The Long Tail in the blogosphere

Media Guerrilla: The way I see it, most marketers (and PR folk for that matter) are used to dealing with dozens of markets of millions verses millions of markets of dozens. Meaning they’re used to going where they can get the biggest bang for the buck. In the broadcast world it’s CNN. In the print media world it’s the WSJ. In the online world it’s Boing Boing. You get the picture. It’s not Joe Blog.

The concept of a “trusted network” isn’t on a page in the marketer’s playbook right now. When it comes to online programs, I think too many companies are too focused on getting the A-list blogs to write two sentences about an announcement, while ignoring the C-list blogs that are writing two pages about the same thing.

So, while Joe Blog on the C-list may lack the reach of his blogger brethren, he still has a degree of influence on those folks who read his stuff. Even if it’s only 5 people, those 5 people follow Joe Blog because they either know him, like what he writes or they share a common interest. Regardless, there’s a level of trust in Joe. And influence is a very powerful byproduct of trust.

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As a test I wonder what would produce better results – pay $500 to an A-List blogger to hit his audience up with an advertisement, or pay $50 to 10 C-List bloggers? As you become more and more popular and consequently more and more mainstream, is the influence of a blogger’s opinion reduced?

Think about radio personalities – do you trust the word of the biggest stars or the smaller niche focused showhosts that appear more like your next door neighbour than a celebrity?

The same question can be applied to podcast hosts. If I recommend a piece of software chances are you are going to trust what I say because you believe I’ve tested it myself and found it to be a good program. However if my popularity skyrockets, I become more and more commercial, perhaps with staff and paid advertisers do you value my opinion any less?

Yaro