Two years ago I started managing social media for LiveHive. I’ve always been a Twitter fan, and, as the social media channel has evolved, it’s become an increasingly valuable tool – extending beyond social engagement. Twitter provides a fast and easy way to get educated on a target market with real-time insights into what’s happening in the industry.

Using Twitter, I can quickly spot the newest sales research, see what sales topics are trending, find and share the best sales articles and blogs and keep up on the latest industry news. When you go to a show like Dreamforce, Twitter also keeps you on top of the event buzz, gives you fast session highlights and points you to the most interesting companies.

Best of all – if you’re following the right people – it’s virtually effortless and fast to get all of these insights. Setting up a list in Twitter is simple and there are many apps that let you set up streams for different lists – so you can easily and quickly view tweets from a particular group.

With Dreamforce around the corner, I thought I’d share the handles of 25 top sales influencers on Twitter and a quick snapshot of why you might want to follow them. In alphabetical order, they are:

Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar
You can spend too much time looking at the Salesforce digital evangelist’s tweets. They’re always information packed, fun and interactive – with lots of video.

Marc Benioff @benioff
RTs on high-level business news, events shaping our world and current pop culture – a great way to see snippets of news you might otherwise miss and, of course, it’s Benioff.

Trish Bertuzzi @BridgeGroupInc
A sales author and consultant who doesn’t hold back from speaking – or tweeting – her mind and delivers sales advice with a touch of humor.

Tiffani Bova @Tiffani_Bova  
Salesforce sales strategist (and former Gartner analyst) has tweets that are spot on about current industry issues with curated content from a broad variety of sources.

David Brock @davidabrock
Posts helpful third party content and delivers his own sales observations and opinions to help sales people learn and improve professionally and personally.

Deb Calvert @PeopleFirstPS
Fresh sales insights and content delivered by a sales trainer who also teaches sales development principles through UC Berkeley extension.

Grant Cardone @GrantCardone
Follow if you like daily quotes tweeted with a sharp business tongue.

Barb Giamanco @barbaragiamanco
Get links to curated thought leadership posts from top women sales pros culled from her ‘Women in Sales and Marketing’ newsletter.

Gerhard Gschwandtner @gerhard20
A prolific stream of sales related content delivered from the Selling Power blog with guest posts by industry leaders.

Alice Heiman @aliceheiman
Get a steady stream of tweets for all aspects of sales with motivational quotes and links to timely sales content.

Mark Hunter @TheSalesHunter  
Leadership focused tweets, inspirational sales quotes and tweets from key sales and leadership events.

Anthony Iannarino @iannarino
Following @iannarino is like a one-stop shop for sales tweets. You’ll find frequent RTs of many people on this list.

Jason Jordan @JasonRJordan
Get insights on topics such as ‘Pipeline Management vs. Forecasting: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter.’

Jim Keenan @keenan
Fast talking tweets with personality from the CEO of A Sales Guy.

Jill Konrath @JillKonrath
Follow to get a fast and informative earful about all things sales with quick access to her fun and edgy blogs.

Nancy Nardin @SellingTools
There’s a reason why @SellingTools was recognized as a top retweeted vendor – consistent tweeting of vendor, sales tech and industry news.

Peter Ostrow @PeterOstrow
Former Aberdeen analyst now at Sirius, Peter has tribal knowledge about the sales industry and emerging sales technologies and stats that make you stop and think.

Michael Peachey @michael_peachey
If you want to stay on top of what’s happening at Dreamforce – as it happens – consider following for the latest insights.

Lori Richardson @scoremoresales
“The Woman Who Knows Women in Sales” tweets on issues relating to women in sales and shares top influencer insights regarding sales strategies and tactics.

Jill Rowley @Jill_Rowley
No holds barred tweets on everything about social selling with a distinct opinion – and you know the tweets are her own.

Tamara Schenk @tamaraschenk
Get tweets and links to the latest CSO Insights research and access to insightful blogs on sales enablement issues.

Koka Sexton @kokasexton
You’ll get a stream of social selling tips by following this founder of Social Selling Labs.

Jeff Shore @JeffShore
Tweets combine human psychology, mindfulness and sales tips with links to similarly aligned content such as ‘3 Rules of Change We Too Often Forget.’

Dave Stein @DaveStei
Tweets on sales effectiveness and strategies with links to good industry content.

Andrea Waltz @GoforNo
Get tweets to overcome fear of failure and increase your sales motivation with inspirational quotes and graphics.

Finally, if you’re looking for a wealth of sales content, @TopSalesWorld curates the industry’s top blog posts and articles on a daily basis. If there are others you would add, let me know @LiveHive.

Jennifer Dignum is Associate Director, Communications for LiveHive, Inc., provider of an open and extensible sales acceleration platform. LiveHive powers businesses to drive higher sales growth and deliver greater customer value with analytics and automation. Seamlessly integrated with Salesforce, LiveHive triples rep productivity and gives leaders real-time digital insights into sales activities for faster time-to-revenue.