The Blogosphere: Concentric Circles of Influence

Concentric circles.  I think that’s one way of thinking about online communication programs, especially the blogosphere. 

At the center of every program exists a small core group of influencers who are the most passionate and vocal about a technology or an industry.  These are the Alpha bloggers or the A-listers, the folks who shape early opinions and attitudes about a variety of news items and really serve as the catalysts for spreading news online. 

Securing the interest of your A-listers is a key part of achieving success, but I think the real momentum and awareness generating power of the blogosphere comes from the myriad of connectors who exist in the areas or rings outside the core influencers.  These are the bloggers who typically link to the influencers, attach their own opinions and sentiment to news and ultimately are the ones accelerating the outward-pushing momentum generated by the core.  PR Machine in a recent review of Hugh Hewitt’s new book nails this idea on the head:

Companies that want to leverage the blogosphere don't necessarily need to gain the attention of the short list of heavily-trafficked blogs.  Rather, they can leverage "the tail" -- the 95 to 99 percent of blogs that are low-or medium-traffic generators.  The main benefits of this approach, says Hewitt, are (1) the potential to reach the huge collective audience that is the tail and (2) the potential for greater impact than the major blogs can offer -- since smaller blogs tend to be visited by people who know the author (and therefore place a high degree of trust in the content).

The ability to secure the interest of this outer ring of connectors is a challenge, but it’s also where the real momentum-generating power of the blogosphere resides.  With that said, I think companies need to be increasingly thinking about how they can tier or bifurcate their online programs so that they have strategies in place to touch their A-list influencers while effectively reaching out to (or at very least tracking) their most popular connectors when announcements are made.  Lots more to share on this subject in the weeks to come...

Comments

[Trevor Cook]

It looks to me like the A-listers are the new media gatekeepers. Everything has to get filtered through them if its going to have a big online impact. I think the tail is OK but its increasingly disconnected from the A-list and getting to the tail is hard labour intensive work. If your client want to 'mass' something they have to go through A-listers if they have a niche then they can target bloggers in that area. So thinking aloud it depends on the client's objectives, type of product etc

[PR Machine]

Power to the small blogger!