Everyone loves a contest. Including us. And you know? We’re a competitive bunch here at Fistful of Talent. So with that… I present our last talent management blog ranking of 2009. (Okay, so you’ll scroll past the next three paragraphs and then go straight to the rankings. We know how you guys are!)
For this round of blog rankings, we decided to go a different route. We decided to take our personal opinions out of the voting equation – because you get enough of that here on this blog every single. day. – and let an independent third party tell us who reigns supreme in our space. You heard us. We’re letting someone else decide, someone completely objective since there have been whispers in the past with questions about our methodology. Then there were questions about fairness when we opened up the voting to you guys via March Madness. Let’s face it. It’s hard to be anything except first place, so we understand the frustrations from bloggers who don’t make our top 25. But people! Let me just remind you that this is only the FOT’s little ‘ole blog ranking process. This is not the Emmys. This is not like nominating and winning the Nobel Peace Prize. No acceptance speeches are made here, that is unless you’re Jim Stroud.
In all seriousness though, with this ranking we decided to use HubSpot Website Grader’s tool to tell us who is the best of the best. According to HubSpot, their grading tool gives a score, with 100% the maximum possible score. They evaluate “marketing effectiveness” which is based on a proprietary algorithm that blends over 50 different variables including search engine data, traffic, backlinks, etc. Now we realize, this takes out of the equation the human factor, the FOT factor. But this is pretty black and white, wouldn’t you say? And since traffic is a factor in the website grading… let’s hope trust that good content is what drives great blogs with high traffic.
As always, we hope you’ll learn about some new blogs to read in this process… and we give total props to our fellow bloggers for being such great inspirations for us to continue with our blogging. We’re happy to be in such great company. So with that? The top 30, their website grade and previous rankings if applicable. Over 160 blogs were graded and these came out as the cream of the crop according to HubSpot! Oh, and we added in FOT + the HR Capitalist for fun, just to see how we stack up (and damn it feels good to be in the top ten!). (And the fine print – we removed Cheezhead since no active blog posts have been produced since its acquisition by Jobing. We also removed Ning or comparable community social networks that host multiple blogs like ERE and RecruitingBlogs. Love ya guys, but we know you understand.)
1. Personal Branding Blog 99.8 HubSpot score| 13th Place, (07/2009 Rankings)
2. HR Capitalist 99.7 HubSpot score | ineligible
3. All Things Workplace 99.5 HubSpot score | 10th Place
4. Punk Rock HR 99.3 HubSpot score | 6th Place
5. HR Bartender 99.2 HubSpot score | 3rd Place
6. Tom Peters! 99.0 HubSpot score | unranked
7. Compensation Force 98.9 HubSpot score | 4th Place
8. Fistful of Talent 98.8 HubSpot score | ineligible
Recruiter Guy 98.8 HubSpot score | 9th Place
10. Know HR 98.6 HubSpot score | 15th Place
Marketing Headhunter 98.6 HubSpot score | unranked
Your HR Guy/Rehaul 98.6 HubSpot score | 2nd Place
13. Effortless HR 98.5 HubSpot score | unranked
14. Jibber Jobber 98.2 HubSpot score | unranked
Systematic HR 98.2 HubSpot score | unranked
16. Simply Lisa (HR Thoughts) 98.1 HubSpot score | 15th Place
17. Workplace Prof Blog 98 HubSpot score | unranked
Oracle Talented Apps 98 HubSpot score | unranked
19. Taleo Talent Management 97.8 HubSpot score | unranked
My Global Career 97.8 HubSpot score | unranked
21. HR Lori 97.7 HubSpot score | unranked
22. Sylvia Ann Hewlett 97.6 HubSpot score | unranked
23. Renegade HR 97.6 HubSpot score | 7th Place
24. The Recruiters Lounge 97.5 HubSpot score | 19th Place
Sirona Says 97.5 HubSpot score | unranked
26. Great Leadership 97.1 HubSpot score | 22nd Place
27. Compensation Cafe 97 HubSpot score | unranked
28. Employee Factor 96.8 HubSpot score | unranked
29. Michael Specht 96.6 HubSpot score | unranked
30. Workers Comp Insider 96.5 HubSpot score | unranked
Interesting results, yeah? And if you don’t think these are the top 30 talent management blogs? Well folks, this is like American Idol. Just call me Simon as I just judge to help narrow it down from the general masses… but after that? It’s up to you and your votes/links… only with the blogosphere, your votes and links are your mouse clicks which equate to traffic. Cheers to such great talent and amazing smarts in the talent management blogosphere… and until next time. Look for our next ranking in January 2010.
Jessica Lee is a VP of TA at Marriott International where she leads a team that enables the company to think big, broad and boldly about all things talent acquisition and in effect, keeps them relevant and ahead of the curve in how they attract and acquire top talent. Don’t be fooled by that fancy pants title and description though, she’s still an everyday HR gal in the trenches at the core. SPHR certified, a decade and a half into trench HR life… she can whip up a corrective action plan or source for your purple squirrel in a heartbeat.
