Top 25 HR Digital Influencers for 2011

March 24, 2011 – This is the third edition of the HRExaminer Top 25 HR Digital Influencers List (prior editions here and here). The influencer lists are built with an algorithm that measures the audience size (reach), repeatability (links and tweets to content) and alignment (the way the writer’s content maps against our key word cloud).

This list covers the general terrain of HR. The people on the list are (quantitatively) the most widely read, the most quoted and the most published people on the general subject of HR.

Watching the ebb and flow of people who pass through the blogosphere is an interesting pastime. There are a few dynamics that seem to drive the rise and fall of a person’s standing. Attention span, the growth and development of an author, and the enthusiasm that comes with being new to the game.

We define a silo with a series of 25 key words and phrases. (Unchanged in our investigations of HR Influencers). One of the things that is probably happening is that some people on the list have expanded their coverage beyond the core concepts (Laurie Ruettimann comes to mind) while actually expanding their overall influence. As their work moves out of the key words we’re defining as the foundation, they fall down on the list.

This is a pretty interesting phenomenon.

The churn you can see when you compare the three iterations of the project seems to come from a combination of the maturing of existing list members and the fact that social media authors tend to be really prolific in their early output.

What’s fascinating is the fact that the new influencers rise to the top of the search engine lists because their material has the best SEO. So, when someone goes to find out about, say, “performance management in human resources” on Google or Bing, the newest content will rise to the top. As older writers follow their curiosity to deeper and different subjects, their use of the initial top level keywords diminishes.

That means that there is a constant flow of novelty and newness that the search engines deliver in an attempt to stay current. Like all search engine subjects (and social media in general), the question is “What have You Done For Me Lately?” There is little room for wisdom in online influence. It’s more like a combination of immediacy, volume and urgency.

Sadly, that’s not so different from our political and legal cultures.

The other thing that happens to social media luminaries is that they get busy doing other stuff or run out of things to stay, A fair number of the people who have graced our lists were building large career moves. The net result of their success is that their online communication slows down.

There’s sort of a natural ebb and flow to the process.

Take a look at the following table. It lists the HR Influencers from each of our three lists. In red, the movement of the 2011 list place holder is described. 14 of 25 (56%) of the 2011 list members are new. Some will be familiar to readers (they appear on other lists) but many are fresh faces.

Increasingly, the people on the list are writing on behalf of their employers. Where the early influencers were early adopters of the technology, the game will always go to people who have budget, resources and motivation. The number of people on the list who are working HR professionals is in steep decline.

That idea (that the people with the most influence are unlikely to actually work in the profession) is sure to stir up its usual amount of controversy. The fact is that people who work in the trenches just don’t have the time or the motivation to sustain extensive thinking and publishing on the subject.

Are hats are off to the people on the list this time. These are the voices that drive the marketplace.

“human resources” “human capital”, “human resources” “performance management”, “human resources” development, “human resources” “talent acquisition”, “human resources” “talent management”, “human resources” “workforce planning”, “human resources” recruiting, “human resources” training, “human resources” compensation, “human resources” career, “human resources” “career development”, payroll “human resources”, hr training, hr “workforce planning”, hr “talent management”, hr “human capital”, hr career, hr “career development”, hr “performance management”, payroll hr, payroll benefits, payroll “human resources” staffing, payroll “employment law”, payroll EEOC, hr development, “human resources” “recruitment process outsourcing”, “human resources” “candidate relationship management”, “human resources” “background check”, “human resources” “job references”, hr “talent acquisition”, hr “recruitment process outsourcing”, hr “candidate relationship management”, hr “background check”, hr “job references”