CMOs On Twitter: What They Share, How They Share It & The People They Retweet Most [Report]

Data analytics firm Neustar offers a comprehensive look at how high-ranking marketing execs are using the social platform.

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According to a new report analyzing Twitter activity for more than 1,000 high-ranking marketing execs, it turns out CMOs are more likely to share mainstream media stories versus industry-related news, and when they do, there’s a good chance it’s happening on a mobile device.

With the help of social insights firm Leadtail, Neustar analyzed over 130,000 tweets by more than 1,000 CMOs and other high-level marketing executives in the U.S. and Canada for its recent Social Insights Report: CMO Edition.

[pullquote]CMOs are attuned to the value of their “personal brand” and love to talk about and share lists of how influential CMOs compare and stack up. —Social Insights: CMO Edition[/pullquote]

Offering an in-depth look at the types of content CMOs are sharing on Twitter and the apps and platforms they are using to do it, the report also includes top 50 lists of the people, brands and publishers earning the most mentions and retweets by CMOs.

Overall, mainstream media stores made up 47 percent of the content most often shared by CMOs, while industry media news accounted for 38 percent. Forbes was the most shared mainstream news source, followed by the paid version of The New York Times and Fast Company.

Top 10 Most Shared Mainstream News Sources by CMOs on Twitter

  1. Forbes
  2. The New York Times (Paid)
  3. Fast Company
  4. The Wall Street Journal
  5. Inc.
  6. The Huffington Post
  7. Harvard Business Review
  8. Entrepreneur
  9. WSJ Blogs
  10. Fortune

For the most shared industry sources by CMOs on Twitter, Business Insider topped the list.

Top 10 Most Shared Industry Media Sources by CMOs on Twitter

  1. Business Insider
  2. TechCrunch
  3. Mashable
  4. Adweek
  5. Advertising Age
  6. VentureBeat
  7. Re/code
  8. Mediapost
  9. The Business Journals
  10. Hubspot Blog

(Marketing Land ranked No. 15.)

Of all the content shared by CMOs on Twitter in Q4 2014, Neustar says three of the top five most popular stories included the following lists ranking their peers: “Top CMOs on Twitter” from Social Media Marketing Magazine, “50 Influential CMOs on Social Media” from Forbes, and “The World’s Mot Influential CMOs 2014,” also from Forbes.

When sharing content, 70 percent of CMOs published at least one tweet originating from Twitter’s iPhone app, and 24 percent from iPads. Only 12 percent used Twitter for Android.

Which Apps + Platforms Drive Twitter Sharing by CMOs?

neustar cmo twitter report apps and platforms

Neustar also identified the top 50 people, publishers and brands that earned the most retweets and mentions by CMOs.

The people most often retweeted by CMOs are an eclectic mix. The top five include Extreme Networks CMO and Huffpo author @ValaAfshar, author and CMO advisor @KentHuffman, cofounder of Netscape Marc Andreessen whose handle is @pmarca, ESPN sports analyst @darrenrovell and Box CEO Aaron Levie whose Twitter handle is @levie. (Marketing Land’s @dannysullivan made the list as well, ranking No. 50.)

Three of the top five most retweeted people also made the list of top ten people most often mentioned by CMOs on Twitter.

People Most Mentioned by CMOs on Twitter

  1. @MarketingProfs
  2. @KentHuffman
  3. @pmarca
  4. @ValaAfshar
  5. @garyvee
  6. @bethcomstock
  7. @jaybaer
  8. @stuartenyt
  9. @TedRubin
  10. @BarackObama

The most retweeted publishers and brands by CMOs mirrored the list of most shared mainstream media sources, with @FastCompany ranking No. 1, followed by @mashable, @HarvardBiz, @TechCrunch and @Forbes.

Interestingly, @LinkedIn topped the list of publishers and brands most mentioned by CMOs, followed by @Forbes, @WSJ, @YouTube and @TechCrunch. According to the report, the amount of LinkedIn content shared on Twitter doubled between Q4 2012 and Q4 2014, climbing from 11 percent to 22 percent.

When measuring which social networks drove the most sharing to Twitter, LinkedIn ranked fourth, behind Twitter, YouTube and Instragram.

Which Social Networks Drive Sharing To Twitter?

neustar cmo social networks drive sharing


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Amy Gesenhues
Contributor
Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

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