Influencer marketing is on the rise, with 57% of marketers planning to integrate influencer relations into their marketing activities by 2023. Helping to build trust and credibility for your brand by producing high-quality content and sharing invaluable insight, influencers are truly invaluable for businesses across all industries. If you want to stay relevant, you need to start building relationships with them. But remember: bigger isn’t always better.
While established professionals with large followings certainly have their place, micro-influencers are more valuable than you might think. Look for up and coming names within your niche so you can build a partnership and grow together, and choose your influencers based on values and interests as opposed to their number of likes and followers.
Within the technology industry, there are thousands of key influencers, each with different strengths and audiences. Of course, every brand will value influencers differently, because, at the end of the day, it’s all about finding the right fit for your business. To get you started, here are five tech influencers – each with different audiences and expertise – who we certainly could see a lot more of.
John Spindler
Taking the #4 spot on The Tyto Tech 500 Power List (2020), John is one of the most influential names in the UK tech industry right now. Co-Founder of AI Seed, CEO at Capital Enterprise and Co-Founder of the London Co-Investment Fund, John is a well-known figure amongst tech entrepreneurs across the UK. Whether it’s innovation, investment, entrepreneurship or startups, John’s wealth of experience within the tech industry makes him the ideal influencer in the world of technology.
With 2021 predicted to be the year of AI and with more and more tech startups heading into the industry, John Spindler is a name you can expect to see a lot of this year.
Savannah de Savary
Founder and CEO at Built-ID, Savannah has accomplished a lot since graduating from Oxford University in 2013. In 2020 she added making it onto the Forbes’ ‘30 under 30 social entrepreneurs’ to her long list of accomplishments, which also includes winning ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2018’ at the Property Awards, being named one of the top 10 PropTech influencers by Tyto Tech and making it as a finalist for the ‘Rising Star’ award at the 2019 ITA Awards.
She may be young, but she’s certainly found her voice in the world of PropTech and human-centred technology. Featuring on the human-centred technology panel at the 2018 Conscious Cities Festival and sharing her views on a range of podcasts including Propertyshe and Building Our Future, Savannah definitely is a force to be reckoned with.
Alex Housley
Founder and CEO at Seldon, Alex is on a mission to use machine learning to help the world overcome some of its most challenging problems – and his work certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed. Voted Tech Entrepreneur Of The Year (2020) at the Business Tech Awards with Seldon bringing home the prize for Most Impressive Growth and Tech Company Of The Year (Small), Alex has certainly taken the UK tech world by storm.
In 2017 Alex was made a Guest Advisor for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence (APPG AI), exploring the impact of AI and helping to inform policymaking in the UK, and in 2020 he attended the Techstars Partner Summit to discuss best practices for startups. With AI & machine learning named as one of 2021’s top technology trends, we can certainly expect to hear more from Alex in the coming months.
David Rowan
With over 30,000 followers on Twitter, host of Walks With Founders (the Web Summit podcast) and renowned technology keynote speaker, there is no doubt David Rowan knows how to make his voice heard in the tech industry. Founding editor of WIRED UK (2009-2017) and author of Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds, David’s views on technology and innovation are well-respected throughout the industry.
Considered somewhat of a celebrity in the world of technology and an expert on technology-led innovation, we are expecting to hear a lot from David as the world turns to tech to help overcome the issues faced as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
Clare Sutcliffe MBE
Clare has a passion for using technology to make the world a better place and is determined to make the tech industry more inclusive, which is why it’s no surprise she was a finalist for the 2019 Tech evangelist of the year (ITA Awards) and was awarded an MBE for services to technology education in 2015. Some of her other notable accomplishments include being named ‘Greatest Tech Influence On Society’ (The Europas) and one of Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in UK Technology.
Clare is well-known in the tech world, having featured on a range of podcasts and news articles published by the likes of BBC Radio 4, European Business Magazine and The Guardian. In 2019, Clare co-founded ‘She Wins’ which was created to empower women in the workplace and help businesses overcome diversity issues. With her respected background and inclusion & equality becoming a must-have, we can certainly expect to hear more from Clare this year.
While some of these influencers have established a respectable following already and others are just starting out, one thing is clear: they all have a passion for what they do and are respected within their niches. To find out more about influencer marketing, check out our ‘ultimate guide to influencer marketing’ here, or take a look at our services page here to see how we can help your business develop a powerful influencer marketing strategy.
