Jeremy, I’ve read this post twice. I’ll tell you what I tell readers of my blog: there is no real celebrity in HR.

If I were your coach, I would give you this feedback:

1. When you question the bona fides of others, you put yourself out there as some sort of arbiter of acceptable HR. Are you willing to shoulder that burden? Do you offer great HR/recruiting to your clients and do you know good HR from bad HR? Why don’t you blog about that? And give us specific and actionable examples of good HR — and who’s doing it — and bad HR. That’s more productive for the HR industry. This? Not helpful. But probably good for traffic since I’ll retweet it.

2. If you are really the arbiter of HR, you should speak truth to power and name some names. Convince me that these celebutards a) exist and b) you’re not just creating a straw man to enhance your ego.

I dunno about this post, Jeremy. I have been on the receiving end of superficial commentary and I’ve learned to disengage because the conversation usually comes from a place of insecurity and immaturity. So I would ask you—how does this post help HR?

That being said, I’m not taking this personally. I know you’re not talking about me. So who are you talking about? Who’s a celebutard? Who sucks and sits on Tweetdeck and doesn’t contribute to the industry?

This is interesting to me for so many reasons. I was there, at ERE, with Hootsuite fired up, tweeting away. I was there as a vendor (2x) and as a practitioner.
Do I count myself as a CelebutaHRd? With about 3K Twitter followers, and sporadic blog posts, I doubt it. Call me a groupie.

I think, Jeremy, you’re referring to the “cool kids” who sat in the back tweeting and blogging and planning meetups and hookups. They (we?) can be kind of disruptive with their inside jokes and Foursquare check-ins. Definitely a new phenomenon at recruiting conferences. They are not all practitioners.

But that’s ok. We need fresh blood. Recruiting is changing. Check out Matt Jeffery’s ERE article today. He was conference chair, btw. New skills, such as PR, marketing, attracting those inbound links will soon be the lifeblood of recruiting.

I know you know this Jeremy. Not too long ago, I sat across from you, passionate about Boolean search and niche job boards. I probably sounded crazy. You hired me onto your team anyway.

To my CelebutaHRd buddies: Don’t be so insular. Don’t be too salesy. Continue to influence. Share your wild and crazy ideas, but do your homework. Don’t be like the “personal branding” blogger who recently proclaimed that recruiters who use job boards are lazy. This dude not only insulted an entire profession and industry, he did a disservice to jobseekers. Grrr. He didn’t do his homework. He proved he knew nothing about recruiting, and proceeded to embarrass himself.

Oh, and be nice. Some of your public snark is hurtful to speakers. Not cool. Private feedback is the better way to go.

To my practitioner peeps (who probably are too busy to read this blog, much less the comments), don’t be scurred. CelebutarHRds are pretty accepting and nice people when you get to know them. The jokes aren’t really all that funny, once you learn what a hashtag is. Join the fun. Have a cocktail. Floss your Klout score. Write a guest blog. It won’t hurt.

To Jeremy – CelebutaHRds isn’t nice.

To Laurie – I think Jeremy struck a nerve. He has also pointed out a critical fissure between influencers and practitioners, old school vs. new school. That’s helpful.

I’m not sure Jeremy struck a nerve. You know who strikes a nerve with me? Herman Cain. Newt Gingrich. Anthony Weiner.

I just wonder why Jeremy wrote what he wrote. If I think about the very back row at ERE. It was me, Lance Haun, Chris Hoyt, Doug Berg, and Eric Winegardner. Jennifer McClure sat near us. So did you.

What! A! Bunch! Of! Jerks! Who! Don’t! Know! Anything!

Awful people who are celbutards. I mean, truly, what a bunch of chumps.

I left HR because I didn’t enjoy some of the weird, passive-aggressive behavior of traditional HR leaders. This post struck me as a little passive-aggressive and (from what I know) Jeremy is probably better than that.

Carmen, thanks for you thoughtful comment and response. Yes… I agree with 100% of your comments. Yes, I think you are one of the “cool kids”– always have, always will Carmen. And, (yes, it was LONG ago), you did sit across from me, and I am proud that I met you then and that I know you now. You are an expert and maybe a groupie, and a celebrity in my book (even without the boolean search!), but its all good.

