Belgian Social Media Influentials

The Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary has 5 descriptions for the word "influence". I especially like the 4th one : the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways.


Recently I noticed two blog posts with names of influential men in social media and influential women in social media : 50 of the Most Powerful and Influential Women in Social Media and 50 of the Most Powerful and Influential Men in Social Media. Both lists are only based on Alexa Traffic Data, Alexa traffic rank and number of links, for the blogs of these influentials men and women. Alexa traffic data is gathered by users who have installed the Alexa toolbar in Internet Explorer. There is no version of the Alex Toolbar for other browsers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome).

I got the idea to produce a list of Belgians who are considered to be influential in social media. I decided to use an approach to define influential taking into account multiple criteria. As Alexa is not considered to be reliable for traffic data for Belgian sites, it was not taken into account.

I considered seven criteria.

1. On the web : how often is the person mentioned on the web and in blog posts. In other words, what is their Google quotient and their Google blog quotient.
2. Blog : how influential are the blogs of the influentials according to Technorati (Technorati Authority), Google (incoming links) and Google Blogsearch (incoming links from blogs).
3. Linkedin : how many connections do the influentials have on Linkedin.
4. Facebook : how many friends do the influentials have on Facebook.
5. Twitter : how influential are the Twitter accounts of the influentials, based on number of friends, number of followers and Twinfluence reach.
6. Public appearances : how often do the influentials appear in public - do they speak at public events, are they asked to be part of panels, are they interviewed in the press (television, radio, printed media), do they give public courses, ...
7. Peers : finally and most important, how are these influentials rated by peers, by people active within the social media domain. I asked over 30 social media participants which persons should be included in the list of Belgian social media influentials. The peers score is based on the number of times a person was mentioned.

A final score for "being influential" was calculated based on the different criteria. Each criterium was scored on a scale from 0 to 10, except for the last one "peers", where the scale was 0 to 40. This leads to a final score from 0 to 100. The score for a criterium was based on the actual observed value in relation to the top score. E.g. if the top score for Facebook number of friends is 1000, a person with 100 friends gets score 1. The score for the criterium "public appearances" was simplified to 0, 5 or 10.

In my humble opinion the combination of the seven criteria gives a balanced view of influence of a person in the social media area. The score takes into account how a person is perceived by others (peers appreciation, blog quotient and public appearances), and at the same time to what degree the person participates in social media (Blog, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter).

Over 80 persons were suggested to be included in the list of influential Belgians in social media. These persons were from different backgrounds : freelancers but also persons working for big companies, persons working for IT companies and persons for communication agencies, persons working for a media company as a journalist but also in other functions, consultants
working in the IT area, in the communication are but also in the HR area, people who organise conferences and people who appear as key note speakers on conferences and people who show up as attendees at conferences.

And finally here is the list of the 25 most influentials Belgians in social media.

Place	Persoon	On the web	Blog	Linkedin	Facebook	Twitter	Public appearances	Peers	Score
1	Clo Willaerts	3	3	10	10	6	10	40	82
2	Robin Wauters	7	2	10	5	10	5	38	76
3	Bart De Waele	3	8	10	6	8	10	32	75
4	Kris Hoet	3	4	10	5	7	5	21	55
5	Luc Van Braekel	7	6	9	5	4	10	15	55
6	Damien Van Achter	4	5	4	7	7	10	11	46
7	Pieter Baert	2	6	10	8	4	0	15	44
8	Maarten Schenk	4	2	7	4	4	5	17	42
9	Michel Vuijlsteke	10	7	4	2	3	5	11	41
10	Veerle Pieters	9	10	4	3	8	5	2	40
Place	Persoon	On the web	Blog	Linkedin	Facebook	Twitter	Public appearances	Peers	Score
11	Bruno Peeters	1	2	6	1	3	0	25	37
12	Dries Buytaert	10	7	4	2	0	10	2	35
13	Jurgen Verstrepen	10	1	1	9	0	10	4	34
14	Bart Van Belle	3	0	10	8	6	5	2	34
15	Stefan Kolgen	0	0	5	3	3	5	17	32
16	Bart Becks	1	0	10	6	2	10	4	32
17	Bert Van Wassenhove	2	1	10	2	2	5	8	30
18	Miel Van Opstal	1	1	6	5	4	0	15	30
19	Tamara Gielen	4	2	10	3	4	5	2	30
20	Brice Le Blévennec	1	0	10	10	2	5	2	30
Place	Persoon	On the web	Blog	Linkedin	Facebook	Twitter	Public appearances	Peers	Score
21	Imke Dielen	8	2	5	3	3	0	6	27
22	Lorenz Bogaert	0	0	10	0	0	10	6	27
23	Tom De Bruyne	1	2	8	3	1	5	6	25
24	Vincent Battaglia	4	2	5	8	4	0	2	25
25	Philippe Borremans	1	1	6	3	2	5	6	24

The next graph gives a visual overview of the different scores for the 25 most influentials Belgians in social media.


In a next post I will provide some extra information on the 25 most influentials Belgians in social media.

I would like to thank the various social media participants who provided input for the peers appreciation.

Technorati : Belgium - Social Media - Influentials