How to Find Top Influencers and Blogs

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By: Matt Clark

There is a lot of misinformation on the Web - too much to trust any one medium blindly. As with anything in marketing and public relations, research and evaluation are key. The following is not an entire strategy but basics of how one should search. Making a search strategy is the best way to improve the chances of finding the new influencers of the blogosphere and online communities.

• When starting a search, start with a directory like Yahoo!
• Search engines such as Google are strong resources as long as proper keywords are utilized for a broader search
• Blog directories such as Ice Rocket, Bloglines,BlogScope and Technorati track the blogosphere - a valuable feature
• Sites like Alexa help analyze blog linking traffic and trends to narrow campaign targets

Links are one of the most important criteria when ranking the importance and influence of a blog. The more inbound links a blog has, the more credible the source is. Technoratti uses authority rankings to determine if the links are coming form credible sources. Another effective search for finding top influencers is looking at commenting. Research a blog’s comments, how long are they, how many are there per post, what is their qualitative engagement.

Although utilizing Technoratti and Alexa can give you a quantitative, the space is still undefined and the most successful research is based off of in-depth qualitative research.