Now, to add to your comments… the purpose of this post was really to rattle the world of HR and to get the profession to recognize that they need to engage into social media in a much bigger way so that the voices of “influence” don’t only come from professional “influencers” (and yes you, and I could be one of those folks), but from themselves. You are so right about the critical fissure. But, we need both… we need professional “influencers”, and practitioners to create a much more powerful voice. And, the audience that those voices reach also must be more diverse in my mind. Yes, we all have thousands of followers… which is great… but the diversity of followers is what I question… early adopters, other professional “influencers”, social media pros, recruiters, and many vendors make up large swaths of the social media environment, and not enough true leaders and practitioners that are out there listening. Sure there are HR leaders, directors, and VPs in the audience today… but I dont think there are enough to really call the audience as diverse or balanced… YET.

So, my apologies for the word CelebutaHRd, it was meant to be funny… I see the word celebutard or celebutant often, and I tried to make a play on words… oh well… sadly it may have come off as less than nice. I did take ownership of the word, and even accepted it for myself if so warranted. The comments about conferences and people blogging, tweeting, facebooking, or whatever was actually not pointed any anyone specifically, though I wanted to comment that just a year ago, there were far fewer people staring into their laptop screens during conferences… and this year there were exponentially more.

The points you made in your comments again were very appropriate, and 100% spot on. You are a celeb of whatever ilk you want to be called Carmen… and you ARE one of the “cool kids”.

Thanks for comments Laurie.
I dont know you, never met you. It seems as if you took my post personally… hard to do if you dont know or have a relationship with me, and vice versa… But, I welcome a personal introduction since relationships on blog posts are not as good as the real thing. There was no one individually I was “calling out”… I was making an observation (which I am allowed to do). (PS: at ERE, it was far more than the “back row”… the observation had to do with the number of people at their laptop, not the back row specifically, or any one person or persons– it was the concept of all those “cool kids” as Carmen stated).

The post was not meant to poke anyone individually or personally… it was meant to get the HR practitioners out there (much of our audience), to get more involved and be a voice in the HR social media game and be more of an active audience. Carmen’s response to the post was right-on… she got the gist of my commentary. The purpose of the post was simply to say to the HR profession… “dont leave it to us “professional influencer types” (me included) to shape your message and your voice in social media…. get with it and engage in social media… WITH us so we can shape the voice and the audience together.” Listen, as a consultant, I dont have too much time to spend curating my social media footprint, but I do it because its part of my job. HR practitioners and leaders have less time, but shaping and engaging in social media SHOULD be part of theirs too. That was the point of the post.

Not a little passive aggressive at all… it was purely aggressive: it was meant to say to HR leaders– wake up, and join the dialogue. Sorry it touched a nerve… perhaps Ill see you in Las Vegas and you can give me more coaching… I would value it. Thanks again for engaging.

Thanks, Jeremy. Nice note.

I slept on this and wanted to summarize my thoughts: the post is mean, disingenuous, and poorly constructed. You use the intellectually vapid construction of a straw man to make a point that you actually fail to make.

In short? #weaksauce

It bugs me because I hate poor writing.

I’d encourage you to try again.

I hardly ever post comments on blogs, but have decided to chime in on this after seeing it referred to a few times on Twitter. In my very limited opinion, the Riviera Associates blog seems to be one of the better ones, along with Avid Careerist. Both seem to be written by folks who have many, many years of expertise in their field.

I am brand new to Twitter, blogging, and many other forms of social media. I’ve been on LinkedIn for years but that’s been the extent of my use of social media for business purposes. However, I recently decided to leave my job as VP, HR for a major company. As I’ve always wanted to write, I decided to experiment with social media during this downtime between roles to see if I really was intrigued enough to ever pursue a big project like writing a book.

I’ll be the first to admit that my track record in both blogging and tweeting has been sparse and not really up to the standards I would normally set for my work. (With Tweeting, i’m mostly just retweeting things others have written that i find interesting). And I think it had to do with the fact that I just don’t have the time to do it all the time.

