One of the most interesting byproducts of the social business era has been the rise of content marketing. It’s a powerful means of generating awareness for a brand or product, one that is both stylish and informative in its presentation — and flexible enough to meet a variety of different audiences.

Content marketing has become very important to social businesses, so much so that we dedicated an entire chapter to the subject in our best-selling book, The Social Employee (McGraw-Hill, 2013). This young form is still gaining traction in the marketing community at large, and because of that it’s essential to make sure it’s done right if we hope to continue driving its adoption as a practice.

Content Marketing Landscape 2014 – Top 200 Brands and Influencers

It’s for this reason that education, advocacy and evangelism for this growing world is so important — and that we recognize the leaders in this field for their hard work. In November, Onalytica (@Onalytica) released its “Content Marketing Landscape 2014 – Top 200 Brands and Influencers” list, highlighting the top 200 respective brands and thought leaders involved in helping this burgeoning field succeed.

Much to my surprise, I snuck in there at #19. It is a great honor to be ranked among such good company. People like Jeff Bullas (@jeffbullas, coming in at #1 to no one’s surprise), Michael Brenner (@BrennerMichael, #3), Ann Handley (@MarketingProfs, #7, and @annhandley, #11), Glen Gilmore (@GlenGilmore), #14), Michael Brito (@Britopian, #35) and Neal Schaffer (@NealSchaffer), #77) — just to name a very small handful — do incredible work to bring legitimacy and structure to content marketing and deserve all the recognition they can get. Ultimately, it’s good to see that there are so many people active in the conversation; we can only go up from here!

It’s important to acknowledge the many brands involved in this grand discussion as well. My heartfelt congrats to the AMA (@AMA_Marketing, #30), for whom I have led quite a few content marketing workshops over the past two years. It was also good to see organizations like NewsCred (@newscred, #4), CMO.com (@cmo_com, #17) Outbrain (@Outbrain, #28), and Ion Interactive (@ioninteractive, #36) get some recognition for the hard work they do as well.

But of course, while recognition is always good, the work doesn’t stop here. The upcoming year could be a crucial one for establishing content marketing as a true force to be reckoned with. To get there, we’ll need the continued contributions of everyone on this list — and then some!

Below are recent endorsements for The Social Employee (McGraw-Hill, August 2013) by Tom Peters and David Aaker on their social networks, but if you want to see more of their endorsements click here.

In The Social Employee, we go behind the scenes with several leading brands—such as IBM, AT&T, Dell, Adobe, Southwest Airlines, Cisco, Acxiom, and Domo—pulling the lid off the inspiring social business success stories that have propelled these companies into the 21st century. These cutting-edge brands have all come to the same realization: the path to social business lies through empowering the social employee.

See what others are saying about The Social Employee and order your copy today!

Please check out @SocialEmployee media buzz!

“Great brands have always started on the inside, but why are companies taking so long to leverage the great opportunities offered by internal social media? . . . The Social Employee lifts the lid on this potential and provides guidance for businesses everywhere.” —JEZ FRAMPTON, Global Chairman and CEO, Interbrand

The Social Employee offers an unparalleled behind-the-scenes look at the social business success stories of some of the biggest brand names in the business world, including IBM, AT&T, Dell, Adobe, Southwest Airlines, Cisco, Acxiom, and Domo. These cutting-edge brands have all come to the same realization: the path to social business lies through empowering the social employee.

The brands that leverage their employee base in order to engage customers and prospects through social media are the ones destined to win the marketing wars. This book not only details the astronomical rise of the social employee, but also outlines the innovative methods that leading companies have employed to foster cultures of enthusiastic and engaged workers.

FOREWORD by David C. Edelman, Global Co-Leader, Digital Marketing & Sales Practice, McKinsey & Company

AFTERWORD by Kevin Randall, Vice President of Brand Strategy & Research at Movéo Integrated Branding, and journalist for The Economist, The New York Times and