Twitter is an immensely powerful tool for people in the digital creative industry. It allows you to connect with customers and other digital professionals while also providing you with opportunities to promote your business. It’s a great tool for designers to hone their craft, from both a design and a business standpoint as well.

Some of the experts listed here have made a name for themselves as SEO gurus while others are known for their insights into cutting-edge design. Still others are known as authorities in the realm of best practices while others are experts in business topics relevant to being a designer. Here’s the deal:

Regardless of their area of expertise, the designers and agencies on our list are here because they are well-established as authorities in the design world.

The purpose of establishing oneself as a design expert isn’t just to gain accolades or huge social media followings. Rather, your expertise can translate into more business. Customers are looking for a designer with a keen eye, but also one that knows what they are doing. Achieving that balance can be easier said than done. Establishing yourself as a design expert gives you and your business credibility, and with credibility comes trust, another critical component of building your business.

Twitter is an easy yet effective way for you to become an expert. You can tweet out helpful information for other designers or provide pointers for consumers. You can offer up concrete results that your customers have experienced as a consequence of your services. You can even tweet about your ever-growing skillset to show your followers that your level of expertise is constantly growing.

In order to establish your own niche of expertise in design, watch and learn from the experts we’ve listed below. Each designer and agency we’ve listed has found massive success in the design world, as well as success on Twitter.

So what is their secret?

In this article, we highlight ten web designers and agencies who have huge followings on Twitter and explain how they go to the top of the heap.

Chris Anderson

Timing REALLY matters! Terrific short talk from @Bill_Gross on what it takes for a start up to succeed. http://t.co/w43vDccnU9

— Chris Anderson (@TEDchris) June 1, 2015

Head of TED Talks, Chris Anderson has amassed more than 1.71 million followers on Twitter, making his the most followed design-related account. His feed features lots of design-related material, as well as information about cutting-edge technologies.

Chris has not gained such a robust following because he tweets a lot. To the contrary, he has just over 4,000 tweets in nearly seven years of being on Twitter. However, when he does tweet, it’s about something of extreme value or interest to his followers. Being head of TED helps too, as he is a well-known authority on all things technology and design.

Web Designer Depot

50+ incredible #freebies for web #designers, May 2015 http://t.co/2VSUaGHKNp

— Webdesigner Depot (@DesignerDepot) June 1, 2015

Web Designer Depot has been disseminating web design information via Twitter for more than six years. In that time, they have gained a following of more than 732,000 people and tweeted over 27,000 times.

One of the primary reasons for Web Designer Depot’s incredible Twitter success is that they tweet often and tweet about things that are of interest and value to web designers. Many of their tweets link readers to articles on hot design trends, tips and tricks for streamlining your workflow, and tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, and other essential software. They periodically provide links to awesome how-to articles as well.

Jeffrey Zeldman

♛ Hot tips for designers and developers, free in your inbox. Sign up @AnEventApart Digest. June issue out next week! http://t.co/9QE9EZngjx

— zeldman ✺ Heroes wear masks. (@zeldman) June 2, 2015

Jeffrey Zeldman is a designer who also writes and publishes on design-related topics. He’s founder of Happy Cog Studios and is involved with A List Apart, one of our top design blog choices to follow in 2015. With 342,000 followers on Twitter, he has a huge audience that appreciates his focus on the latest web design trends.

Jeffrey’s success is due in large part to his prodigious tweeting. Among the more active posters on our list, he’s put together over 41,000 tweets in his more than eight years on Twitter. But because his tweets center on such design topics as responsive design, typography, and usability, his followers have a constant stream of awesome design-related information and inspiration.

InspireFirst

https://twitter.com/inspirefirst/status/605777422605099008

Started a little over four years ago, the InspireFirst Twitter account has grown to include over 207,000 followers. One of the most prodigious tweeters on the list, InspireFirst has posted more than 71,000 tweets on all matters of design.

The strength of InspireFirst’s activity on Twitter is in their multi-modal approach. Although much of their content is related to web design, they also highlight news, events, and trends in digital art, architecture, illustration, painting, and product design. The engagement of their followers gives InspireFirst the second highest social authority ranking (a score based on retweets, time of decay, follower counts, and other metrics) of anyone on this list.

Veerle Pieters

Here it is! My biggest @Illustrator tutorial so far. Learn how to create a cityscape. http://t.co/EkJVyC4Aio

RT=?? pic.twitter.com/yWXU1woWe5

— Veerle Pieters (@vpieters) June 2, 2015

Hailing from Belgium, Veerle Pieters is an established web and graphic designer. Her Twitter feed is well established too, with 194,000 followers and well over 13,000 tweets. Her tweets feature a variety of information, from links to inspiring designs to tips for site layouts to CSS tips and tricks.