For what it’s worth (and that may not be much), here are my observations so far about blogging and tweeting:

1). It’s hard to do it well part-time

2) most people who devote time to these things are doing it as a “loss leader” for another part of their business (consulting, speaking, books, etc)

3) it’s easy to appear to be an expert on just about any topic

4) many of those who tweet about HR matters tend to dilute their “brand” (and, in my personal view, their influence) by going off-topic on a regular basis. If you’re holding yourself out as an HR expert, then I don’t really care if you are happy that the Dallas Maverick won the game. And I don’t need to hear about your weekend plans or kids. I want to hear your views on HR matters.

5) with respect to the HR arena, I find very few true leaders of the profession writing blogs and tweeting. And most of the HR focus is on recruiting and job searches. There’s much less on equally important topics such as employee engagement, succession planning and employment law.

Regarding this last bullet, it could very well be that the true leaders of the profession are blogging and I just haven’t found them yet. I’m new at this. But unlike with, say, marketing and sales and IT professionals, I don’t see the heads of HR for best-practice HR organizations such as GE and Pepsi on twitter. There are recruiting staff for some of these companies on twitter but not the top HR leaders.

If busy CEOs like Larry Page, Richard Branson and Tony Hsieh are on Twitter, why aren’t the leaders of big HR functions there, too? I think this may be where Jeremy was headed with his blog post, although I can’t speak for him.

What I do know is that readers should not automatically assume that everyone who is writing something In the virtual world (myself included) is an expert on the topic. Readers should check out a writer’s credentials on LinkedIn or via people who know the writer and make an independent judgment about the writer’s qualifications. And if the true experts aren’t in the virtual world, let’s try to get them there.

Overall, while I’m enjoying my experiment with social media, I think I would sum up the past month’s experimenting with this statement— I learn a lot from CEOs and other business leaders on Twitter. I don’t learn much from the HR blogger/tweeter group as a whole. We can do better. We owe it to our profession. Let’s do it.

Hey Riviera,

Really liked the provocative headline and the paparazzi visual on your blog post this week. Kudos to Jeremy – you got my attention!!!! I found your use of humor to be really refreshing. Your main point got me thinking. How do early adopters/power users help make the social surfaces less intimidating to non-social HR/Recruiting practitioners? How does the savvy social-user get the non-users to feel comfortable enough to join the conversation? Perhaps the goal is to make the current environment feel much more welcoming/inclusive and less intimidating.

Good post! Have to agree with one of the commenters below that there is NO real celebrity in HR. However, I have heard of some names, particularly in the social recruiting arena, and am gonna say they probably fit the profile of a “CelebutaHRd.”

I’ve been following this post for several days and decided to finally share a comment. First, I have a different perspective: I produce a career and leadership podcast called TotalPicture Radio and cover many HR and recruiting events. NOTE: Riviera Advisors is a sponsor.

Second. I’m no HR expert. I produce podcasts, vodcasts, videos, and Webinars. I interview HR and recruiting leaders, keynote speakers and experts in many fields.

News flash…. For me, celebrities are easy. It is much easier for me to book an interview with Keith Ferrazzi, Dan Pink, Ellen Langer, Tony Hsieh, or Clayton Christensen than it is to book an interview with most VP’s of HR or corporate recruiters.

Why? Of course, most companies have a protocol that needs to be followed, including clearing interviews with corporate communications, (which I frequently do). But my experience suggests there’s more to it: HR leaders and recruiters see nothing but risk (with little reward), to this kind of exposure.

I get pitched every day by PR folks to interview authors, “experts,” and vendors. With SHRM National a week away I’ve been deluged with “interview opportunities.” Here’s why: A podcast is portable media. I call it radio TiVo. It loves social media like Facebook and Twitter and Linkedin. It can be shared and posted on other blogs. You can get transcripts made — we often do. And, as one of my sponsors commented, “Your podcast has a longer shelf life than Twinkies.”

Please consider this: a good interview can position you as subject matter expert and authority in your profession. Podcasts can help you get speaking engagements, boost your Google ranking, and expand your sphere of influence.

So here’s the small piece to this conversation I’d like to contribute. Speak up, HR people!

