On being “influential”

I was surprised and flattered to find myself included this week on MindTouch’s list of the Top 25 Most Influential Technical Communications Bloggers (and I have added a badge to this blog to prove it!). It’s a great honour to be included in such illustrious company, especially as the rankings were computed from a number of different social media metrics. So my thanks must go not just to Mark Fidelman who compiled the list, but more importantly to people like you, who read my blog and follow me on Twitter.

The list is international, including tech comm bloggers from the UK, Australia, and India as well as the USA, and I’m pleased to say that I already knew almost every name on the list either as a personal contact or as a regular correspondent through professional mailing lists or on social networks. I was also very pleased to see that four of the people listed (Ellis Pratt, Gordon McLean, Colum McAndrew, and myself) are presenting at Technical Communication UK 2010.

One of the key factors in this ranking was activity on social media, especially Twitter. Although I was a relative latecomer to this platform I have become  great fan. Like many converts, I am now quite a Twitter evangelist. When people are dismissive of Twitter, and tell me that they can’t be bothered with what Stephen Fry had for breakfast, I try and explain its advantages. For me, it’s a way of listening in to fascinating conversations on topics that interest me, and having the chance to take part as much as I want to. “If you, as an individual or as a brand, want to be influential,” I tell people, “then you need to be talking where your audience are listening. Today, your audience listen first and foremost to social media.”

Not only does Twitter allow me to keep up to date with topics in my own field, it has helped me broaden my interests. About half the people I follow on Twitter are involved in technical communications or related fields such as e-learning, usability or user experience. For light relief, I also follow quite a few UK based comedians, but I now also follow quite a few people who tweet about science in the public domain, particularly at its interface with the law (sparked by my interest in the libel case brought against science writer Simon Singh).

Being part of this “most influential” list is not only an honour, but also a responsibility. It means I need to keep blogging on tech comm topics that interest me, and I need to keep tweeting. Being on the list is an incentive to me to keep interested in what’s happening in my professional field, and to keep being interesting to other people. That is quite a challenge, as I expect that the publication of this list is going to inspire lots more people to blog and tweet as well. If you are interested in tech comms I’m sure that you could learn much from everyone on the list. You should also be brave and start sharing your views with others.

Once again, thank you for following me, and please keep doing so.