This post was originally published on Search Decoder on November 13, 2015
Since I wrote 22 Growth Hackers to Follow on Twitter on The Next Web, I have received a lot of feedback from the growth hacking community. The list was valuable but I did not mention all the key biggest players in the growth hacking world. I just call them Sumos here. The list was incomplete and needed to be expanded. So here is the expanded list that includes eight new growth hackers to follow.
(Special thanks to Clara Buchanan, one of the growth hackers on the original list, who shared a valuable list of new names to consider. Founder of Hypergrow, Clara is a growth strategist by trade and a mentor at EDGE EdTech accelerator in NYC. She regularly blogs about what it means to be a growth hacker and guidance for entrepreneurs.)
I checked my spam folder the other day. It was pretty amusing. I got one email that said, “Get 100k website visitors with the click of a buton.” Button was missing a ‘T’. I didn’t click it. I just laughed.
These days, the internet has opened up to anybody with a keyboard and a wifi connection.
By the way, I found a typo recently in a newsletter I wrote. I was embarrassed. I wonder how many of my subscribers put me in a spam folder.
With a skyrocketing buzz around ‘growth hacker’ on the Web, comes a pile of myths, misconceptions, and self-proclaimed gurus.
Fortunately, there are still plenty of smart people providing insane amounts of value on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, it’s getting harder and harder to tell who’s who.
Some former black hats embarrassed the new term so it’s important to keep abreast of the legit growth hacking pros to follow. Tap in to the growth community at GrowthHackers.com, and read any of these growth hacking books to ramp up your game, but don’t expect these strategies to last forever. Growth hacks quickly become old-hacks, so use Twitter to get a steady feed of real-time growth hacking tips.
There are some amazing growth hackers that are constantly sharing their best advice on Twitter. Their content has no scams or lies, just pure value.
Below are twenty two growth hackers worth following (in no particular order). All have a proven track record and publish valuable content regularly.
Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré
Twitter: @NikkiElizDemere
You probably recognize this long and unique name if you’ve been to ProductHunt, inbound.org, or GrowthHackers. She has played a large role in the growth of all of those platforms, and she still acts as a community moderator. Growth metrics and SaaS are two of her specialties, and her writing is both inspirational and valuable.
Neil Patel
Twitter: @Neil Patel
Co-founder of CrazyEgg, KISSmetrics, and HelloBar, Neil is a powerhouse of knowledge in the online business space. He writes about social media, SEO, digital marketing, content marketing, growth hacking, and more. His resume? He helps companies such as Amazon, NBC, GM, HP, and Viacom grow. Look no further for an A-class growth hacker to follow.
Noah Kagan
Twitter: @NoahKagan
The “chief sumo” at Appsumo, Noah also has experience working at Mint and Facebook. His personal blog covers marketing, start ups, and self-exploration. He also built SumoMe, with a suite of blog growth tools every growth hacker should have in their toolbox.
James Altucher
Twitter: @Jaltucher
Finance, creativity, entrepreneurship, hedge funds, self-development, self-publishing, pro blogging, startups, you name it and James spills out his honest opinion the topic. His posts are fun reads, as his stories make you feel like you’re sitting right next to him. James is a seasoned growth hacker, and he is most famous for building Stockpicker. If I only have five minutes in a day to check Twitter, I start with @jaltucher.
Rand Fishkin
Twitter: @RandFish
Co-founder of MOZ.com and inbound.org, Rand is the number one SEO expert out there. He writes about everything there is to know about SEO, which is one of the key pillars of growth hacking methodology.
Nathan Barry
Twitter: @NathanBarry
As the Founder of ConvertKit, Nathan writes about “anything that interests me.” On top of marketing, he focuses on design, specifically app design. He breaks down his projects in public, allowing anyone and everyone to learn about his design strategies as he grows his saas business.
Tiffany Dasilva
Twitter: @Bellastone
Director of Digital Strategy at PoweredbySearch, Tiffany specializes in conversion rate optimization. Prior to joining PowerdbySearch, she worked with several startups, Shopify being the most well-known. If you want to save money on your PPC campaign ASAP, read this article today.
Jeff Walker
Twitter: @JeffWalker
Apart from being a #1 New York Times bestselling author, Jeff is now one of the biggest marketing trainers around. His goal is to help you not just grow your business but to also live the life of your dreams.
Whitney Wolfe
Twitter: @WLWolfe
Whitney helped Tinder grow from scratch, and she’s recently launched a new app called Bumble. Changing the dating game once wasn’t enough for this ambitious 25 year old. This article talks about the growth plans with this new app and how it plans to be bigger and better than tinder.
Mike King
Twitter: @iPullRank
Founder of iPullRank, and former SEO strategist at Razorfish abd Publicis Modem, Mike is “a marketing technologist, equal parts marketing and technology.”
