Waggener Edstrom Worldwide

It’s that time of the year again! As some 2,500 participants prepare to join the 2013 World Economic Forum (WEF) in the quaint mountain town of Davos, Switzerland, Waggener Edstrom’s Social Innovation team has been busy figuring out how you can join the conversation surrounding #WEF 2013.

We utilized some of the standard research skills and expertise from our Insight & Analytics team using qualitative and quantitative methods to dig through Twitter and gain some insight into the robust Twitter conversation surrounding Davos. To find out who is influencing the influencers, we used several online tools to identify people who have influenced the Davos discussion in past years and others who are likely to drive dialogue this year.

Our track record in spotting influencers is strong. Let’s take a quick look at how last year’s “Davos Influencers to Watch” have grown in the past year:

• @BabatundeUNFPA (then: 869 followers – now: 2,366+ (172 percent increase!))
• @bethcomstock (then 8,965 followers – now: 14,906+ (66 percent increase!))
• @felixsalmon – (then 48,375 followers – now: 86,930+ (80 percent increase!))
• @mabelvanoranje (then 14,370 followers – now: 37,700+ (162 percent increase!))

And this year’s nominees are…

Top Twitter Handles to follow during Davos 2013 #WEF:

A complete Twitter list can be found here.

These journalists have great access and will certainly raise interesting topics:

• @andrewrsorkin – (428,621 followers) Andrew Ross Sorkin is The New York Times’ chief mergers and acquisitions reporter and a columnist. He is sure to have an opinion.
• @ariannahuff – (1,158,437 followers) Arianna Huffington is the editor and chief of the Huffington Post media group. An obvious influencer but someone who can’t be missed.
• @felixsalmon – (86,930 followers) Felix Salmon is a finance blogger for Thomson Reuters. Salmon blogged extensively at Davos over the past two years. He was also on our list of up-and-comers to watch above. His posts will have you laughing!
• @gideonrachman – (25,187 followers) Gideon Rachman is the foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times. In his spare time he maintains a blog, is a freelance writer, and does TV and radio appearances discussing his vast knowledge of foreign affairs. And it’s noteworthy that he is followed by @Unicef and @NickKristof.
• @tomfriedman (165,010 followers) – Thomas Friedman is no stranger to the world of foreign affairs; he won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for The New York Times. He became the paper’s foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995. He writes a twice-weekly column for The New York Times.
• @nickkristof (1,375,870 followers) – Perhaps my all-time most favorite journalist, whom I have followed since he covered China in the early 1990s. His never-ending commitment to telling stories that shine a light on women and human rights is extraordinary.

We also found a handful of people and groups that will likely have some interesting things to say and bring a unique perspective to the Davos discussion. This group ranges from well-known influentials to below-the-radar and somewhere in between:

• @amonck – (4,875 followers) Adrian Monck, managing director, WEF Communications and Media. Although this may seem obvious due to his connection to WEF, Monck was a common thread among many of the lists we scoured when doing our research. He is sure to provide a bird’s-eye view of the event.
• @BeaperezBea– (1,137 followers) Beatriz Perez is the first-ever chief sustainability officer at The Coca-Cola Company, a company that has been on my radar for years due to its multiple CSR awards and commitment to development and sustainability. (Plus, I am a Diet Coke addict.)  With the backing of an iconic brand like Coca-Cola, it will be fascinating to see what Perez will bring to the discussion.
• @davidjoneshavas – (11,479 followers) David Jones is the co-founder of One Young World (OYW), a nonprofit that helps young people from around the world make positive change. OYW is near and dear to my heart as WE supports its efforts on a pro-bono basis — look for its ambassadors at Davos!
• @HelenClarkUNDP – (28,889 followers) Former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark now serves as the administrator at United Nations Development Program and is the first woman to lead the organization. I’m looking forward to hearing her thoughts on labor rights, education and public health.
• @pdjmoo – (4,598 followers) Pam Jacob is a self-proclaimed wild, adventurous, international entrepreneur and globetrotter — a visionary and a futurist turned founder of The Natural Eye Project. With Mother Nature an important topic of discussion this year at Davos, @pdjmoo is likely to have an opinion — and she has an interesting story to tell. If conservation of nature is your game, follow her and you can follow conversations with the likes of @Unicef, @WorldBank, @NWF, and @Nature_org(all followers of @pdjmoo).

Dive deeper into what’s happening at the event by following some of the WEF-sponsored communities. Their firsthand experiences of the Davos event should provide thought-provoking tweets and perspective from the eyes of our future leaders:

• @GlobalShapers – (5,032 followers) The Global Shapers Community is a network of young people who are exceptional in their potential, their achievement and their drive to make a contribution to their communities.
• @openforumdavos – (850 followers) WEF has set up an open forum discussion platform around some of the breakout sessions and side discussions going on during the event. These could supply some interesting topics below the surface that may not be covered by the mainstream media.
• @TechPioneers – (1,836 followers) Tech Pioneers recognizes companies that are typically in the startup phase and are involved in the design, development and deployment of new technologies, and hold promise of significantly impacting the way business and society operate. Follow it to keep in touch with the most innovative and impactful companies.
• @YGLVoices – (9,232 followers) The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a unique community of more than 700 exceptional young leaders who share the commitment of shaping the global future.

In addition to the tweets that will flood the #WEF hashtag, you can also follow @Davos, the official Twitter handle of the World Economic Forum dedicated to the annual meeting in Davos. And if you have the time, tune into WEF’s LiveStream channel or watch videos on demand.

Will you be following along?