One of favorite pass times is hanging out at Twitter trolling various conversations and participating in a few as it suits me. As you can imagine, they're often trivial and irrelevant. On occasion, however, I come across a real gem. Today was one such occasion.
I happened on a conversation between Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang and the infamous Robert Scoble regarding the death of the A-list.
The conversation was inspired by a post Guy Kawasaki wrote back in January, Forget the A-List After All, which concluded that we should simply forget the so-called influentials (i.e. the A-list).
"Lousy reviews by them cannot tank your product. Great reviews cannot make it successful," said Kawasaki. "Focus on big numbers—any Technorati 1,000,000 blogger can be a channel to reach people. If enough people like your product, the A-list bloggers will have to write about you."
I'm particularly attracted to the phrase Jeremiah used - "somewhere in the middle." I interpret that to be a reference to what former CEO of Technorati, David Sifry, called back in 2006, the "magic middle." (And, Jeremiah, please correct me if that's not what you meant.)
He defined the magic middle to be those in the "middle of the attention curve"... "interesting and influential bloggers and publishers that are often writing about topics that are topical or niche." So far as Technorati itself is concerned, the magic middle was a reference to bloggers who had 20-1000 other people linking to them.
I think Kawasaki's post certainly supports the notion that it's members of that group who truly are the key influencers. It's that group that sets the agenda and that generates enough noise about a particular topic that it catches the attention of the A-listers. The stimulus really begins at the grassroots level and extends upward. The power does belong to those in the long tail, though not too far down it.
Some advice...
Long-tail bloggers
If you're a blogger who's way down the long tail and you're beginning to wonder if anyone cares a whit about what your opinion, let me encourage you to keep on keeping on. If you write long enough about your passion, it's bound to get attention. The cream always rises to the top, but it takes a marathon runner-like dedication to keep hammering away at the topic.
That does demand that you write with frequency (daily at least); that you keyword-optimize your posts (Google is watching you know) and that you use other forms of social media to broadcast your message.
Oh, and one other thing... (perhaps the most important thing) participate in the conversation that's going on around your topic of interest. There's an old adage that says, "People don't care what you know until they know that you care." If you do your best to provide value to the larger conversation, others will take note.
Marketers
Take Kawasaki's advice and quite trying to vie for the attention of the A-listers. Go after the magic middle. They're likely to be more receptive to your message anyway. If it's a book review that you want written, give copies to this group. They'll thank you for it. If it's a new software app you want to gain attention, let those in the magic middle be the beta-testers.
I'm not saying the A-listers don't matter - they do - just that they shouldn't be the sole focus of your marketing efforts, not when there's a vast audience willing to entertain your message.
One last thing...a Tweet from Scoble a few minutes ago...
While I doubt that will ever be the case, it's a nice sentiment and much appreciated. I believe he means it too!
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