Veerle Pieters’ Twitter feed is reflective of her jack-of-all-trades nature. What draws followers to her Twitter account is the sheer volume of quality information about design-related topics. There’s content related to frontend development, backend development, photography, typography, and graphic design as well. Her periodic reminders of what good design is all about, as well as links to great how-to articles for beginning designers, make her a great choice for a follow for those new to the web design field.

Inspiration Feed

Be: Increase your Productivity Level as a Web Designer http://t.co/Nfjhy00K09

— Inspirationfeed.com (@Inspirationf) June 1, 2015

Inspiration Feed does just what it says – it offers all kinds of information about design, including free goodies to get your creative juices flowing. With 183,000 followers and nearly 48,000 tweets, Inspiration Feed is busy providing great tips and tricks to its followers on Twitter.

What draws people to Inspiration Feed is all the free resources they provide, both that they have made and that other designers have put up on the Internet as well. In that regard, Inspiration Feed’s Twitter success has been all about building a fun little community in which people share what they know and what they do in order to motivate and assist their fellow creative professionals.

Red Web Design

SEO Basics: How To Structure A Perfectly Optimised Web Page – http://t.co/ksEMbuhSVu #Bizitalk #KPRS pic.twitter.com/yJDnJnDRoQ

— Red Website Design (@Red_Web_Design) June 2, 2015

With 167,000 followers, Red Web Design is among the more popular design-related Twitter feeds today. Their emphasis is clearly on the business side of things, with a lot of links to articles about improving social media presence and engagement.

Red Web Design’s focus on disseminating up-to-date design and business-related news is what draws many of their followers to their Twitter feed. Whether you need information about the do’s and don’ts of SEO, tips for growing your online business, or how to incorporate infographics and engaging content into a site design, Red Web Design has a wide variety of native content and content reposted from all over the web.

Berrie Pelser

3 Key Steps To Using Video As Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy http://t.co/nWGPWYHqFE via @martinjonesaz

— Berrie Pelser (@BerriePelser) June 2, 2015

A web designer and social media strategist, among other things, Berrie Pelser provides his followers with excellent nuggets of information related to design, social media, WordPress, SEO, and business-related topics. He tweets a lot, with more than 103,000 tweets in the past six years, which has garnered him a following of over 112,000 people.

His years of tweeting have established Berrie as a trusted authority on many matters related to design. The wide variety of information he provides is a primary reason why so many people are drawn to his Twitter account. He posts links to highly engaging and interesting articles, including how to keep your community engaged in what you’re doing, how to create amazing infographics, and how to leverage the power of social media to advance your brand.

Rory Martin

"Feedback, reviews, and approval from other people who have tried your product or service are all forms of social proof." @JeffBullas

— RoryMartin.com (@rorymartin) May 20, 2015

Rory Martin is a web designer, SEO specialist, and social media marketing expert. Since joining Twitter in 2008, nearly 92,000 people have elected to follow him. His daily tweets offer his followers insights into using social media for building brands, popular trends in mobile web design, and new, fantastic ideas in web design.

The strength of Rory Martin’s Twitter feed is in his honest delivery of valuable information. There’s no pressure to participate in surveys or click on links to sponsors, just good information that can help his followers grow and develop their craft and their business all at the same time. With a particular interest in the power of social media, many of Rory’s followers are seeking advice on how to utilize their social media channels to market their products and services.

Kerry Butters

17 Formulas Every Webshop Owner Should Know: http://t.co/4Ojd7HwgQj #ECommerce

— Martin Butters – Tech Marketing (@MartinAButters) June 2, 2015

Kerry Butters is among the most popular web designers on Twitter. She specializes in a variety of areas, including web design, SEO, and social media marketing. Nearly 137,000 people follow Kerry for her focus on the latest design trends, designing for safety and usability, and business tools to improve your workflow.

What makes Kerry Butters a great designer to follow is her earnest effort to provide her followers with high-value business-related information. Most of her numerous daily tweets will link to articles, how-tos, and tutorials that make conducting business more streamlined and easy. There’s also a great deal of information related specifically to web design, graphic design, Photoshop, and WordPress.

Conclusion

There are thousands and thousands of web designers on Twitter who provide excellent industry information, inspiration, links to fantastic design articles, and free stuff. Those listed here are but a few of those designers who have taken to Twitter to promote their craft and help others out along the way.

Who are your favorite designers and agencies to follow on Twitter? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Photo Credit: Twitter Profile by Rosaura Ochoa via Flickr Creative Commons