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Big Data's Most Influential Rock Stars: 10 Must-Follow Leaders

This list of hand-picked leaders was compiled by Wojtek Aleksander, from GetResponse.com.

Other bigger lists (sometimes created by robots) can be found here and are usually based on your Klout score, which in my opinion is not accurate. The list below is truly original and I would even add, somewhat unexpected, as you won’t find Bernard Marr, Kirk Borne and other well known gurus. 

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A few tweets recently posted by #BigData influencers (screenshot)

5. Enrico Bertini @FILWD

Just in case you’re wondering, @FILWD stands for Fell In Love With Data, which happens to be the name of Enrico Bertini’s blog.

While the Assistant Professor at NYU doesn’t talk much on Twitter himself, he uses the platform very effectively to share news and insights about data visualizations and adds his highly-valued opinions.

Like Rob Thomas, Enrico’s a great follow if you want a well-balanced stream of data-speak and general life observations.

6. Jaime Fitzgerald @jaimefitzgerald

Jaime Fitzgerald made out list for two reasons. First, he is the Founder and President of the data analytics and consulting firm, Fitzgerald Analytics, with offices in New York and San Francisco. In other words, he’s not just an academic, he’s living and working smack dab in the middle of the big data revolution.

Second, while he may not tweet as much as Kanye (or even most of the other names on this list), he uses the popular customized newspaper app Paper.li to tweet a daily roundup of the top articles about data, which he’s aptly titled Data to Dollars, a trademarked slogan of his company.

7. Carla Gentry @data_nerd

With a username like @data-nerd, Carla Gentry can’t exactly hide her passion. And it’s a lucky thing she doesn’t want to.

Carla moved from Marketing Research and Analytics to become a private data-mining contractor. Now she’s a Data Scientist at Deloitte using her two decades of experience in analyzing data to provide insights and recommendations to their clients.

While Cole Nussbaumer (also on this list) writes stories using data, Carla is all about sharing them. At first glance, the articles she shares from around the web may not look data-related. But digging in you’ll notice original, big data insight seeded throughout current affairs and hot topics.

8. Avinash Kaushik @avinashV

Avinash Kaushik is an obvious addition to this list.

Not only is he the author of the two most prominent books in the web-analytics field — Web Analytics 2.0 and Web Analytics: An Hour A Day— he is also a Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google. That means helping people figure out this whole big data thing … yeah, that’s kinda his job.

Overall, Avinash is one of the best, most reliable rock stars to follow on Twitter, especially if you run an online business or want some general analytics insight.

9. Justin Cutroni @justincutroni

Like Avinash, Justin Cutroni is also a Google evangelist. He’s the author of a handful of top-notch books including Performance Marketing with Google Analytics and O’Reilly’s definitively titled Google Analytics.

No matter what stage on the web analytics game you’re at, Justin’s tweets will definitely give you something to learn from and explore further. On top of that, he also mixes in a healthy dose of motivation and good old fashioned human warmth by including tweets on everything from management, productivity, and even the Dalai Lama.

10. Vincent Granville @analyticbridge

His timeline may lack the visual aesthetics that other big data experts are known for on social media, yet Vincent Granville still captures a lot of attention by sharing highly valuable links about relevant developments in the industry.

Vincent is a data scientist and co-founder of three companies including Data Shaping Solutions, a consulting and digital-media agency with monstrous clients such as Visa and eBay. He has also published over 40 papers in statistical journals … so he knows a thing or two about data analytics, to put it lightly.

Through the links he posts on Twitter, Vincent manages to give a sometimes thoughtful, sometimes funny, but always big data-related view of the world.

To read the original article and find out who the top 5 are, click here.

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