Last week my Google alert turned up a link that said I was mentioned in a post. I was surprised to see my name listed as one of the Top 25 Online Influencers in Talent Management. It must have also surprised guest blogger and fellow Top Online Talent Management Influencer Kelly Cartwright, who mentioned me in her post on John Sumser's blog.

So how did I end up on this list?

In five words: Social media and thought leadership.

According to the creators, John Sumser and HRExaminer, the list was created by a search and compilation of talent management thought leaders using the three Rs:

• Reach: A measure of the audience size (number of eyeballs) for each individual. Traffic.
• Relevance: The degree to which content associated with the individual matches a cloud of keywords prepared for the analysis.
• Resonance: The number of mentions, inbound links and participation found for each individual.

Take away the specifics of the web search: Isn't this the foundation for thought leadership in any discipline (like accounting)?

Kelly adds some depth to the meaning of thought leader in her post, Talent Management Influencers’ List: Add a Grain of Salt for Flavor:

“I know that there is a clear business aspect to what influence really means. I would ask, “If someone is highly visible online as a talent management thought leader, has that person caused organizations to make decisions based on their knowledge?” Does the work of the influencer shape companies’ initiatives, drive their budgets, or support their technology decisions? Is the influencer changing how money is spent? For many of the online influencers, the answer is a definite yes. But not all cases. Visibility is only as useful as the credibility to back it up. Visibility, longevity, and quality of thought leadership are all important. These are the characteristics that support the logic, and the business cases, for setting strategies and budgets.”

If leadership equals influence and social media can expand your “reach, relevance, and resonance”, then social media can be a powerful tool for leaders in the new era of Network Leadership, where leadership is moving from command-and-control to connect-and-collaborate. (See a post on the Biz Learning Blog titled, Leadership in the New Normal: It's About the Network.)

Back to how I made the list.

I care about and write about learning and talent management for the CPA profession. As a CEO of a state CPA association, I think these topics are critical to fulfilling our mission of “helping CPAs survive and thrive these rapidly changing times.” I use social media as a platform to publish on blogging, Twitter to communicate, SlideShare and YouTube to share, and Facebook and LinkedIn to connect with people.

I am honored to have made it on the list. If I can do it, so can you. Here are some resources to get you started.

• See my presentation to the AICPA Leadership Academy on Leadership and Social Media for CPAs, developed with Janice Maiman of the AICPA.
• Here is our Guide to Social Media, which we developed with Gary Boomer.
• Here is our self-directed learning site for CPAs to learn about social media in 15 minutes a day.

What do you think? Isn't it time to add these tools to your arsenal and begin practicing the three Rs of thought leadership?