Courtney Seiter
Twitter: @CourtneySeiter
Courtney has been the head of content at Buffer since April 2014. She’s the one working hard behind the incredible content that the team produces every day. Her work is unique, taking everyday topics like selfies and emojis and applying them to marketing.
Hiten Shah
Twitter: @hnshah
Hiten Shah is Neil’s business partner on KISSmetrics and Crazyegg. He actually helped coin the term “growth hacker”, definitely follow him as well for additional business tips and inspiration.
Sean Ellis
Twitter: @SeanEllis
If growth hacking is a Star Wars movie, Sean is a Yoda. He’s the CEO atGrowthHackers and Qualaroo. He’s always coming up with fresh ideas to help businesses such as content marketing, email marketing and any other growth hack under the sun.
Tia Kelly
Twitter: @lil_tea
Tia works at Unbounce as their customer success manager. She writes often about her love for landing pages and social media. I suppose there are worse things in life you could obsess over, but her passion is inspiring and also rather humorous.
Josh Elman
Twitter: @JoshElman
Now board member of Medium and Super, Elman is also a partner at Greylock Partners. He also previously played a large role in the growth at Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.
He posts about business regularly on topics such as growth hacking and product development on Medium.
Gabriel Weinberg
Twitter: @yegg
Weinberg is CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo and co-author of the book Traction. He writes about marketing channels and online privacy.
Dharmesh Shah
Twitter: @Dharmesh
Co-founder & CTO of HubSpot, Shah founded and writes for OnStartups.com. His articles about leadership and hiring are quite unique and also helpful.
Ryan Holiday
Twitter: @RyanHoliday
Former director of marketing for American Apparel, Ryan is the author of Trust Me I’m Lying, and Growth Hacker Marketing. On his blog, he writes mostly about life strategy hacks, such as productivity and self-development.
Clara Buchanan
Twitter: @Clara_buchanan
Founder of Hypergrow, Clara is “a growth focused strategist utilizing cyberpsychology backed product development and experimental marketing techniques in order to form creative and nimble hypothesizes.
Brian Dean
Twitter: @BackLinko
Brian is the Founder of Backlinko, where he spills valuable content about link building, content strategy, and other SEO topics. Check out his post onkeyword research, you’ll definitely learn something.
Mikael Cho
Twitter: @MikaelCho
Co-founder of Crew, Mikael has founded several companies in the last eight years. His writing is very personal, and he covers topics such as investment and work culture.
Sujan Patel
Twitter: @Sujanpatel
Sujan is a growth-focused marketer and entrepreneur. He is currently the VP of Marketing at When I Work, and previously founded Single Grain, a San Francisco-based digital marketing agency. He’s helped companies like Sales Force, TurboTax, Sony, Mint, and hundreds of others acquire more customers, build brand awareness, and grow their businesses. Sujan is the co-author of 100 Days of Growth. His new book Content Marketing Playbookis available on Amazon Kindle.
Lincoln Murphy
Twitter: @lincolnmurphy
Lincoln knows more than a thing or two about SaaS Customer Success, Customer Acquisition, Customer Onboarding, Marketing, & Growth Hacking. He’s a doer of nonessential things. Also, Lincoln invented #breadabandname.
David Arnoux. Growth
Twitter: @darnocks
David is a magician at Growth Tribe Academy and twoodoo. He’s all about growth hacking, analytics and cro. He’s also addicted to GIFs and Converse.
Roy Povarchik
Twitter: @roypovar
Roy is a growth and content marketing consultant for startups. He’s founder of ‘Growth By Content’ agency. Avid blogger and music lover.
Meg Nordmann
Twitter: @MegNordmann
She’s Director of Marketing at @RiskSense, CyberSecurity, founder of http://PickMyBrainMentors.com. She’s always talking social media & tech news, and she’s a passionate advocate for Women in Tech.
Andy Johns
Twitter: @ibringtraffic
Andy helped with growth at Facebook, Twitter, Quora. Ex-EIR Greylock. He’s the current VP of Growth at Wealthfront where they make world-class investing easy & accessible to everyone.
Oli Gardner
Twitter: @oligardner
Meet Oli, Unbounce Co-founder. He’s seen more landing pages than anyone on the planet. He’s also an opinionated writer & speaker on Attention-Driven Design.
Pierre Lechelle
Twitter: @PierreLechelle
Pierre is helping SaaS businesses to generate more revenue through customer acquisition & growth with marketing & growth hacking.
Brian Balfour
Twitter: @bbalfour
He’s the current VP Growth at HubSpot, Formerly EIR at Trinity Ventures, Co-Founder at Boundless, Viximo, and PopSignal.
Your Turn
No matter what stage of the growth cycle your business is in, you’ve got plenty of growth ideas to come from this list of savvy growth hackers.
So get “growth hakering.”
I’m not sure if “growth hackering” is a word, but it is now. It relates to following growth hacking tips from these smart growth hackers.
Finally, the list is not exclusive. There are many talented growth hackers out there.
Let me know in comments below who else should be on the list.
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