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July 26, 2007

9:40 am | 0 recommendations | 4 comments

Innovation: Todd And’s POWER 150 Now by AdAge – Will This Change Things?

| posted by Fast Company staff

Does Advertising Age taking over Todd And’ Power 150 represent a coming of age of the blogosphere or just more advertising? The blogosphere has always had its lists – Top 10 reasons Why, 5 Ways to, 3 Tips for and The Power 150 marketing blogs. And everybody loves them. That’s why they are so popular.

The delightful subjectivity of these kinds of lists is one of the things that differentiates blogs from commercial publications like Advertising Age.

This list was born as the grassroots’ effort of Todd And with the help of a few dedicated and passionate volunteers. Todd and the people who supported this effort for so many months should be congratulated for the attention the list has received.

Ad Age’s announcement of their affiliation with The Power 150 highlights one of the difficulties of corporate entry into the world of blogging. Ad Age is a highly influential and respected professional publication and the addition of their imprimatur to The Power 150 grants an aura of authority that is in one way counter to the spirit of its foundation.

According to Jonah Bloom, Editor of Advertising Age, the publication will use The Power 150 as the main editorial benchmark when referencing blogs in print and online.

By anyone’s estimation lists such as Todd’s are entirely subjective. Of the four metrics which determine a blog’s ranking within The Power 150, three are based on the number of readers or the number of times a blog is mentioned by other blogs. But the secret sauce is Todd’s opinion of the rated blogs. That admittedly subjective metric that makes up 25% of the score may be the difference between being in the middle of the list or not being in the top 150 at all.

Though it’s not Ad Age’s intent, their authority essentially marginalizes those blogs that are not on The Power 150. And there are hundreds of worthy marketing blogs out there. So many, that Todd expanded the original list of 150 to 350. How will the blogosphere react to this marginalization? Probably in the way the blogosphere always does -- with more lists.

Will this dilute the power of The Power 150 and thus dilute the value of Ad Age’s foray into the blogosphere? Only time will tell. But it highlights the complexity of corporate America’s entry into an environment where subjectivity is actually a good thing.

The customers of the blogosphere are the readers and the bloggers themselves. They may react in ways the corporations do not expect.

Valeria Maltoni • Conversation Agent • Philadelphia, PA • www.conversationagent.com

Tags: Innovation
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Recent Comments | 4 Total

July 26, 2007 at 2:05pm

Todd And
Nice post, Valeria. 1) To your point that the subjective metric makes up 25% of the score and may be the difference between being in the middle of the list or not being in the top 150 at all - the subjective "Todd And Points" are only worth 15 of the total 75 points possible on the Power 150. While my score is one of four metrics, each metric has a different weight associated with it. When I first launched, I tested the influence of my subjective points by removing them all and recalculating with just the objective scores - with the exception of some minor moves, the rankings didn’t change much at all. 2) Regarding your point about Ad Age’s authority essentially marginalizing those blogs that are not on The Power 150 - the ranking launched with more than 150 blogs on it and has doubled in six months time. As bloggers learn about the list, they suggest their own and others – those blogs are immediately reviewed, ranked and added. New blog suggestions have slowed considerably, so I think we are monitoring a sizeable chunk of the active marketing blogosphere. Plus, the list is always growing which should minimize any marginalization. 3) As for how this changes things, David Armano just posted about “tipping the media scales” and has a graphic showing how bloggers and podcasters are beginning to enjoy increased visibility, credibility and audience exposure. I believe the Ad Age + Power 150 partnership supports that thought and further promotes/advances the marketing blogosphere’s visibility, credibility and audience exposure. Which is a great thing!
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July 27, 2007 at 1:32pm

B.L. Ochman
"Though it’s not Ad Age’s intent, their authority essentially marginalizes those blogs that are not on The Power 150." You could say that about Technorati's top 100, or the Viral Garden Top 25, etc, none of which have prevented new blogs from entering the scene and gaining popularity on the strength of great content. Time will tell how this affects both bloggers and other MSM, but AdAge is to be congratulated for trying to bring blogs to its corporate clients with its stamp of approval. I'm sure methods may change over time, but the sea change here is that the list will actually be in AdAge next week.
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July 28, 2007 at 1:09pm

Valeria Maltoni
Thank you for expanding on the implications, Todd. I agree with you (and David) that bloggers and self publisher in any form are tipping the scale with "increased visibility, credibility and audience exposure." I think what it means remains to be seen. BL -- I disagree that blogs need a stamp of approval by AdAge (or any corporate entity) to be considered worthy and meaningful. By all intents and purposes, they already are.
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September 9, 2007 at 12:24am

Geoff Livingston
I feel like the Bloglines metric is also subjective, and rewards older bloggers. Most folks use Google reader now anyway. So 2006 success is rewarded with old bloglines subs.
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