Who is the most influential corporate governance tweeter in 2013 ?

23 April 2013

For the third year, this article summarizes the results of the ranking of the most influential experts on Twitter debating corporate governance issues and trends. There are quite a few new faces this year in the TOP 25, an illustration of the dynamism of this community.

 

The methodology

My list of the corporate governance experts on Twitter keeps growing  ( see here). This year, I have added to that list a number of internal auditing experts as the supervisory role of boards is strenghtening, especially in the United States. As last year, some CSR experts have been included in the list: I have included them when they are specifically addressing issues of corporate governance and CSR as is the case with Fabian Pattberg ( @fabianpattberg ). Finally, since diversity dominated many of the discussions this year, you will find a few diversity experts who have been quite influential in shaping the debate about quotas for instance.

I have included this year again both Peerindex and Klout rankings to score those experts. In my mind, both tools are useful, even if often incomplete. I have however decided to use Peerindex as the primary basis for the ranking: I still find this tool a better judge of real influence and less prone to manipulation. I have finally added in the last column the Klout to score each of these tweeters if you are interested - you'll see, like last year, there are few inconsistencies. You can access the full list of 400+ experts and their ranking on Peerindex here ( and you can in the meanwhile send a note to Azeem at Peerindex to keep the lists running by clicking on his profile on Twitter @azeem ).

I believe influence is very much a personal factor, and not an institutional one. I therefore only have kept in the ranking Twitter accounts representing an individual. When the Twitter accounts belong to an institution,they have been included when I can pinpoint the individual behind the tweets - and when that expert gets involved personally ( one completely non scientific measure been that they would answer my requests for clarification...).

This is why you will find in this ranking the excellent @rockcenter4corpgov but not Harvard's Law School Corp Gov program ( @harvardcorpgov ), CCI Compliance ( @cci_compliance ) which would have ranked 72, SEC Law ( @seclaw ) which would have ranked 72 or @calpers from the California Public Employees Retirement System who would have ranked #9 . The  @nacd account for the North American Association for Corporate Directors is making its appearance also in the person of Henry Stoebel @henrystoever . 

I finally excluded those who cover a much larger range of issues than just corporate governance ( less than 5% of tweets devoted to corporate governance): for instance Nouriel Roubini ( @nouriel ) who would have ranked 84 in Peerindex. Their influence gets clouded by their public work and comments. 

 

So who are the most influential corporate governance tweeters ?

Here are the TOP five influencers on this topic according to Klout:

#1: Lucy Marcus ( @lucymarcus ) comes in first position - based in the United Kingdom, she is a keen governance commentator ( and a journalist with  Reuters) and academic. Her influence is partly due to the fact she is covering some larger topic on global governance and politics .

#2: Estelle Metayer (My account @competia ) - thank you for the great discussions this year

#3: Kimberly Kerr ( @sitatthetable ): based in Canada, Kimberly is a champion of the issue of diversity in the boardroom.

#4: Fabian Pattberg ( @fabianpattberg ): based in Germany, Fabian blogs about topics of sustainability, often linking it to the role of boards. He is often an observer of practices in corporate America.

#5: Michelle Gutman ( @stanfordcorpgov ): Michelle, the associate director of Research Programs at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford is on top of the research done in the world of corporate governance.

 

Congratulations are in order...

 

Here are a sample of their last tweets about Corporate Governance as I am writing this short article:

Lucy Marcus:

Accounting scandal deepens at Spanish fishing firm Pescanova @Reuters http://reut.rs/15fSd5l #corpgov #spain

Competia:

Reading: via @togovern: Insert a "sunset clause" in the charter of all new committees, teams, and projects http://bit.ly/11Vz7gU  #CorpGov

Sit at the Table:

MT @CareerTransit: How to Chair a Board effectively - Oxford 16 April... http://bit.ly/15BbRsX  #BoardofDirectors #corpgov

Fabian Pattberg:

"Companies: what is your unique contribution to a sustainable future?" http://www.guardian.co.uk...

Stanford Gov:

David F. Larcker and Brian Tayan examine the debate over whether to combine or separate the chairman and CEO roles. http://stnfd.biz/kdV02

 

 

An overview of the corporate governance community on Twitter

I analyzed the profile of those who are using the #corpgov hashtag on Twitter, signalling their topic. Here are some findings from Tweetcharts.com  from the last month. You will notice in the "most mentioned Users" column a number of institutions sur as @theBoard_co or @directorship as well as the other hastags which will help you find the relevant discussions in the left column: #CEO #boardroom #csr.

 

I also find interesting the analysis fromTwittermap, which outlines where those using the hastag #corpgov are coming from.

 

Activity in Twitter takes off on other platforms too

When Flipboard launched its new version allowing for individuals to create their own magazines, it provided a beautiful outlet for the best corporate governance related tweeps. I have created the ezine "In the Boardroom". I am happy to see it has now been featured in Flipboard's list of the top 6 recommanded magazines to read in business, providing a great visibility for those experts from our community - and highlighting how central the corporate governance discussion is becoming.

 

The top 25 tweeters on Corporate Governance

 

This list is by no means exhaustive, so if I have forgotten you , or anyone you would recommand, feel free to add their name and content in the comments below. Please also note that the ranking and number of followers varies from day to day, so numbers and klout score might be slightly different if you check I have done my homework...

 

Ranking__	Person behind the tweets	Twitter Handle		Peerindex score	Klout score	Number of followers
1	Lucy Marcus	@lucymarcus		78	78	16,541
2	Estelle Métayer	@competia		75	68	8,786
3	Kimberly Kerr	@sitatthetable		71	59	8,638
4	Fabian Pattberg	@fabianpattberg		69	59	9,266
5	Michelle Gutman	@stanfordcorpgov		69	54	3,389
6	Leon Kaye	@leonkaye		69	63	4,531
7	Francine McKenna	@retheauditors		68	55	11,274
8	Adam Quinton	@adamquinton		66	63	1,247
9	Frank Aquila	@faquila		66	53	3,293
10	Fay Feeney	@fayfeeney		65	62	6,314
11	Alice Korngold	@alicekorngold		65	61	4,505
12	Debra Beck	@npmaven		65	55	3,566
13	Jayne Juvan	@jaynejuvan		64	62	2,177
14	Scott Mitchell	@mitchell360		64	54	4,050
15	Norman Marks	@normanmarks		63	60	3,031
16	Mark Silver	@marksilver		63	48	3,591
17	Celesa Horvath	@celesahorvath		63	53	2,885
18	Jim Brashear	@jfbrashear		63	52	1,127
19	Douglas Y. Park	@dougypark		63	58	2,075
20	Oscar Jofre	@oscarjofre		62	53	3,396
21	Rob Berick	@robberick		62	52	1,299
22	Sheila Ronning	@ronningsheila		61	45	1,224
23	Kelly Hoey	@jkhoey		61	60	3,991
24	Pauline d'Amboise	@pdamboise		61	46	912
25	Richard Leblanc	@drrleblanc		60	51	1,414