Welcome to The Tech Power List for September! This is my list of the Power accounts on Twitter for the technology industry. The Power List will be updated once a month.
There’s two main reasons why I decided to do The Power List:
1 – I wanted to help give exposure to people who are doing a good job of using Twitter in a corporate environment. It’s damn hard to build a following and even any semblance of traction on social media for an account while also doing your core job functions. I wanted to build out The Power List as a platform to help give more exposure to others, and make it just a little easier for them to build a following and engagement around their content.
2 – I wanted to highlight the best use of Twitter, and use that as a way to show others how to improve their own use of Twitter. The Power List will become a way to showcase the best of the best, and also show all of us how to learn from the best of the best and improve our own efforts.
If you want to be eligible for The Power List, do this:
1 – Follow me on Twitter. Make sure you have your position and the technology company you work for listed in your profile.
2 – If you want to nominate someone else to be on the Power List, tweet me their username on Twitter and I will be happy to check them out.
Here’s where you can find all the candidates for the Power List for Technology. If you’re on that list, you are eligible for the Power List.
The Power List will rank the Top 10 Power users on Twitter. That number may expand past a Top 10 as the candidate pool becomes larger. In fact I hope it does.
How is the Power List ranked? How do I get to be #1?
I’ve been working with corporate teams to help them leverage Twitter as a communications tool for about 15 years now. So a lot of the Power List rankings is simply based on my experience working with people in a corporate setting and understanding what works and what doesn’t.
In short, there are two main consideration buckets I have when I rank the Power List:
1 – Posting frequency. I need to see enough content on your Twitter feed to see that you are making an effort to use Twitter to communicate with others. You don’t have to tweet every day, but if your last tweet is from December of 2022, you won’t be on the Power List.
2 – Original content. What I mean by that is I want to see content that’s written in your own unique voice. I get that working in a corporate environment comes with certain ‘challenges’ in regards to the tone and voice of your content. But that doesn’t mean that you should simply use your Twitter feed to repost your company’s press releases. Go behind the scenes, give us a sense of what your daily work day is like. One of the thoughts I should have when reading your Twitter feed is ‘Wow, that looks like a cool job, I wouldn’t mind working there!’
Before I get to the reveal of the first Power List for Technology, I wanted to offer a few takeaways from assembling the list and reviewing a LOT of Twitter profiles over the last few weeks:
1 – Twitter has lost a lot of people from the Technology industry. Like I said, I’ve worked with clients in this space for around 15 years. So when I decided to do a Power List for the space, I already had numerous people in mind to put in my consideration pool. I was more than a little disappointed to see that many of them had stopped using their Twitter accounts. Several had posted info on how to follow them on another social site and made it clear they were done on Twitter.
2 – This group struggled with activity levels. Most of the people I considered averaged maybe a tweet a week, some had only tweeted a handful of times this year. I had to reject a lot of people based on their simply not posting enough to warrant inclusion. If you are going 2-3 months between tweets, that’s probably not going to be enough activity to warrant inclusion on the Power List. I will say this, I can’t remember excluding anyone from the Power List based on actual content, but I can remember several specifically not making it due to infrequent posting.
3 – I purposely did NOT include huge accounts. For instance, Elon Musk and Michael Dell will not be included in the Power List. Nothing against either of them, I’ve actually sat next to Michael Dell at the same table in Dell HQ and really like him. But he and Elon really don’t need the exposure of being on the Power List. I’d rather see the people that work under him at Dell get that exposure, and I bet he would as well.
I’ve graded the Top 10 on a scale of 1-100. This is mainly to give everyone a greater sense of how I ranked everyone, and to give a sense of the gap between them. I will say this: I intentionally graded this first list a bit harsher, if I come out and give the #1 spot in the first Power List a 100, then I’m basically saying that’s the best account that will ever be on this list. Which probably isn’t the case, as the Power List becomes more popular, more people will nominate themselves and their peers, and there will be a bigger pool of qualified candidates. So the rankings for these first few versions of the Power List could see a lot of upward movement over time.