While I don’t like the “CelebutaHRd” word because I think it’s inappropriate and could have had a better word choice, I agree with much of what you say. I am a blogger and I do use social media (mainly Twitter) in order to network and connect with other HR pros. I’ve also spent my whole career in HR and do get annoyed at times when non-practitioners try to “tell” me how to do my job better.

The key for me is to listen primarily to other practitioners who take their free time (not work time) to blog about their experiences. People like Jay Kuhns (No Excuses HR blog), Dwane Lay (Lean HR blog), Ben Eubanks (Upstart HR blog), Charlie Judy who was a trench HR person for years (HR Fishbowl) and Victorio Milian (Creative Chaos Consultant). There are also a ton of HR practitioners using Twitter now and they are great to connect with online and off.

Trish, thanks for your note. I appreciate your comments, and your practitioner-focused views in your social voice. The more voice like yours, the better! Let us all try to not only build our own HR voices, but also recruit new HR voices AND, the HR audience to actually listen. Thanks for your feedback.

As far as the word “celebutaHRd”… I make no apologies about my own sense of humor. I caveated the post with the fact that it included “snarky humor”, and that’s what it was. I live in LA… we have constant and consistent media following what the media calls “Celebutards or Celebutants”. I do believe the word Celebutard is mean, because it uses the as part of the word, an inappropriate abbreviation for something. In coming up with the word I wanted to use, I wanted to use HR in the moniker… so I changed that word to celebutaHRd… which uses HR in the word… calling to the idea of “Celebrity in HR”. Its funny that people take it so seriously.

Thanks for your feedback again. I value it.

I’ve been thinking about this post all day, and here’s my problem with it. It sounds like an “outsider” complaining about not being one of the “cool kids.” I don’t know you personally, and am not insinuating that you feel this way, but that is the vibe I get from this post.
Next, I intensely dislike the “celebutaHRds” phrase. We all know the basis of the word, and it’s both insensitive and offensive. So, for the rest of the comment, I will use the phrase “cool kids.”
If you want to complain about a group of people and convince your readers that these individuals are a distraction, then NAME NAMES. Why? Because I’m sitting here thinking of the 10-12 “cool kids” I know, and they are all actually experts in the field. Instead of ranting about these people who “aren’t even in HR” tweeting during a conference, tell us about a post one of the “cool kids” wrote about HR that is dead wrong.
Also, I will defend the “cool kids” tweeting during conferences because I often can’t afford to attend the conferences myself and am able to hear the message through their tweets. They may not stand up and ask the speaker questions during a session, but they’re engaging thousands of HR folks like me in intelligent debates from home.
Another thing I’ve learned about the “cool kids” is that they are the most welcoming group you will find. Ask them for advice and the will give great suggestions…and even follow up to see how things turned out. Tweet them at a conference and they will tell you where to meet up for drinks.
Instead of trying to make the “cool kids” fit into the box of your expectations, take a step back and realize that they play an absolutely essential role, and they wouldn’t be followed, friended, and adored by thousands if that wasn’t the case.

Jeremy,

Social media lends everyone an opportunity to have a voice. It allows for connections, relationships, and partnerships to be established through the platform. I was a HR practitioner when I started my blog over 4 years ago and 2 years ago I left the corporate world to help companies understand how to use social media from an HR point of view. In short, I’m here to help HR industry people use the tools.

I also get paid to blog, tweet, and promote events as a blogger and influencer. It is in fact, often times my job to be tweeting, facebooking and shooting video. Not unlike it is your job to fill a requisition for a client. This is what I do.

Because many of us have been on social media a long time, we know alot about each other. Many are very vocal A type personalities who have bult friendships and have a level of influence because of our knowledge and relationships. This is no different than the corporate world where you build credibility and establish relationships. Social media is my business. It’s what I do so of course I’m going to take it serious. But even before that my blog was built on a passion to create a channel and communicate.

I’m not going to apologize for that.

I disagree with the way you are sterotyping this group of influencers. I have more than 10 years of real HR experience as a HR practitioner and recruiter. Many of us like Jim Stroud, Craig Fisher, Laurie Ruettimann, and myself have been using these online tools for nearly 10 years. I have worked hard to establish myself as a CelebutaHRds and if you bothered to pick up the phone, introduce yourself or tweet me directly, you might find that I am very open to talking with you and learning about what you do.

