The M20: Top Marketer Blogs (beta)

Here we go with Round 2.  Great reactions to the alpha version of the M20 list!  The best part - new marketing voices are being highlighted in social media, getting beyond the "echo chamber" that exists in this space.  (Another great aspect is the addition of many non-U.S. blogs to the list.)

This is also why I've tweaked the rankings.  I believe that the rankings should be totally transparent, so anyone knows where they stand at any time.  I also believe that rankings should reflect BOTH authority and influence.  I'll explain more about this after the list, because talking about it is kind of like watching sausage being made.

In the past fortnight or so, an additional 18 blogs have come to my attention.  I'm listing all 31 here as the beta version (download OPML file):

1. Listen Up! :: 63. John Porcaro, Group Manager - Online Communications, Microsoft.
2. ExperienceCurve :: 61.  Karl Long, Web/Social Media Integration Manager, Nokia.
3. Strategic Public Relations :: 55.  Kevin Dugan, Director of Marketing Communications, FRCH Design.
4. Todd And - The Power To Connect :: 48.  Todd Andrlik, Director of Marketing and PR, Leopardo Construction.
5. Marketing Nirvana :: 46.  Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist, LinkedIn.
6. Decker Marketing :: 44.  Sam Decker, VP Marketing, Bazaarvoice.
7. Flooring The Consumer  :: Technorati authority = 39.  Authored by CB Whittemore, Director of In-Store Innovation, Wear-Dated Carpet Fiber.
8. The Marketing Excellence Blog :: 31.  Eric Kintz, VP Marketing, Digital Photography & Entertainment, Hewlett-Packard.
9. cgm :: 31.  Pete Blackshaw, CMO, Nielsen Buzzmetrics.
10. Bernaisesource :: 28.  Dan Greenfield, VP Corporate Communications, Earthlink.
11. Cross The Breeze :: 27.  Kris Hoet, Marketing Communications Manager, Microsoft.
12. Churbuck.com :: 148.  David Churbuck, VP Global Web Marketing, Lenovo.
13. Masiguy :: 162.  Tim Jackson, Brand Manager, Masi Bicycles.
14. AttentionMax :: 153.  Max Kalehoff, VP Marketing, Nielsen Buzzmetrics.
15. Emerson Process Experts :: 130.  Jim Cahill, Marketing Communications Manager, Emerson Process Management.
16. BeRelevant! :: 23.  Tamara Gielen, Email Marketing Manager - Belgium, eBay.
17. Brandopia :: 22.  Geert Desager, Trade Marketing Manager, Microsoft.
18. Buzz Marketing For Technology :: 21.  Paul Dunay, Director of Global Field & Interactive Marketing, BearingPoint.
19. Community Group Therapy :: 21.  Sean O'Driscoll, General Manager of Community Support and MVP, Microsoft.
20. The Client Side :: 21.  Michael Seaton, Director - Digital Marketing, Scotiabank.
21. "Turbo" Todd Watson :: 20.  Todd Watson, IBM software group - web marketing, IBM.
22. John Dragoon's Blog :: 20.  John Dragoon, CMO, Novell.
23. The HP LaserJet Blog :: 20.  Vince Ferraro, VP of Worldwide Marketing - LaserJet BU, HP.
24. The Changing Face of Media :: 20.  Scott Berg, Worldwide Media Director, HP.
25. Marketing Monster :: 19.  Michael Morton, Marketing Specialist, Lampo Group.
26. Bad idea, indeed :: 18.  Philippe Deltenre, Business Development & Strategy Manager, Microsoft.
27. The Innovative Marketer :: 18.  Steve Gershik, Director of Marketing Innovation, Eloqua.
28. Sony Electronics Blog :: 17.  Rick Clancy, Head of US Corporate Communications, Sony.
29. John Heald's Blog :: 16.  John Heald, Cruise Director, Carnival.
30. The Kristasphere :: 16.  Krista Summit, Web Marketing Strategist, Lenovo.
31. Randy's Journal :: 15.  Randy Tinseth, VP Marketing, Boeing.

Technorati authority has been replaced by a composite score:  50% authority + 50% influence.  This breaks down as:

• 30% Technorati authority, by rank on list according to decile
• 20% Google page rank
• 50% Bloglines subscribers, by rank on list according to decile

The highest Technorati rank in the list is Todd And at 717; so any blog between 645 and 717 gets a 10, or 30 points.  Google pagerank is used directly; the highest page rank in the list is Eric Kintz at 7 (i.e. 14 points).  Bloglines subscribers are cut by decile as well.  John Porcaro is highest at 372; so any blog with 335 to 372 subscribers gets a 10, or 50 points.

