Finding the Blogger-King

I often wonder who decides what constitutes a “power blogger” or an “A-list blogger.” I mean, having them makes sense. I should know. I will generally watch movies that ratchet-up their “golden-leaf” status. Or I’ll see how many stars a new artist gets from Rolling Stone Mag. We all like things to be rated. Hierarchy is important. There’s no getting around that. But, I’ll be honest. I’ve read some blogs considered as bloggie-award candidates and not been moved. At all. I’ve also read some blogs doing random searches on blogger and come upon some amazing stuff. So who decides? What are the metrics? What constitutes a top-blogger?

These questions take on significant importance when you’re looking at political blogs. Why? Because the political blogosphere is fast becoming the platform for political dialogue. Understanding how blogs are ranked is tied in with how we assess the climate of political dialogue. The key to understanding the importance of a political blog is understanding how influential it is. David Karpf gets this. The Blogosphere Authority Index is a novel way of measuring a blogger’s influence by aggregating a number of existing blog ranking mechanisms. Taken separately, these rating systems only tell part of the story. But by combining systems that report on site visits, interactive participation, socio-metric patterns and political blogger interest, the BAI offers a much deeper assessment of a blog’s influence.

Krap’s findings are significant. Understanding blogger influence is likely to lead to significant political campaign strategy shifts and holds potential for enhanced online marketing. Also, it helps us understand who in the blogosphere really deserves the laurels.