Give me a call 405.293.2564 anytime.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR

http://www.blogging4jobs.com

Thanks for your comments Breanne.
All valid points of view, and appreciated.

The use of social media offers the opportunity for a “conversation” rather than one-way communication. I value that. In this case, since my humor and personality is unknown by you… that its perfectly fair to offer your observations. However, since you have engaged in the conversation… I will simply respond to say that the point of the post is not at all to say that (as you called them) the “cool kids” are bad… its a call to action to get more HR leaders into the conversation. A very large part of the audience of my voice are HR leaders who are not (yet) “cool kids” (and sadly, many of them are far from being “kids” at all). The post was filled with my humor and personality… which is far from mean spirited.

Again, I value your comments and observations and contributions to the community. Thanks again!

If your true intention was to encourage other HR leaders to join the conversation, there was certainly a more positive way to do so. When you spend 5 of your 6 paragraphs complaining about the current HR leaders in social media, your post comes across as accusatory and whiney, not inspirational or motivating.

If you take the time to talk with and get to know people that you probably thought were “celebrity” you’ll realize most of them likely are practitioners, or people actually “doing it” on a day to day basis – not sales people out trying to make a buck. Many of the women (and men) left great jobs because they needed a better work/life balance that they couldn’t get in corporate america at the time they were in it. They are single parents, elder caretakers, cancer survivors, etc. Each one with their own reason on why they aren’t a “practitioner”.

I do know people who dedicate their life to this industry – and not because they are trying to sell something. If you are a person really dedicated to learning and understanding this marketplace, you would have a full understanding that Practitioners, Consultants & Vendors all have something to offer. Being a consultant, vendor, etc doesn’t make them any less passionate about our industry. Or any less smart than you or me or the VP at a Fortune 100. It makes them unique and valuable and has a point of view that we wouldn’t have ever known had we not taken the time to engage.

To say that we should only have practitioners sharing is a short sighted look at the true power of social media.

I’m definitely not a twitter/hr whatever you call it. I have been a practitioner, consultant and vendor. My experience from each one was valuable and has proven to be valuable to asset to another and provided value to hundreds of companies along the way. I now dedicate my career to researching and really understanding the challenges that are being faced in and finding solutions for Talent Acquisition. I don’t sell anything. I never ask someone for money when they ask to talk to me.

If People are only celebrity if you think they are celebrity and you call them celebrity. I don’t know anyone that is a social recruiting early adopter who thinks they are celebrity, by any stretch. I know a lot of people who dedicate their life (and a lot of their own time and resources) to not build brands, or business or anything else but share information and engage with other people with similar interests.

Are there groups of friends on social media? Yes.
Are they excited to see each other at conferences? Yes.
Do they also always meet, hang out with, engage, learn from, discuss, etc people they didn’t know before they got there? Yes.
Do they ever not include others? No, not that I’ve seen.

Just a sidenote – tweetdeck/twitter use at conferences is why/how a number of these people were even able to attend. They paid out of their own pockets to travel to an event they felt they could learn at and in exchange for “covering” the event got a reduced price or free ticket. Them tweeting is their JOB at that event and what is being expected of them – not a brand building practice because they think they are cool. Can you live tweet and engage at the same time? Yes, but some people have an ability to do so and it is an invaluable resource for the other people you didn’t have the opportunity to make it.
Their laptops may be out because they are transcribing the key points taking place, much like other people are taking notes. It allows them to easily build a blog and share the information more quickly to the community.

My last side note – Don’t complain about someone being a “whole person” on social media. I love hearing about peoples kids, cats, favorite food. Its how you get to know them as a person and build relationships and friendships. The same holds true in business. We hire people. Not “work” people.