The number of links to a site measures authority.  But authority can also be gamed through blog tag and other memes.  Thus Google page rank completes the authority metric being a tool in use by the general population.  I considered two other sources; Compete does not measure subdomains and Alexa comes up as spyware for many people.

But links along aren't enough.  There's something to be said about the number of people subscribed to a blog's feed.  Engaged?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But subscribers mean influence of ideas.  I don't think that the number of Bloglines subscribers is a perfect metric by any means.  For example, the number of Google-related subscribers to this blog is more than 2x Bloglines on any given day.  However, Google numbers aren't publicly available, not everyone burns a feed through Feedburner (and has publicity turned on), and Bloglines is the only reader where you can see everyone's stats.  Perfect?  No.  But it's the best of what's around.

As always, your suggestions on additional blogs, as well as better ways to measure authority and influence, are greatly appreciated.

Next update (gamma or live) in two weeks.

Comments

[C.B. Whittemore]

Peter, nice enhancements! I like the increased sophistication of your ranking system and really like that you have expanded the list with so many great resources! Very interesting to notice how many are technology related...

I'm delighted that Flooring The Consumer makes the beta M20. Thanks for focusing attention on the client side of blogging.

[Kevin Dugan]

Peter - It's a shame (for me at least) that everyone does not use Feedburner and openly share their feed numbers. But you obviously have to go with the information that's available across all of the blogs.

It's interesting to see how the list unfolds (not just because I'm a recent addition either). Establishing one metric beyond the page view is an ongoing, but necessary challenge.

Thanks!

[Jim Cahill]

Peter, I liked your "alpha" version better since I've now slipped 5 spots in the polls!

Seriously, it's an honor to be recognized with this great group of fellow bloggers.

Thanks!

[C.B. Whittemore]

Forgot to say 'thanks' for the opml file.

[blogresponse@visibletechnologies.com]

Peter

Great to see this initiative - and interesting to me personally, given the importance that Authority (and Influence) are given for analysis within our TruCast product offering. Have you found any correlation between factors such as post volume, traffic, subscriptions, and links? Or between these factors and external measurements such as Technorati authority and Google rankings?

Regards, Eli Weir

Visible Technologies
www.visibletechnologies.com

[Peter Kim]

Hi - sorry for the late comment, have been delivering an all-day client advisory session.

@C.B. - it's great to see non-tech blogs like yours, Tim's, and Eric's! My pleasure on the OPML file - anything I can do to help drive more visibility for the client-side.

@Kevin - I agree; a case in point = the Forrester marketing blog. Bloglines shows 155 subscribers, but Feedburner shows well over 10x that number! And on Technorati, the authority is quite low.

@Jim - thanks for being a pioneer in this conversational medium. And that's not hyperbole. If it was, the list would have 3,100 listings, not 31.

@Eli - I wish I had a system that could analyse all that stuff for me!!! :)

[Tamara Gielen]

Thanks for including my blog in your list. I appreciate it!

[Karl Long]

Hey Peter, great job on the list and your thoughtful multimetric approach. I'm also a big fan of the feedburner number, in many ways it would be a very valuable resource for them to publish, rather like technorati's authority number. I wonder how long it will take feedburner to start publishing a top 10K :-)

I totally agree that someone needs to work on a multimetric tool for creating scoreboards of blogs. In some ways I hate measuring blogs because it's almost always about "popularity" and "volume" and those aren't always measures of great blogs. On the other hand I crave measurement, metrics and comparison, as it helps contextualize what I do.

[Krista]

Peter: Thanks for this. I'm honored and humbled to be included in the company of some of the luminaries of the bloggerhood in this list. --K

[Eric Kintz]

Hey Pete,
Great job on expanding the list, it's fun to see that there are other marketers out there blogging! One comment on your new ranking system: I would have not given such a high importance to bloglines. Although I understand the engagement rationale, I think that corporate blogs serve a purpose of connecting with folks beyond the blogosphere - ie folks that do not necessarily know what RSS means. I am much more focused on getting tightly integrated with the hp.com search function so that hp customers find me through key words than getting my blogline count up as a measure of engagement. Anyways just my 2 cents! :)

One more HP marketing blog for you:
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/smb

Eric

[Peter Kim]

Great insight, Eric. There are many people subscribed to email updates on the blogs I manage who won't get counted in RSS feeds. Perhaps PageRank deserves a heavier weighting? I've looked at the Edelman sources and they seem limited as well...

