Best Platforms for Cybersecurity Influencers: Top Places to be Seen and Heard

If you’re looking to boost your brand awareness (that super important and super vague metric) in the cybersecurity world, you’ve probably wondered: where should you focus your energy? Which platforms will give you the best chance to connect, share, and grow your audience? There are many platforms to find a cybersecurity audience, but there is enough difference in audiences and costs that it can be difficult to know where to focus for your current goals. Here's what I've learned from managing Cyfluencer.

Why Choosing the Right Platform Matters

Cybersecurity is a specialized field. It demands platforms that cater to professionals who want to share insights, discuss trends, and collaborate on solutions. However, it's also just a general hot topic of curiosity, so you want the right platform that can:

• Connect you with industry leaders and peers

• Provide opportunities to showcase your expertise

• Enable you to generate leads, and grow your company's network

  
  

Choosing the wrong platform means your message might get lost in the noise or reach currently irrelevant people. I mean, everyone has the potential to be relevant some day, but we've yet to work with any clients that had a money tree by the water cooler, so focused audiences matter.

Top Social Media Platforms for Cybersecurity Influencer Marketing

Here’s a rundown of the best places to build your cybersecurity brand:

1. LinkedIn: The Professional Hub

Okay, like, duh. LinkedIn remains the go-to platform for professionals across industries, and cybersecurity is no exception. It’s perfect for sharing articles, posting updates about new vulnerabilities, or announcing speaking engagements. It's also "slower paced", meaning content can be visible in feeds for days, allowing thoughtful conversations to unfold. Lastly, the more robust profiles on LinkedIn increase transparency and trust in the influencer and their experience. Not that there aren't fake profiles (This dude Steve LIVES for finding them and sharing them with his 27K audience) but it's LESS of a problem on LinkedIn.

Why LinkedIn?

• Still the gold standard for B2B activity

• Access to decision-makers who's networks are comprised of other decision makers

• Ability to publish long-form content

• Ability to interact as a brand or thought leader

• Opportunities to be shared or create cybersecurity-focused groups

  
  

Pro tip: Your own employees can regularly engage with posts from other cybersecurity professionals without throwing a pitch in comments. Have founders be thought leaders who comment from experience without selling the company. The cybersecurity family is about adding value, not selling snake oil or salmon sperm (apparently it's the latest anti-aging serum!).

2. Twitter /ɛks/: Real-Time Cybersecurity Conversations

Twitter/X (I still haven't made peace with the name change so now it's a hill to die on) is where breaking news and quick updates happen. Cybersecurity experts often use it to share alerts, comment on new threats, or promote webinars and events. The fast pace means you can stay on top of trends as they unfold.

Why Twitter?

• Instant sharing of news and insights

• Strong search features for users finding relevant content

• Direct interaction with influencers and organizations

• X Live Stream can be an interesting way to collaborate with influencers

• Crawled by LLMs, so more mentions can have a positive impact on SEO

  
  

Pro tip: Note that the amount of content shared on Twitter and the fast pace means a lot of shares might flare out before they take off. Also, the inability to see who is liking the posts, unlike on LinkedIn means verifying the quality of the influencer's audience can be trickier. However, if you find someone strong on LinkedIn AND Twitter for cross posting, that's a real pot of gold!

3. Reddit: Deep Dives and Community Support

Reddit’s cybersecurity subreddits are vibrant communities where professionals and enthusiasts discuss everything from malware analysis to career advice. It’s less formal but highly informative. For a broader look at your marketing plan, I just also want to mention that Reddit ads should not be overlooked.

Why Reddit?

• Anonymous and candid discussions

• Access to a wide range of expertise levels

• Opportunities to ask questions and share knowledge

• Great for crowdsourcing solutions or opinions, you want to show up there

• Also crawled by the LLMs, presence can help you show up in those search summaries

  
  

Pro tip: Participate regularly and provide value. Redditors appreciate genuine contributions over self-promotion so finding the correct movers and shakers on Reddit who can share your content or mention your company without getting chased out of the conversation with digital pitch forks is important. It's a thin line, but if the influencer can add value and bring your brand up in an appropriate fashion the genuinely contributes, it's a great place to be.

Follow me on Reddit!

4. YouTube

Video content is highly engaging and can reach a broad audience. Also, cybersecurity professionals with strong YouTube channels are often looking for sponsorships to help them continue to create high quality content. YouTube is also a great way to turn up in search.

Why YouTube?

• Visual and practical content delivery

• Long shelf life for videos

• Sponsorship opportunities

• Opportunities to put a company thought leader as a guest on a popular channel

  
  

Pro tip: Remember that people use YouTube as a source of "podcasts", often letting it run in the background while they wash the dishes, exercise, drive, plow fields, spin yarn, etc. Making sure the conversations are engaging and the name is dropped enough verbally, as well in the video description, is important.

5. Other Networks

The audiences tend to be smaller, but sometimes the more intimate the conversation, the higher quality the engagement is. Before anyone in the Cyfluencer network can share on these networks, we do an inspection of their profile (we source them with LinkedIn as a primary focus), but some of our influencers have had success on:

• BlueSky - The alternative to Twitter, a lot of people in the infosec and cybersecurity community have become active on this platform.

• Medium - Many cybersecurity thought leaders publish their insights here and can hyperlink to interesting vendor content

• Mastodon - Not gonna lie, it overwhelms me, but it works for others

• Substack - It's been growing rapidly, y'all

• Threads - I poop you not, it's still a thing, but one of our influencers has a nice little thing going for her there.

  
  

Pro tip: Honestly, while we stay LinkedIn focused at Cyfluencer, if someone has a good audience somewhere else and they want to cross post, never say no to extra exposure.

How to Maximize Your Impact on These Platforms

It's not enough that you write a blog and have a few employees share it. You need real distribution by real influencers, respected cybersecurity thought leaders that people trust. An authentic share from a CISO on LinkedIn (or other platforms) will get you FAR more exposure than just sharing on the company page and boosting it. Our clients see the traffic driven by a Cyfluencer post is also higher quality and higher intent, staying on page 5-10 times longer and more likely to click around the site, learning more about the company.

1. Be Consistent: Create shareable content regularly, weekly or more (not like me...).

2. Let them share authentically: The Cyfluencer network shares what they want and use their own words and voice. If it sounds like an ad, it's gonna flop like Gigli at the box office.

3. Provide Value: Content needs to be helpful and informative to be shareable, not just AI generated SEO fluff.

4. Leverage Feedback: On the Cyfluencer platform, you're already putting content in front of your target audience. Track what they share and what they don't to see what people REALLY want to read.

Long Story Short

• LinkedIn is still king

• Other platforms matter

• Authenticity is a must

• Salmon sperm may help reduce wrinkles and sun spots