Justin Howard- @justyn
- Tom Goodwin– @tomfgoodwin
- Pete Blackshaw– @pblackshaw
- Shama Hyder- @shama
- Fili Wiese – @filiwiese
- Glen Allsopp- @viperchill
- Adam Audette – @audette
- Cammi Pham– @cammipham
- Julie Joyce– @juliejoyce
- Ed Leake– @edleake
- Matthew Kobach – @mkobach
- Casie Gillette- @casieg
- Monica Wright– @monicawright
- Dhariana Lozano – @dharilo
- Leonard Kim – @mrleonardkim
- Nathalie Nahai – @nathalienahai
- Denis Yu – @dennisyu
- Alex Dominguez – @alex_d_b
- Franz Russo- @franzrusso
- Shane Barker– @shane_barker
- Darren Rowse– @problogger
- Gianluca Fiorelli– @gfiorelli1
- Joost de Valk – @jdevalk
- David Iwanow – @davidiwanow
- Matthew Knell – @matthewknell
- Clo Willaerts – @bnox
- Jeremy Goldman – @jeremarketer
- Vincenzo Landino – @vincenzolandino
- Dave Edelman– @davidedelman
- Scott Gulbransen- @lvgully
- Stacey MacNaught – @staceycav
- Brent Csutoras – @brentcsutoras
- Henneke Duistermaat – @henneked
- Danny Sullivan– @dannysullivan
- Larry Kim– @larrykim
- Muhammad Hisham Abu Al-Qumboz – @abualkomboz
- Rebecca Radice- @rebekahradice
- Marc Traphagen – @marktraphagen
- Jim Sterne– @jimsterne
As always, congratulations to everyone who made the top 100!
** Disclaimer – Browser Media had no influence or impact on this list, it is solely based on Buzzsumo Influence Reports. To ensure that the data remains fair and unbiased, there have been no edits from other sources. **
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