The blogosphere and media love the A-List, the top bloggers in the world This esteemed group is comprised of the top 1000 bloggers or so via Technorati’s ranking system. Some go as far as to include the top 5,000. The top 100 are social media royalty.

Everyone wants to be A-list worthy, get a mention, maybe even be one some day. Clients want us to get them to speak at events or mention their services. It’s like Supernova, everyone wants to become or be liked by a rock star blogger.

This phenomena occurs regardless of content quality. For example, Kevin Rose’s vapant Pownce posts — “Burritos for lunch!” — often get 50-100 comments, regardless of how patronizing or simplistic they may be.

Content quality does not necessarily dictate A-List worthiness. Within the marketing world’s top A-Listers, Seth’s blog content can be pretty tangential, Copyblogger’s usually brilliant, and Steve Rubel can be brilliant or really off, and borders on plagiarism at times. Does it matter? Obviously not! Look at ToddAnd’s Power 150! We love our marketing stars.

This seems to be universal. For example, Shel Israel recently said in an email exchange that he enjoyed reading the Buzz Bin. Another prominent A-Lister was cc’ed. Man, I felt like a million bucks for a while. Now if Shel starts commenting that would be really cool.

But does the A-List worship really make sense?

What’s Really Important

Quite a bit of discussion on this topic with Toby Bloomberg (another A-Lister or sub A-Lister depending on definition) yielded some interesting insights. Notably, there will always be A-Listers. We have no royalty, and crave this kind of magnitude in leaders/stars. If it wasn’t the current crop, there would be others.

Further, their blogging style represents a distinct generation of blogger. For example, Seth’s a reflective Gen. 1 blogger who muses. Rubel’s a second generation blogger, relying on links, and positioning himself as an authority. And Copyblogger’s a third generation blog that focuses on creating original, substantive content to benefit the community.

But does it really matter? Is it important to become an A-Lister or A-List worthy? It depends on who your community is. We’re reminded of Brian Oberkirch’s comments in his spring Buzz Bin interview:

Focus on building the tribe one person at a time. Forget the Technorati 100 thinking. Being famous to 15 people is a huge advantage if they are the right 15 people.

How true. And so, while it’s easy to get bedazzled by the brilliance of our A-Listers and have our heads in the cloud, we should keep our feet on the ground. Remember what’s important, one reader at a time. That’s the community we seek to participate in.

Consider Boeing’s blog, Randy’s Journal. This blog is hosted by Randy Tinseth, vice president, marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle. Currently ranked as 84,017 by Technorati, this blog seems geared towards the aviation industry with international cross-links and industry specific discussion. This blog never has to become an A, B or even C-list blog to be successful. It’s success must be measured by its industry specific impact. And one would have to say, Randy’s done a nice job.

Technorati Tags: A-List, Shel Israel, Seth Godin, Steve Rubel, Copyblogger, Toby Bloomberg, Brian Oberkirch, Randy’s Journal, Boeing