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In the same way that Instagram is not just for photogenic, selfie-obsessed, 20-something jetsetters, Twitter is not just for political suicide.
With 326 million unique monthly users and half a billion Tweets per day (Hootsuite), Twitter presents a great opportunity for businesses of all sizes to connect with their audience online.
Though typically the domain of small businesses and well-known global brands, SMEs are also able to take full advantage of the platform’s potential - and increasingly senior marketers and CMOs are aware of this.
The following list will give you some great examples of leading CMOs and senior marketing professionals, with Twitter accounts worth keeping an eye on.
Top 10 CMOs to follow on Twitter
As a global company, I was able to develop this article with inputs from every region. The following list, therefore, includes marketers from Europe, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, South America and the US.
Only by embracing a truly global view of the marketing landscape can you ensure that you optimize your strategy worldwide.
So, let’s get started:
1. Tim Soulo (English)
CMO & Product Advisor, Ahrefs Singapore
For those unfamiliar, Ahrefs provides “tools to grow your search traffic, research your competitors and monitor your niche”.
Originally from the Ukraine, but based out of Singapore - where he has been the CMO & Product Advisor at Ahrefs for four-and-a-half years - Tim is also the Founder of BloggerJet.
BloggerJet is Tim’s personal blog and a great resource for anyone interested in digital marketing, SEO, content strategy and conversion optimization, etc. It’s also where you can find the 100K blog framework - designed to increase your blog traffic to, you guessed it, 100k.
Tim is very active on Twitter, where he has an incredibly engaged 13.4k followers and has sent out 10.9K tweets over the years.
Talkwalker’s Quick Search identified 10.5K Tweets including @timsoulo over the past 13 months, with 4.5k engagement and 33% positive sentiment. The most common themes during this time were as illustrated below:
Tim is a great person to follow on Twitter for anyone interested in digital marketing - and especially SEO. As well as his own personal insights, you can also pick up a wealth of information from the multiple Tweets that Tim shares and comments on.
2. Marisa Thalberg
Global Chief Brand Officer, Taco Bell
Founder, Executive Moms
Although Marisa has recently left her role at Taco Bell, she certainly made a big impact there - helping the American fast food chain to record sales figures.
Prior to joining Taco Bell, Marisa has held senior marketing positions at Estee Lauder, Unilever and Revlon. She is also the founder of Executive Moms - a blog developed to help address the work-life balance of mothers.
Marisa has just over 18,000 followers on Twitter, with a variety of posts related to business, marketing and motherhood.
There have been more than a thousand mentions of Marisa’s @ExecutiveMoms Twitter handle over the past 13 months, according to Quick Search. And, as you can see from the graph below, there was a huge peak in mentions after the award-winning filmmaker Tracy Hovie tweeted in support of the Executive Moms movement@
And here is the Tweet itself:
As a mom of 3, I really appreciate when other mom's Rise to executive levels and share expertise! @ExecutiveMoms #WomenSupportingWomen #RiseUp
— Tracie Hovey (@TracieMHovey) November 15, 2018
It’s certainly worth following Marisa to see what ambitious project she’ll take on next, as well as to see the continued progression of Executive Moms.
3. Linda Boff (English)
CMO, General Electric (GE)
Ranked in the Fortune 500 as the 18th largest company in the US by gross revenue last year, General Electric (GE) needs little introduction.
Linda Boff has been at GE for close to 16 years, holding the position of CMO since September 2015. Prior to this, Linda was the Marketing and Communications Director at Citi. Forbes recently included her as one of the most influential CMOs of 2019.
With 15.8K followers on Twitter, Linda posts about marketing, business and American football, amongst other things.
Linda’s position as a leading CMO is clearly illustrated by the inclusion of numerous other leading CMOs in the word cloud of most common themes related to @lindaboff on Quick Search:
Such is her pedigree, it’s certainly worth following Linda on Twitter and keeping a close eye on what she is up to at GE.
4. Ann Lewnes
CMO Adobe
Ann Lewnes has been at multinational computer software company, Adobe, for 12 years, where she is currently an Executive Vice President & CMO.
Prior to this, Ann spent more than 20 years at Intel, where she too held the CMO position.
Ann has 15.4k followers on Twitter, where she posts a lot if Adobe-related content - though she has a clear interest in promoting community-focused campaigns especially.
