The top HR professionals on Twitter are a dynamic and inspiring group of experts, strategists, entrepreneurs and motivators. Some of them know a thing or two about feedback and overcoming adversity to attain your true potential from personal experience. Most of them are influential on the internet as bloggers as well as tweeters. All of them, however, are forward-thinking leaders in their profession who can help you with your full spectrum of human resources needs.
Let’s get to know 15 of the top HR professionals on Twitter, listed in order of their number of followers:
Jessica Merrell: (opens in new tab)
Located in the San Francisco Bay area, Jessica is the founder of Blogging4Jobs, an HR, Recruiting and Workplace blog that Forbes chose as one of their Top 75 Career Websites in 2012. “Sometimes red head or blonde” according to her Twitter bio, Jessica is leading the way in HR blogging either way.
Victoria Mavis: (opens in new tab)
Pennsylvania-based Victoria Mavis, aka The Queen of Coffee Conversations is the author of Building the Ultimate Network, an Amazon.com bestseller. Victoria is also a person with a disability and a speaker (opens in new tab) who is committed to inspiring others to reach their potential.
Laurie Ruettimann: (opens in new tab)
A writer and speaker on Human Resources, employment and technology, Laurie blogs about Life, Work, and Cats at LaurieRuettimann.com (opens in new tab) . Besides cats, Laurie is fond of running and describes herself as a cynic. In fact, her former blog was titled The Cynical Girl (opens in new tab) . She is based in Raleigh, NC.
Jennifer McClure: (opens in new tab)
Keynote Speaker, Strategic Adviser and Executive Coach, Jennifer (opens in new tab) is the Cincinnati-based President of Unbridled Talent, LLC. This awesome consulting and advisory firm helps clients in the areas of keynote speaking, leadership, executive communication skills and talent strategy. Besides HR, Jennifer is passionate about horses, as her Instagram (opens in new tab) attests.
Based in Birmingham, Alabama, Kris is the Chief Human Resources Officer for Kinetix, a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) firm for growth companies. He’s also the founder of the talent management blogs HR Capitalist (opens in new tab) and Fistful of Talent (opens in new tab) . Kris is a basketball enthusiast who started out (opens in new tab) as a college basketball coach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Dr. Nat Williams: (opens in new tab)
The CEO of HumanWorks, Nat is also the author of several business and self-help books (opens in new tab) and a motivational speaker. A product of the New York City foster home system, Nat went on to earn three masters degrees and a doctorate. His first business was a Pennsylvania agency offering support for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Trish McFarlane: (opens in new tab)
She co-founded the forward-looking conference HRevolution and has helped give a voice to HR professionals who are passionate about issues affecting women in the workplace by co-founding Women of HR (opens in new tab) . In addition, the St. Louis-based HR star co-hosts the HR Happy Hour Show, a podcast and web radio show.
Laura Stack: (opens in new tab)
She is a Keynote Speaker, trainer and author who has been a member (opens in new tab) of the National Speakers Association since 1990 and served as President in 2011-2012. Laura’s most recent productivity book is Execution IS the Strategy (opens in new tab) (2014). She also finds the time to write columns for Business Journal, Success,Training, Productive! and Time Management magazines.
Tim Sackett: (opens in new tab)
Based in Lansing, MI, Tim is the President at HRU Technical Resources and blogs at The Tim Sackett Project (opens in new tab) . Tim’s career has been split between recruiting and being an HR generalist, and his stated focus (opens in new tab) is on increasing the core talent base of organizations. Tim is available as a Keynote Speaker, Panel Moderator, trainer, motivator, or Dancing Monkey (opens in new tab) , according to his website. A man of many talents, including self-deprecating humour.
Maren Hogan: (opens in new tab)
CEO/Chief Marketing Brain of the full-service B2B Marketing Agency Red Branch Media, Maren is based in Omaha, NE and blogs at Marenated (opens in new tab) . Serving clients in the UK, Africa, China, Israel, Europe and North America, Maren counts Yoko Ono among her famous Twitter followers. How’s that for influence?
Charlie Judy: (opens in new tab)
Charlie Judy of Chicago, IL is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Baker Tilly Virchow Kraus, a full-service accounting and advisory firm. Charlie is passionate about bringing change to the current “over-engineered” norms of the HR profession by fostering debate over the advantages of a more customized and personalized approach. He blogs about his approach at HR Fishbowl (opens in new tab) .
Barry Deutsch: (opens in new tab)
A Los Angeles-based (opens in new tab) thought leader in hiring and peak performance management, Barry is one of the founding partners of IMPACT Hiring Solutions. Barry was named (opens in new tab) “IMPACT Speaker of the Year” in 2006 by Vistage International. This amazing organization provides over 1000 speakers on management and personal success topics to over 15 000 CEOs and Senior Executives every month. Barry’s award recognizes the Speaker/Expert with the greatest impact on the member companies of Vistage.
Robin Schooling: (opens in new tab)
A speaker, strategist, blogger and Society for Human Resources (opens in new tab) Management volunteer leader, Robin blogs at the HR Schoolhouse and is the Managing Director of Silver Zebras, LLC, which provides strategic advisory services in the areas of HR and Talent Management.
John Kenney: (opens in new tab)
Senior Consultant at SBI: Sales Benchmark Index, John is a Greater Boston Area HR professional who specializes in the interaction between Human Resources and Sales by authoring content for HR leaders who support Sales leaders. John writes about HR issues affecting sales on the SBI blog.
Emma Weare: (opens in new tab)
Emma Wear, or Emma King on LinkedIn, is Director of Talent Acquisition at Wet Seal, Inc. in Orange County, California Area. With 14 years of experience in managerial and directorship roles in which she has built and led teams of up to 40 members, Emma has received three Stevie Awards, including two Stevie Awards for Women.