Before we get to the list, please follow these accounts! Click on their name and it will take you to Twitter so you can follow them. Well read the list first, then follow them!
So without further adieu…
The Power List for Technology for September:
1 – Pat Gelsinger, CEO at Intel, Power List Score – 90. Pat just has a really nice profile. With most of the candidates I reviewed for the Power List, there were at least one or two glaring weaknesses. Pat’s account is solid, and very well-rounded. Good frequency of posts, his content is focused on company news and info, but he also frequently tweets inspirational Bible verses, and as a fellow Christian, I appreciated that.
2 – Greg Joswiak, SVP of Marketing at Apple, Power List Score – 86. Another solid profile. Greg’s content is a bit more heavy on company news and info, but his company happens to be one of the most popular brands on the planet, so that’s a bit easier to forgive. Good frequency, I would love to see a sprinkling of behind the scenes content from his work at Apple, I think that would take his profile to the next level.
3 – Sushail Kakar, Developer Relations @ Livepeer, Power List Score – 84. I almost bumped Sushail up to the #2 spot. A very active profile, it’s also really focused on his work and space. Since he’s in web3, that content is actually pretty interesting to me (I am very vaguely familiar with Livepeer so that helped as well), but I would like to see a sprinkling of personal content, even if it’s work-related. But just a sprinkle, I actually think his geeky content is pretty cool.
4 – Sergio Raguso, Regulation Manager @ Siemens, Power List Score – 80. Sergio has the most active Twitter profile on the Power List, frequency is not a problem. The content is almost completely focused on Siemens. I would like to see a little more variety, even if it’s Sergio sharing his thoughts on his work and industry, something to break up the steady stream of content about his employer. He’s nailed the frequency, I think he just needs to tweak the content mix a bit.
5 – Lauren Cooney, VP Java Cloud Services, Oracle, Power List Score – 77. Once you start reading Lauren’s tweets, you will notice one thing loud and clear: She just started a new job, and she’s thrilled about it! Her excitement is infectious and it comes across in her tweets. I want to see where her ranking is in next month’s list. If she continues tweeting with that same energy, I suspect she will be even higher.
6 – Jennifer Davis, Corporate Affairs @ Dell, Power List Score – 76. I love Jennifer’s content, I just wish there were more of it. A good mix of work and personal content, it’s just that she posts a bit infrequently. But that is easily corrected, if she posts even 2-3 times a week, I suspect her score would have jumped about 10 points.
7 – Meagen Eisenberg, CMO @ Lacework, Power List Score – 74. So Meagen’s account really made me think on where to rank her. On the one hand, she does an amazing job with frequency, she’s posting content constantly. However, almost all of her tweets are reposts. I would like to see some original thoughts and content from Meagen, it would really help her score.
8 – Maria Poveromo, SVP and Chief Communications Officer @ Cisco, Power List Score – 72. This analysis will be easy: I love Maria’s content, I just want to see more of it. That’s it. I love the mix, mostly on her company, but even then she made it interesting like highlighting incoming interns. Good stuff, I want more.
9 – Alisa Maclin, VP of Customer Experience and Engagement @ Kyndryl, Power List Score – 71. Same as with Maria, I enjoyed the content, just need to see more of it. Oh and Alisa, more tweets about the stories you shared on LinkedIn, that’s great content.
10 – Lara Shackelford, Head of Global Product & Industry Marketing @ Intel, Power List Score – 70. Broken record, I like the content, just want to see more of it. A lot more.
Ta-da! That’s the first Power List for Technology! First, please make sure you are following each of these wonderful people, you can click on their name and follow them from there. All the candidates for the Power List are on this Twitter list. If you aren’t on the list and want to nominate yourself or a peer, follow me on Twitter and then tweet me and let me know so I can add you to the list of candidates!
A reminder to those that are in the Top 10: Don’t take your score too seriously. I intentionally graded on a bit of a downward curve. Over the next few months as there’s a bigger pool of candidates, scores will gradually go upward.
Congrats to everyone who made the first Power List, I’m looking forward to seeing where you are next month!
