Somewhere in the hinterland between HR, PR, Content, and Technology lies that most mysterious and misunderstood part of the web: the Intranet.

Why is it here? Where did it come from? Who is in charge of it?!?

Meet the specialists working to take your Intranet of the dim, dreary past and create a modern, digital workplace for the future: Internal Communications pros. They’re on a mission to drive #digitaltransformation, to bring #socialmedia to the enterprise, and to innovate the *&$% out of your tired old document dumping grounds.

Note: Visit the Leadtail website for a comprehensive set of Social Insights reports.

Analyzing 75,000+ Tweets

We analyzed a panel of over 800 of these folks from around the world on Twitter to gain insight into what they’re talking about, what they’re consuming and sharing on social media, and who influences them. We looked at 75,048 public tweets from 877 Internal Communications, Employee Engagement, and Intranet professionals published between 10/1/2015 and 12/31/2015.

Here’s what we learned.

The Most Common Hashtags

Like most people, IC professionals are using social to talk about things that are in the news and happening on the calendar - but they’re also sharing and tagging content related to their role (#InternalCommunications, #PR, #EmployeeEngagement, #HR), their broader mission (#socbiz, #FutureOfWork), and the tools of the trade (#ESN, #yammer, #SharePoint, #Office365).

Which Publications Are Popular with IC Professionals?

We all know, intuitively, that what we see and read online impacts how we do our job: how we view emerging trends, who we turn to for advice, even which products to shortlist for our next RFP. With that in mind, where are Internal Communications pros getting their news, opinions, and recommendations?

Honorable mention to a few other popular sources that focus squarely on this audience but just missed the top 25 cutoff, including: CIPR Inside, simply-communicate.com, TalentCulture and The Institute of Internal Communication.

Internal Communications Influencers

This is where the people demonstrating day-to-day leadership of the IC community really shine. We’ve highlighted 25 Internal Communications Influencers below (and we’ve also created a handy Internal Communications Twitter list if you’d like to follow them!)

Here's the list of the Top 25 internal comms influencers:

1. Rachel Miller (@AllThingsIC) [tweet]
2. Wedge (@Wedge) [tweet]
3. Chuck Gose (@chuckgose) [tweet]
4. Sharon O'Dea (@sharonodea) [tweet]
5. Gloria Lombardi (@lombardi_gloria) [tweet]
6. Martin White (@IntranetFocus) [tweet]
7. Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) [tweet]
8. Sam Marshall (@sammarshall) [tweet]
9. Ciara O'Keeffe (@CommsOKeeffe) [tweet]
10. Ellen van Aken (@EllenvanAken) [tweet]
11. Peter Richards (@Peter_Richards) [tweet]
12. Mark Morrell (@markmorrell) [tweet]
13. Steve Bynghall (@Bynghall) [tweet]
14. Patrik Bergman (@patrikbergman) [tweet]
15. Paul Miller (@paulmillersays) [tweet]
16. Dion Hinchcliffe (@dhinchcliffe) [tweet]
17. Chris Tubb (@christubb) [tweet]
18. Lolly Daskal (@LollyDaskal) [tweet]
19. Rita Zonius (@RitaZonius) [tweet]
20. John Stepper (@johnstepper) [tweet]
21. Tony Stewart (@TSDigi) [tweet]
22. Jonathan Phillips (@digitaljonathan) [tweet]
23. Gerry McGovern (@gerrymcgovern) [tweet]
24. Dennis Agusi (@DennisAgusi) [tweet]
25. Jacob Morgan (@jacobm) [tweet]

Where Do These Influencers Reside?

Of the Top 25 influencers for internal communications, more than half reside in the UK:

Sorting by continent, an impressive 68% of influencers are from Europe:

Want to travel? Convince the boss to send you to an internal communications conference in Europe!

Next Steps for You

If you’re a budding IC professional, you’ve got a great set of resources to tap in to the hive-mind of the community and start making some internal communication magic happen.

What Are The Different Types of Intranet Software?

By Dennis Shiao

And if you’re a marketer that wants to reach this audience, you’re better armed with insights around the topics this audience cares about, where to syndicate and distribute your content, and who to build relationships with for your influencer programs.

On-Demand Intranet Webinar

Whether you’re part of a team with a new intranet project or the business owner of a stale and stagnant intranet, this webinar is for you.

Title: Achieve Intranet Success by Avoiding These Common Mistakes

Presenter: Sam Marshall (@sammarshall - see #8 above)

Register to view the on-demand replay now.

Comment from a webinar viewer:

"Great presentation! This should help me in launching my new intranet and avoiding common pitfalls. Thank you Sam!"