The Top 25 HR Digital Influencers 2009

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The Top 25 HR Digital Influencers 2009

Topics: HRExaminer, John Sumser, Top 25 HR Digital Influencers, by John Sumser

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Top 25 Digital HR Influencers.

We are starting to be able to measure influence. For most of human history, figuring out how things worked always meant guessing (and asking) about who influenced things. As the world got more crowded and older institutions started to strain, the question of influence became more pertinent.

Older hierarchical organizations are losing their grip as we move to a flatter more agile economy. In that world, influence is the way that institutions are governed and that people get things done. Where power is the ability to make things happen, influence is the ability to increase the probability that things will happen.

We are in a transition.

Today, the most influential people are not online, yet. They don’t need to be. The online world is growing in importance but has not yet really replaced historical institutions and settings.

The people who are influential online have each made a commitment to try to work in different ways. They do their work and write and publish about it. For most, it’s some combination of long work days, multiple roles and focused experimentation. The people who are influential online have worked hard to be influential.

HRExaminer and Traackr.com (here’s a review of Traackr) partnered to evaluate and measure spheres of influence in the online HR community. It’s part of a project that will include bi-monthly explorations of HR Niches. The Top 25 Digital HR Influencers is the first in a very regular series. You can read more about the project here, here and here.

The list is automatically generated by algorithm. The idea is to remove subjectivity and look at the actual data. Traackr‘s process (which is very useful as a sourcing technique) searches an enormous swath of online content and then sifts and ranks it.

Each person in the data (everyone who is observable online in HR), can be measured in terms of three variables:

Sponsor

Reach (this is the number of visitors/eyeballs/page views)
Resonance (the number of inbound links, references, community participation)
Relevance (how an individual’s content maps against a key word cloud)

Each score is a percentile (imagine that the scale is 1 to Guy Kawasaki). The combination of all three scores is the foundation for ranking.

Without further ado, here are the 2009 Top 25 Digital HR Influencers.

Show me the list

About the author

John Sumser

John Sumser is a principal analyst for HRExaminer, an independent analyst firm covering HR Technology and the intersection of people, tech, and work. John’s mix of experience over the course of his career gives him a broad and unique perspective on the industry. Like anyone trying to process a lot of information, he is two or three steps ahead in some areas and still learning about others. Sumser’s work includes deep research into the nooks and crannies of HR Technology to identify and explain rapidly evolving trends. Built on a foundation of engineering, design, and philosophy, John’s seeks to understand and advise clients on where their technology works best, for whom, and in what context. Each year, John examines the insides of hundreds of companies, their products, and ecosystems. He delivers vendor analysis by building the framework from which to deliver the critique. He is constantly connecting and making visible the front end of change. He can help you see the path of evolution and the risks on the journey. The HRExaminer is Sumser’s vehicle for understanding and explaining the inner workings of the industry. With three weekly podcasts, and written commentary, he covers emerging ideas, the state of the industry, and the executives who operate it.

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