(Thanks for the lead, too!)

[John Porcaro]

Damn. Now I'm feeling guilty about putting 100% of my effort into my Xbox 360 blog (www.gamerscoreblog.com). Something about practicing what you preach is forcing me to walk the walk, but not talk the talk so much.

:)

[Eric Kintz]

Yup I would give PageRank a higher weighting to measure "influence" beyond the blogosphere.

OK I will admit that I am biased since I have the highest page rank :))))

Btw I am surprised that there were no blogs from Sun and IBM in your list? I will let you find the links :)
Eric

[Peter Kim]

Consider me influenced - especially because you're the only one who's suggested a change! Look for the next update in a couple of weeks. I did check out the IBM and Sun blog directories, but couldn't tell who the marketers were, thus I've only included the IBM blog that was directly mentioned in comments. (Role-based directories would be nice!) Seems like a lot of HP and Microsoft marketers are blogging though.

[Rob Stevens]

Thought I'd give you a heads-up ... my marketing blog probably isn't popular enough yet to warrant a mention, but we've got some good content there that people should check out. Maybe we'll make the list one day!

[anna]

Hey great wrap-up of top blogs. I noticed as I started to RSS them that I've concentrated specifically on a niche of marketing- email marketing, so my group in BlogLines is now polluted with PR folks (just kidding... kinda). Again your weighting is how I tend to rank too. I wish I could see the site metrics, but looking at subscribers in bloglines & technorati rankings works too. I also try to consider how many people comment on blogs- as that is a sign of more activity and filters out the inactive subscribers (those that subscribe then never look at their bloglines).

[Valeria Maltoni]

Peter:

I learned about your list from C.B. Whittemore and Kris Hoet. Thank you for doing this, it will provide an opportunity to connect and contextualize as Karl put it. And I'm also on the client side as I work in corporate America and in generally conservative industries, although I do not blog directly about work. I started my blog when I was in the chemical industry and am now in IT and systems products and services.

[Lewis Green]

Peter,

Unique approach to the growing lists of rankings. Thanks for sharing.

[Karl Long]

Haha, page rank is no good if all the HP blogs have the same page rank of 9 :-) Seriously, boingboing has a page rank of 7 - the hp blogs are likely riding on the coattails of the hp domain that they are on.

[Pete]

Good point Karl. Page rank isn't transparent, but the metric is available. It's clear that some measurement sources don't distinguish between second-level domains vs. third and sub. Have been mulling this re: the next (gamma?) version of the M20...any thoughts, greatly appreciated.

[Lee Odden]

Great list Peter.

Here's an IBM marketer blog worth checking out: Mike Moran's Biznology Blog: www.mikemoran.com/biznology/blog/

[Databazaar Blog]

Congratulations to Vince Ferraro who blogs in our little neck of the woods (printers).

I'm surprised American Apparel didn't make the list. Written by a group of employees, American Apparel's blog regularly points to both praise and criticism of its company and products. It's the most transparent corporate blog I've seen. Even if that weren't the case, it merits inclusion because the fashion industry is notoriously behind the times with regard to online marketing let alone blogging.

In short, I think you should also look at audience size and content, not just authority. You can have a massive audience and very little authority if your goal is to reach everyday consumers. That should count for something.

[Peter Kim]

Hello Databazaar Blog,
I've followed American Apparel for a while, having come from the footwear/apparel industry. Great corporate story. I did not include any team blogs on the list. Audience size is accounted for by the feed subscribers metric. Content appeal depends on the long tail, which is captured by all 3 metrics.
Thanks for stopping by!

[Databazaar Blog]

I respectfully disagree with your reliance on feed subscribers for audience size. Like it or not, feeds have not become mainstream and probably never will except in iTunes thanks to Apple's ability to hide them from view.

Thus, you're only counting geeks like me and you. Let's face it -- most people read blogs on the Web. Many don't even realize they're reading a blog. They just think of it as a Web site. Everyone who wants to be on your list should confidentially submit their traffic numbers as measured by Google Analytics, etc.