This is a special edition of Great Blogs of Fire, usually hosted on the Buzz Bin! For the last two months, a post noted the five bloggers that were influencing me the most during that month. It’s a good idea to recognize influencers, so this will be a continuing monthly feature to be hosted on the Now Is Gone blog.
September’s Top Five Influential Bloggers
1) Jeremiah Owyang: Jeremiah went into overdrive with impressive weekly round-ups, primers, and great trade publication-esque tutorials. Then he went and got acquired by Forrester, demonstrating his incredible value to the industry. And that blogging can lead somewhere. Great job, Jeremiah!
2) Toby Bloomberg: Toby, the blue-chipper, because she is always reliable and helpful. Graceful, masterful, and really thoughtful. Her blog is a driving force in the marketing marketplace, and many credit her W-List posting as the tipping point for that meme which gave so many lady bloggers outstanding links.
3) Shel Holtz: Shel’s had a lot of great content lately. I don’t always agree, but think that any marketer can benefit from a weekly perusing of the wares here. He pointed out Delta and A&P, and this week features a podcast (with Neville Hobson) noting a study that demonstrates Facebook causes productivity downturns.
4) Ike Pigott: His blog is humorous, but make no bones about it: Ike’s one of the leading marketers in the biz. A thought leader at the Red Cross, he is leading their charge to adapt social media. He is commenting everywhere. Off-line chats are impressive. And almost every prominent PR blogger cites him. But the funniest thing about Ike is that the Ad Age Power 150 won’t list his satirical blog thus demonstrating that sometimes getting banned is a good thing.
5) Seth Godin: I do tend to stay away from A-Listers, but I’ve been reading a lot of Seth lately. Simple, always thoughtful, and very useful. Seth Godin’s blog always sends me away thinking.
Honorable mentions go to Kami Huyse (back from maternity leave and blogging again!), Valeria Maltoni, Brian Solis.
Quick recap: August’s top five in order were Valeria Maltoni, Rich Becker, Shel Israel, Toby Bloomberg, and Eric Eggertson. July’s were Brian Oberkirch, Chris Heuer, Kevin Dugan, Jeremiah Owyang and Kami Huyse. Yes, continued link love for the rest of the year for all noted parties.
I started assigning weights to these: Five points for first place down to one for fifth place, and cumulating the score. Yes, this is completely silly and subjective, but as the list changes quite a bit from month-to-month, ranking by cumulative score allows for a better picture of my most influential bloggers. And this also creates a nice year end post.
- Jeremiah Owyang - 7
- Toby Bloomberg -6
- Valeria Maltoni - 5
- Brian Oberkirch - 5
- Rich Becker - 4
- Chris Heuer -4
- Kevin Dugan - 3
- Shel Holtz - 3
- Shel Israel - 3
- Ike Pigott -2
- Eric Eggertson - 1
- Seth Godin - 1
- Kami Huyse - 1
September 15th, 2007 at 9:01 am
[...] monthly top five list of bloggers that are influencing me the most is up on the Now Is Gone blog. Now Is Gone will permanently house this monthly feature. Check it [...]
September 15th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Thank you for including me in this, it’s really nice to be recognized like this! Blushing!
September 15th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Shel’s blog is pretty interesting. I need to broaden my scope and check out some diverse blogs for some inspiration of my own
September 15th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Yeah, both Shels have a lot to offer. Holtz has been hot as of late.
September 15th, 2007 at 10:14 am
I absolutely agree with Jeremiah! It’s going to be interesting to watch his blog now that he’s with Forrester (what a catch for them!). I’d also add Brian Solis’s and Chris Brogan. You are on my everyday list also. But I’m excited to add Toby’s blog.
September 15th, 2007 at 10:34 am
I don’t like Jeremiah much these days. OK, not really - I’m just jealous. Seems like every time I start a new blog post, I discover he’s just written masterfully about that same subject and I lose my steam to write my post. Damn him and his big brain and large talent!
September 15th, 2007 at 11:18 am
I really appreciate your work Geoff, and hope to somehow live up to your GBF designation.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:24 am
You already do, Kami. Great to have you back and blogging!
@Jake If I had half the brain power that Jeremiah does….
@Jane I need to read Chris more often. Brian is a great writer, too, as you know. He was really on fire this Spring, and is always prescient. When it came time to ask someone to write the intro for Now Is Gone, I asked him.
This list is often who I am influenced by in the immediate now. It’s kind of fun. Just my way of saying thanks to these bloggers with some write ups and links.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Interesting meme, Geoff. It is insightful, because we can go back and compare to see how we collectively oozed into your brain, and created the soupy broth that was your September.
Also, it is completely subjective, and completely now. No legacy, no coasting on reputation. It is the PR-blogosphere’s rendition of “What Have You Done For Me Lately?”
I’m honored to be in the crowd - like that indie act that ends up in everyone’s iPod. Although I will admit to being suspicious of any list that would have me as a member…
September 15th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Jeremiah gets my vote too! He not only offers great resources but is truly a leader & mentor.
Thanks for following me on Twitter. I’m adding your blog to my reader.