Sarah: thanks so much for taking the time to provide a comment on this topic. I appreciate your comments and your feedback and your contributions to the HR community.
I dont think I need to address your comments individually, as I have already addressed many similar comments from other people who have commented. But I appreciate your opinions and the time you have taken to put your thoughts in a comment. I do want to call to your attention, that I think that you may have comments on something someone else said…but nowhere in my post did I say anything about social media influencers showing their “whole person”. I totally agree with you… I think people like to have conversations with ‘people’ and the idea that people communicate what they are doing, what they like, about their family, kids, and pets, etc. is absolutely great. As people who know me will tell you… I have two West Highland White Terriers who are a big part of my family, and I blab about them all the time. So, I am all for that… but clearly… you must have been thinking about someone else on that point… I welcome and value the “whole person” as you say. No where in my post is that brought up at all.
Thanks again, for your contribution to this conversation and to the community.

I know you are a whole person (and dog) liker That comment was on another comment.

The judgement of using a term like CelebutaHRd aside, I think you are missing another issue here. Practitioners are representatives of the companies in which they are currently practicing. As such, they are restricted in what they can say, how much they can say, and where they can say it.

Exceptions exist, and Charlie Judy aka HRFishbowl is a great example, but he is a rare case. HR celebrities, as you call them, get the kind of following that they do because they have the luxury of pointing out when the HR emperor has no clothes, or very questionable taste in footwear. They raise the issues that the practitioners cannot, but really really want to.

Belittling them for their supposed star status seems a bit disingenuous, and smacks of sour grapes.

Karen’s point of practitioners having handcuff’s with social media is a great point, that shouldn’t be overlooked. I love hearing Laurie and other bloggers perspectives as they sometimes say what we can’t and sometimes push the envelope too. Are they the cool kids, not sure but what does it matter if they are or are not anyway. In the social media world your free to opt in or out at any time. I dabbled for a while after getting a lot of traditional type praise and recognition in the field at the national level. It back fired on me…I pulled my blog down twice and curtailed a lot of my social media activity. Board of directors and other c-suite members don’t like their “high profile” CHRO showing up and discussing controversial topics…thats sad but true commentary on the continental divide right now. So I will sit back and chime in occassionally on the cool kids sites (again I enjoy them,and when I don’t I will stop visiting and participating)…I get your point and you have a right to voice it, but be careful as once you post it exists forever (even if you delete it)…any way – freedom of speech is a great thing!
M

Jeremy-Funny post. While I would never dabble in this type of humor myself, I respect your right to publish WTF you want to publish. The beauty of the the internet is everyone is one click away from forgetting you ever existed.

BTW-you may be able to build your brand by starting a #ClebutaHRdChat on Twitter. You never know who will show up and strut their expertise

Cheers, keep writing whatever you want or are permitted to write. Oh-I also want to say “Hi” to my former boss Sherri who commented above. Hi Sherri. That’s all, OK, bye now.

Jeremy, it appears you did strike a Nerve.. a big one — EXCELLENT post. Not too long I wrote something along similar lines. http://www.hirecentrix.com/is-it-really-influence-or-just-a-typical-load-of-industry-bs.html Is it influence, or just a typical load of industry b.s

There are a lot of Fakers in our industry – those who pretend to have so much experience, so much knowledge.. and they don’t.. At the expense of our peers who hear how amazing these people are.. and spend money on training that is less than par..

Recently another list of the Influential came out.. like you mentioned, less than 10 percent were actually practicing, yet they are keynote presenters??? One of the top individuals on the list, is so far removed from the industry, and is now in sales of a product that has NOTHING to do with the employment industry.. His business phone number.. well that is disconnected..

Watch out Jeremy, you will be un-friended now, because you speak the truth.. and of course the Truth is often considered ugly, and hype.. maybe because they are scared that our Industry will finally Start revolting, and acknowledge that we want more, we want better standards, we want truth

FYI, I do believe that when people continue to promote individuals in our industry who they know have None to limited experience but promote them as experts, well they are 100 percent responsible for Gross Negligent Misrepresentation..

Thankfully even the FTC now has an App for that.. nah, really they are coming down on false advertising, or advertising and promotions that are based upon misrepresentation..

