Blogs to riches
Writing for New York magazine, Clive Thompson considers the haves and have nots of the "blogging boom". Speaking from the C-list, I am still waiting for my US$25m buy-out and would be entirely happy with my comfortable five-figure income should it ever materialize. Network theory and a power-law distribution explains the disparity, apparently.
There is enormous inequity in the system. A very small number of blogs enjoy hundreds and hundreds of inbound links�the A-list, as it were. But almost all others have very few sites pointing to them. When Shirky sorted the 433 blogs from most linked to least linked and lined them up on a chart, the curve began up high, with the lucky few. But then it quickly fell into a steep dive, flattening off into the distance, where the vast majority of ignored blogs reside. The A-list is teensy, the B-list is bigger, and the C-list is simply massive. In the blogosphere, the biggest audiences�and the advertising revenue they bring�go to a small, elite few. Most bloggers toil in total obscurity.
In related news, The Economist considers the increasing importance of blog buzz to marketing and brand management. Best to take care with the reassuring consumer research. There do not have to be many of us non-Budweiser drinkers to put a dent in French wine and brandy sales.
Not all company interactions with bloggers involve damaging criticism. Sometimes a careful look at what is happening online can help managers to avoid over-reacting. After the invasion of Iraq, when American consumers turned against all things French, a big French drinks company noticed that its brand names were popping up on boycott lists. But an analysis by BuzzMetrics, which specialises in scrutinising blogs and other online forums for corporate marketers, revealed that those who were pushing hard for a boycott tended to be "Budweiser drinkers", who would not have been natural customers for the firm's wines and spirits anyway.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at February 15, 2006 09:42 AM
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