This 15.4k audience is clearly engaged, with Quick Search identifying 24.1k engagements from just 4k mentions over the past 13 months:
There is an obvious peak on March 25th, which came as a result of a Tweet related to Ann’s presentation at the 2019 Adobe Summit.
"As marketers, we've finally proven our worth." - @Adobe CMO @alewnes #AdobeSummit pic.twitter.com/N6iLPWsbAH
— Experience Cloud (@AdobeExpCloud) March 27, 2019
You can see how fast this spread throughout the “Twittersphere” by checking out the virality map of the original Tweet below:
5. Maria Winans
CMO IBM North America
Sticking with global tech giants, Maria Winans is IBM’s CMO in North America. She has held this position for just over a year and a half, but was previously CMO for IBM Watson Customer Engagement for more than a quarter of a century.
Her recent Tweets have a very AI-centric theme to them and, while she isn’t the most active Tweeter in the world, she tends to post out twice a week to her 22k followers.
As a boxing instructor, Maria packs a punch with more than just her marketing output. She is a firm advocate for women in tech and keenly promotes comprehensive inclusiveness at IBM.
6. Keith Weed
CMO Unilever
Keith is the CMO at the nutrition, hygiene and personal care giants, Unilever, where he has been for nearly 15 years in his second stint - having previously worked for them for a further 15 years between 1983 and 1998.
In between these two stints, Keith has had a wealth of additional experience, having taken up President, Vice President and Chairman roles at The Marketing Society, The Advertising Association and the UKCPI, respectively.
Keith has 31.3k followers on Twitter and has Tweeted 4,429 times to date. He tends to focus on advertising and marketing campaigns that he has enjoyed, while also sharing the latest from Unilever.
These focus areas are clearly visible from the Quick Search word cloud below, with core themes such as brands, marketing, advertising, products and trust, alongside the dominant Unilever:
7. Raja Rajamannar
CMO Mastercard
Raja is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and President of Healthcare Business at Mastercard in New York - a position he has held for over six years.
Tweeting almost every day to his 8.1k followers on Twitter, Raja’s recent posts have focused on consumer relations, experiential marketing and AI.
Originally from India, Raja has spent the past 25 years living and working in the US. In this time, he has held positions with Citi, Citigroup, Humana and WellPoint. In addition to his role at Mastercard, Raja is also currently on the Board of Directors at Bon Secours Mercy Health, PPl Corporation and the Ad Council.
As you can see on the world map from Quick Search below, mentions associated with Raja’s Twitter handle are most frequent in the US, UK and India:
8. Antonio J Lucio
Global CMO Facebook
Brands don’t come a lot bigger than Facebook. Antonio J Lucio has been their Global CMO for the past year, having previously held similar positions at HP and Visa.
Antonio has 41.5k followers on Twitter and has Tweeted out to this audience on close to 6,000 occasions.
Recent posts have illustrated his enthusiasm for celebrating the successes of fellow CMOs and entrepreneurs.
Quick Search reveals 3.4k mentions and 2.9k engagement over the past 13 months, with the biggest peak coming back on August 20, 2018, when TechCrunch announced him as the new Global CMO of Facebook in an article that was shared 465 times on Twitter and bounced across a wide variety of different mediums:
9. Ammar Mohammed (Arabic)
Marketing Guru, Qommunication and AmmarTalk (Qatar)
A self-confessed marketing guru, Ammar is certainly popular on Twitter with just short of 700K followers.
Based in Qatar, Ammar Tweets almost exclusively in Arabic - though he also shares and reacts to a range of English-language content and is very much considered a global digital communications influencer.
Ammar is an official social media influencer at the Qatari-based Public Relations Agency, Qommunication, and has his own Arabic-language blog https://ammartalk.com/.
10. Mariate Arnal (Spanish)
MD, Google Mexico
Of course, Google needs no introduction. Mariate has an incredibly impressive career history, having co-founded the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Academic Council of the Higher Institute for Internet Development (ISDI) in Mexico.
Prior to becoming the first female Director General of Google Mexico, Mariate was Managing Director for Twitter in Latin America.
As a women’s advocate, Mariate is a member of the International Women’s Forum (Mexico) and regularly Tweets and shares Tweets related to women’s rights, human rights and all things Google.
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