Lists are always  subjective,  even when created automatically.  In our case the use of machine learning carry this  subjectivity.

Just that this subjectivity is systematic. We could use a similar wording to define strategy: subjectivity made systematic hence actionable … and definitions are always subjective too.

Anyway, one interesting thing about this list is that, in contrast with the Top 150 for social marketing, the top blogs are not written by individuals or when they are, these individuals are not strongly “branded” personally.

Here is a list with previous ranking on the right, enjoy !

Here is the new ranking as of April 20th.

Few observations on the trends:

• The top of the list is very stable with J Owyang still leading the pack.
• Clay Shirky made the most significant gain (+99), mainly thanks to his brilliant post on the future of newspapers (888 comments and counting !). It’s amazing that this article does not comply to best practices in blogging etc:  it’s too long, has no images nor video… but it’s a such a great article with deep content. Clay only posts once a month but it’s always brillant !
• “Search” blogs seem to be on the rise in the social media landscape (see lines 51, 66, 96).

Any feedback on the relevance of this list is warmly welcome as an opportunity to progress:  eCairn team.

And should you need to develop social media marketing services (branding,  intelligence, research, outreach, advertising, social media optimization) where relevance is key, we’re always happy to do an 1/2 hour free  demo !

We use this list (in our application) to:

• spot what’s going on the larger social media community,
• engage in a few conversations ( while keeping track of it)
• engage in one to one discussions via email, Facebook or LinkedIn,
• and advertise towards the blogs/social media properties that are “ad friendly”.

We’ve seen from time to time people asking for such kind of list : i.e a list of recommended social media marketing blogs.

There is obviously the excellent list from Adage and also numerous blog catalogs you can look at to build your own list .

Still, we’re wondering whether & how we could help.

Would you rather get

• the blog list ?,
• widgets that expose the posts that match your preferred topics ? (i’ve one in my Facebook profile)
• searchable feeds

Do you think it makes sense to provide a sublist of blogs focused on: “Marketing with social networks”,” Adwords and web2.0″, “Verticals” …