I nearly spilled my morning coffee on my netbook when I read it.
So I checked Traackr's website and found that they compile influencers list for various domains to enable PR and Marketing people to connect with them.
Their website states:
We sort through the massive amount of data on social media to identify the most influential individuals in their community around specific issues, markets, brands.
Traackr calculates influencers’ score based on proprietary algorithms to help marketers and PR professionals decide who they need to contact and how to reach these influencers.
When I asked them on Twitter about their algorithm here's what they replied: it's a multi keyword search that searches 20+ social networks, measures reach, resonance (how far stories spread), & relevance
But is online influence really influence?
My organizational professor defined Power as the ability to make others behave in a way you would want them to behave. Willingly. Whereas, influence is not really about Power - it refers to changing perceptions of people. It is linked to one of the sources of Power - expertise power. Online influence is actually a function virtual reputation. Which is why even if one is the top HR influencer in the world - it doesn't translate into people doing out of turn favors for you :)
In other news I begged the Recruiting Animal to make me the HR King of India in his annual awards for 2009 ;-) Yeah, emotional manipulation is a way to influence people too :)
Oh by the way, did you check out the latest Carnival of HR at Lisa's blog? No?
Then what are you doing here... go check it out
