You need to follow these 20 big tech thinkers right now

Looking for inspiration, business advice and ideas for your tech enterprise? Twitter and LinkedIn both make it easy to create curated lists of the top thinkers in tech; here are a few big names to get yours started.

No Twitter must-follow list would be complete without adding Jack Dorsey, co-founder of the social network.

He regularly posts to Twitter on the topic of social media, and shares interesting tech innovations and articles as well.

The name Elon Musk is synonymous with big ideas -- with an emphasis on big. The man has founded a number of tech companies, including PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX.

Nearly three million people follow Musk on Twitter, and it’s no surprise why: When the next world-changing tech idea happens, there’s a good chance it will come from him.

As a founding partner of famed seed-stage venture firm Y Combinator (Reddit, Dropbox, Airbnb) and author of "Founders at Work," Livingston knows how to turn great tech ideas into great tech companies.

Her Twitter feed is a mix of tech news, advice for startups and the occasional open call for VC applications.

Early followers of tech topics on the web will no doubt recognize the name Robert Scoble, who gained fame as a technology evangelist at Microsoft and owner of the Scobleizer blog.

These days, Scoble posts his thoughts on the future of technology on his Twitter and his Facebook pages.

Naomi Simson, founding director of online retail site RedBalloon, is one of Australia’s best-known businesswomen and business bloggers.

Today, nearly a million people follow the Aussie "Shark Tank" star on LinkedIn to read her wisdom on women and leadership in the tech industry. Her Twitter feed is also worth following.

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner has built a reputation for tech leadership over the years, and it’s no wonder why: His company absolutely dominates as the professional social graph.

His Twitter feed is a curated list of LinkedIn content and advice aimed at improving your professional life and business.

Tim O’Reilly has more than 30 years of experience in tech publishing as founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, where he gained a name for himself as a proponent of open source development.

His experience shines through on his Twitter profile and LinkedIn page, where he posts about data science and other important “alpha geek” topics.

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is a noted leader in the tech industry.

Sandberg posts a lot of content on her Twitter feed about opening up more opportunities for women in tech and how they can excel in leadership roles.

Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow has an eye-catching resume: The Wyoming cattle rancher is a Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead.

Barlow doesn’t post daily, but when he does, his Twitter feed skews towards quotables and pro-privacy topics such as government surveillance.

Mark Hurd has more than 30 years of experience as a leader in the tech industry, working for five years as president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard before joining Oracle as CEO in September 2010.

Hurd does not post to his LinkedIn or his Twitter page frequently, but when he does, it’s invariably a must-read for both business leaders and those who would like to be one someday.

Lillian Pierson, author of "Data Science for Dummies," is known around the web as the Big Data Gal for her work running the Data Mania blog.

Pierson’s Twitter feed is an excellent complement to her blog, where she “brings data literacy to the masses.”

Clara Shih made a name for herself as a social networking pioneer at Salesforce, where she developed the Force.com Checkout cloud computing distribution channel. Shih now serves as CEO of Hearsay Social, which helps businesses connect to their customers on social media.

Shih posts on LinkedIn and her Twitter page about social media topics, and about what it means to be a working mom in tech.

Cory Doctorow, author of the best-selling young adult novel "Little Brother" and co-editor of Boing Boing, is one of the Internet’s most established thinkers on mass surveillance, file sharing and digital rights management.

On his popular Twitter feed, you’ll find links to articles on these topics, along with other thought-provoking tech content.

Blanca Treviño is the CEO of Softtek, a multi-national IT vendor based out of Mexico.

As one of the most powerful female CEOs on the global scene, Treviño is an evangelist for both Latin America and women in tech on her LinkedIn page.

Google Ad Technology Consultant Fabian Elliott has gained notice in the tech industry with the launch of Black Tech Mecca, an effort to encourage and grow black tech startups in the city of Chicago.

Fabian’s Twitter account is a good source of info about the project, along with advice and inspiration for those in the startup stage of their tech business.

Hunter Walk, formerly a product manager at Google’s YouTube, now runs Homebrew, a seed stage venture capital firm.

On Walk's Twitter page, he posts plenty of content on the topics of starting a business and big data, including a number of fascinating visualizations.

Astrophysicist Kirk Borne, currently a principal data scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton, is arguably the top big data influencer on Twitter.

You'll find plenty of content on his Twitter feed about data science and the applications it has for marketing and business, along with other worthwhile reads.

Neil Hughes is a U.K.-based freelance tech blogger who has spent the last 15 years working in the field of information technology.

Hughes is a highly active and influential poster on LinkedIn, where he shares his thoughts on IT, productivity, innovation, and other important tech topics. He posts on Twitter as @neilchughes.

Self-proclaimed data nerd Carla Gentry has spent the last couple decades working with and making sense of the data of Fortune 100 and 500 companies.

You’ll find little fluff on Gentry’s Twitter page -- just a well-curated list of articles on the topic of data research and analysis.