I read a couple of recent posts that I wanted to share that both touch on the idea of influence, but in different ways.
In the first by John Bell, who is currently traveling through Asia for his work with Ogilvy, he shares their very useful model for rating “influence” among bloggers.
The elements include:
- Affiliation of blog writer(s)
- Number of links to the blog
- Number of feed subscriptions
- Search engine results position for relevant keyword searches
- Last update
- Industry mentions/lists of top blogs
- Inclusion in Technorati Blog Directory and other online directories
- Discussion Analysis – true discussion or bantering
In English-language, US-centric content, we can generally start the process of identifying potential candidates via search; usually either Technorati, Google or Google Blogs. Then we can refine down into highly linked sites (“most authority” in Technorati lingo).
According to a digital marketing agency, the list would be quite helpful in identifying appropriate bloggers to include in a PR campaign with a social media component. Any one of the indicators of blogger influence by itself would not necessarily provide a full enough picture of whom to target when you need to narrow down what can be resource-intensive outreach. But combine two or more (or all) of these and you will see the degree of influence become clearer.
I would also add to the list the appearance of the blog on other influential bloggers’ blogrolls beyond links within posts, and the numbers of comments left on other people’s blogs.
They do not include any indicators that measure the amount of traffic to the blog, perhaps for a few reasons: First, the current publicly available ways of measuring traffic (i.e., Alexa) are not entirely reliable, though they can at least give an idea of the scale of traffic (e.g., rank of 1,000,000 vs. 100,000 vs. 1,000). Another reason is that the blogger may be may be influential for a very specific niche of people that is too small to be measured accurately by traffic but still desirable from a particular organization’s point of view. Finally, the number of feed subscribers is a better indicator of loyal and interested readers than the traffic numbers, which can vary wildly based upon the spread of just one post.
The other interesting post on influence was by Chris Sandberg, and touches on the idea of social proof. This is the notion that people judge the value of something based on how they see other people respond (and is the reason behind the use of laugh tracks in sitcoms; when others are laughing, it makes the show seem funnier). Chris shares his experience at a basketball game, where Albertsons grocery store ran a contest only available to people who waved their Albertsons club card around at one point in the game. When people who did not have one saw how many others did have a card, they may have started wondering whether they were missing out on something.
Chris explains the concept’s usefulness in marketing:
Social proof can be a powerful marketing tool. If you can get your customers to vouch for your product (or at least make it look like they are) and find a way to advertise it to your potential customers your job as a marketer becomes a lot easier. People don’t want to feel left out and often look to others when making decisions they are unsure of. By being aware of social proof and taking actions to leverage it you can be there when people are looking around to others when trying make a purchase decision.
To bring this back to the discussion on influential bloggers, social proof plays a big role in how topics are covered in the blogosphere. When one or more influential bloggers writes about a particular news story or issue, that often sets off a flurry of other posts because the topic has been validated as being important. One influential blogger can provide the social proof that an idea or product has merit, paving the way for many others to adopt it as well.
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
Nedra – to extend John and your excellent list may I add “relevancy?” No matter how influencial the blogger may be, if she (or he) isn’t of interest to your target audience it really doesn’t matter much. Of course on the other hand .. there is the benefit of a bit of Google juice!
Toby,
I think the relevance of the blogger to the audience you are trying to reach is critical. The first question you would need to ask in identifying influential bloggers would be “influential to whom?” Robert Scoble is quite influential, but if you’re trying to reach doctors, getting coverage from him won’t do much for you. Your point is well-taken, and I will add that to my list for the future.