It is great to see more and more people step up.. Hopefully our industry will start demanding better, and less B.S

- Between January and October 2010, a total of 2,006 children under five died in Guatemala due to lack of food

- Less than 30% of the population in Somalia has access to safe water

- Worldwide around 458,000 women died from breast cancer in 2008

- The GDP per capita in Zimbabwe is $400 in the USA it is $45,989

- Over 2 million people have died since 1998 in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo

- 85% of people in Liberia are unemployed

- Only 1 in 2 children go to school in Burundi

- Across the world a total of 22,000 children die each day

- More than 1 million people die each year from malaria

- In the same time over 3 million people die from HIV/AIDS

- Leaving 15 million Orphans

- Similar to the level of the entire population of children in the UK

And we get worked up about tweeting or not tweeting….THAT is why we suck as a profession.

And yes, I am an HR pro. And yes I tweet.

Jeremy -
I understand what you are trying to say, though I’m not a fan of the way you said it – however, I’m ot sure I could have said the same thing with much improvement.

Sometimes the emperor has no clothes and someone needs to point it out. Lets all get back to the business of business. I have clients that need tending.

@neiljmorrison – *slow clap*

Excuse me, did HR professionals actually write, “I suppose I am too busy f**king around on Twitter to have a legitimate opinion . . ?” Did they call Jeremy’s blog “stupid?” In what world do we speak in these terms? Are you actually in HR? Are you a competent professional to be writing something like this in response to someone’s genuine, heartfelt thoughts? I am happy I don’t know you. I found Jeremy’s post to be humorous, the way it was intended, and interpreted it as a call to action. Get with the program, “cool kids,” and heed his words.

Jeremy, you have hit the nail right on the head.

Brilliant work in an article that speaks to all of the nonsense and hype contained in what is clearly a celebrity world spilled over into the real and serious business of HR, Social Media and Recruiting.

I am so endlessly tired of the silly things I read and the endless fascination with this and that new Social Media Guru whose opinion is presented as fact while we swoon at their newly achieved level of cool. Honestly, so much of it is crap and I chose that word carefully because it fits just so well.

Your question of ” Where are the real HR/Recruiting leaders?” is both haunting and timely as we struggle to shake off our economic ennui and attempt to rebuild this country and the economic engines with which it is powered.

HR and Recruiting must stand tall with a path forward that demonstrates clearly delineated value or run the risk of going the way of the dinosaur. Social Media must define its promise and deliver upon it in ways that are measurable and have definitive value. (Honestly have you seen your twitter feed lately. 90% is absurd and I find it embarrassing to be a part of that community.)

Once again, excellent work.

There sure is a lot of defending going on here.. kinda curious, since Jeremy never once named anyone in the article..

Also for individuals accusing Jeremy of throwing stones, they are sure throwing Huge Boulders back..

This has been a Concern by so many for so long. Unfortunately too many are too scared to speak up. Based upon these responses one can understand why.

Have an opinion that differs from the Clan, from the Clique, from the Home Boys / Gals! Question their motives, Question their experience, ability and expertise and you will feel the pain! Trust me I know first hand.

Frankly there has been consistent Gross Negligent Misrepresentation going on in our industry for too long.. based upon the Who you know, not what You know.

Wanna be a subject Expert.. just get all friendly with a select few, and You are now an expert key note speaker at SHRM!!

Fun, cute, nice and sweet definitely works — experience, know how, ability, expertise? Not so much..

Jeremy good job – glad to see more and more finally getting the guts to speak out loud about what so many have been saying for so long..

Rather than knock the CelebutaHRds (I know you thank them in the end, but your gratitude is diminished by the preceding snark), you should be watching, learning, and co-opting their techniques. You should be embracing the existing conversation, joining it, and setting the stage for you to move to the center of the conversation—starting with an explanation of why you’re so late to it. Those CelebutaHRds you’re talking about have been at this for 4+ years now in many cases!

Talking about what “should” be, and knocking others for boxing you out of the conversation, isn’t helpful. In fact, it strikes me that if HR follows your lead and tries to bully its way in to online conversations, it won’t have a seat at this table, either.

Jeremy – Congratulations! You post did exactly what good social media should do…engage others in conversation. 3, even 2 years ago….this conversation could never have taken place and with such passion and here we are! Keep up the controversy it’s what engages us. And Neil, I love your post! You sum it up the best!