As a Marketer, I’m always looking for inspiration from my peers, including our customers, competitors, influencers, and anyone else producing great marketing content. And a lot of our customers come to us looking for ideas as to who to follow for inspiration.

Every time a customer or prospective customer starts working with us, we start tracking their digital marketing across as many as 18 different channels. As part of the onboarding process, they specify some other companies (competitors, peers, influencers…) that they want to use as a comparison set. So we start tracking the marketing of all those companies, too. Over time, this has grown to a collective dataset of more than 10,000 brands.

When we created The Content Marketing Paradox Report, we analyzed a sample of brands across our entire dataset, including millions of pieces of content and billions of interactions. We also thought it might be fun to see which brands are being tracked most frequently by the other brands in the dataset. The resulting list of “Most Stalked Brands” below represents the companies that are piquing interest from peers and competitors, and includes a mix of industries, some of the most aggressive content marketers, and some surprises as well.

Here are the Top 20 Most Stalked Brands, in reverse order. We can’t tell you exactly who is tracking whom, or why, but we can highlight some of the content that best illustrates why these 20 brands are good enough to be so popular and aspirational among their peers.

20. Microsoft

Twitter: @microsoft
The world’s best-known software company still has it! They are active on nearly every major digital marketing channel, with large audiences, including more than 6 million Twitter followers and Facebook Likes.

19. Mayo Clinic

Facebook
Mayo Clinic posts informative content that speaks to a very broad audience. A good combination of endearing visuals (photo and video) with powerful messages. Brands from any industry could take some cues from Mayo Clinic — particularly on Facebook.

18. HP

Twitter: @HP
You might know HP as leader of the “old guard” for high-tech, but guess who’s getting serious about Snapchat?

17. Allstate

YouTube
The insurance company has created a ton of buzz with its “Mayhem” series of ads. But it clearly puts effort into its blog — and it pays off in terms of engagement. Lifestyle advice content that doesn’t directly promote Allstate products are very effective at building trust with consumers.

16. Wells Fargo

Facebook
Wells Fargo’s Untold Stories series is a mix of professionally produced and user-generated video content. Wells Fargo does a good job of promoting the content on Facebook, and also encouraging further social sharing, across multiple channels.

15. NetSuite

Twitter: @NetSuite
Compared to cloud app big brother Salesforce.com, NetSuite doesn’t have as much name recognition among the general public, but their competitors clearly take them seriously, based on their placement on this list.

14. VMWare

LinkedIn
Compared to other virtualization vendors, VMWare has larger audiences and more activity across most major social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google+, and especially LinkedIn. But, it has been conservative at adopting new networks.

13. Target

Pinterest
Target is one of our favorite brands to demo and compare against a variety of companies, as they have a broad digital strategy. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean everything they do is impactful… But no one can argue that their Holiday 2014 campaign wasn’t effective. They sponsored the development of a free game app to pull parents — with children — into the stores and help keep the kids placated longer to allow for more shopping time.

12. EMC

LinkedIn
EMC, like VMWare, has not rushed into new channels like some of the other B2B tech vendors on this list. But compared to those same companies, it is particularly strong on LinkedIn (500,000 followers) and Facebook.

11. Eloqua

Blog (via Oracle)
For many B2B marketers, Eloqua (now a part of Oracle) set a high bar in B2B Content Marketing. The in-depth and informative guides to different marketing topics were excellent at engaging prospective buyers. The fact that they are still in top 20 most stalked brands, more than 2 years after being acquired, illustrates the respect earned from their peers.

10. Dell

Google+
Dude, Dell has seen its ups and downs over the years. But with a wide array of products for businesses and consumers, it shouldn’t surprise you that they are among the most stalked brands. One thing you might not have guessed, however, is that they are a leader on Google+, with 10 times more followers than the average of their competitors. It will be interesting to see if that investment pays off for them in the long-term…

9. Pardot

Twitter: @Pardot
Pardot (now part of Salesforce.com) is another one of the Top 20 Most Stalked brands that has been acquired in the past few years. But, before the acquisition (and since), they invested heavily in content marketing and got good early traction in a crowded field. The fact that they are in the Top 10 of our most stalked brands shows that there is a lot still to be gleaned from their efforts.

8. Accenture

YouTube
You might not expect a management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company to deliver outstanding content. But the company has taken to YouTube to express its vision for the digital revolution, beautifully highlighting the transformative power of digital technologies. From the launch of a new hybrid cloud solution to addressing the middle-skills employment gap, the B2B company uses succinct video content to drive conversation around digital trends, establishing the brand as a tech thought leader in the process.

6. SAP & Oracle (Tie)

Blog: Oracle | SAP
Such great irony that these two enterprise software titans tied on the list. SAP and Oracle compete in every way imaginable, including America’s Cup races and custom cars for the CEO’s. And they both have aggressive campaigns to woo each others’ customers across blogs and social media. But arguably the most interesting and engaging content can be found in Oracle’s #LifeAtOracle campaign. You can find a diverse set of mostly user-generated content across multiple channels, including LinkedIn and Twitter.

5. Salesforce

YouTube
As a behemoth in the B2B software space, Salesforce has successfully parlayed its high-profile product launches and accolades into marketing fodder for its LinkedIn and YouTube audiences, from announcing a partnership with Honeywell to releasing plans for Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. The Dreamforce 2014 Opening film, for example, has been viewed over 76,000 times and counting on the company’s YouTube channel alone!

4. Hubspot

Blog
In the B2B Marketing world, Hubspot is one of the best-known content marketing organizations. They have a world-class team, led by Joe Chernov, and produce a high volume of content across multiple channels specific to different parts of their buyers’ journeys. For example, their Marketing Library contains rich learning guides, whereas their listicle-style blog posts are designed to pull new readers into the fold.

3. Cisco

Facebook
Cisco competes against some heavy-hitters in B2B tech. But from covering the #InternetofEverything and building of “Wi-Fi Island” to launching a Most #ConnectedFan Contest with the NBA (one of its Official Technology Partners), the company makes the impact of its technology solutions relatable through content on its Facebook page.

2. Marketo

Twitter: @Marketo
Marketo markets to marketers, so they have to be on top of their game. They aren’t the biggest vendor on this list, but their peers and other B2B marketers certainly respect their efforts, which span most major digital marketing channels. They are also working to cultivate awareness of their own CMO to help tee up more conversations with CMO’s across their customer base.

1. IBM

LinkedIn
In some ways, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. With such a massive global presence, rich history, and diverse product set, there are countless companies who would want to monitor IBM’s marketing. So on the most popular networks, they have huge audiences. But IBM also isn’t afraid to take risks and lead by example. Their IBMblr Tumblr page pays homage to their rich history of innovation, with a focus on creativity. It’s a fantastic example of a channel-specific way to engage a set of customers they wouldn’t reach through more traditional channels.

For a closer look at how top brands are driving an impact with content marketing, get your copy of our The Content Marketing Paradox Report!