Last week I mentioned Louis Gray as a “big name” blog. Louis took the time to come and comment and deny that this was the case. But while Louis may not think of himself as a big name, within my personal blogging and social networking experience he is.
Our experiences give us different opinions on who the big names are. There are a lot of lists out there of the “most powerful” blogs, or the “most influential“. But even fame is a personal thing. Many of those “most influential” blogs I don’t read or don’t care about. They’re not big names to me.
So what does make someone a big name blogger/social networker?
You know they exist
I hadn’t heard of Chris Pirillo until I read an article about him in .NET magazine recently. So he wasn’t a big name. How could he be when I didn’t know he existed? Now I realise how successful he is, I know a lot more about him, and I follow him on Twitter.
When I was first starting to develop Fog of Eternity properly, the biggest name for me was Maki. I found DoshDosh pretty early when I was doing Google searches for advice. I knew about Maki before I knew about anyone else, so Maki was the big name.
You know that other people know they exist
I highlighted Ski’s blog The Social Creature a few days ago. I like the blog, I think it talks with intelligence and authority on a wide range of subjects.
But I’m also aware that it’s a new blog. Discussion is limited because there’s not much traffic. So even though I enjoy the blog myself, Ski isn’t a big name. Maybe one day he’ll become so, and I can enjoy having been one of the blog’s early adopters.
Your social network considers them an authority
I felt like I had a mini big name moment about ten days ago. Fog of Eternity got highlighted on I’m Not Actually A Geek as a blog worth reading. More to the point, there was a comment on that blog post calling me a “must read”. Other people were considering me to be an authoritative source worth reading.
Remember, it’s an authority in your social network. Doesn’t matter if Bob is hugely respected elsewhere if everyone you interact with thinks he talks tripe.
Celebrities provoke gossip
And this is the big one. Your social network needs to talk about someone for them to be a big name. We gossip about celebrities. We talk about what they said, who they’re sleeping with, whether we like them. Those discussions are pointless and uninteresting if we don’t know or don’t care about the people involved.
That’s how it exists in the blogosphere too. We talk about what the celebrities said (their blog posts). We talk about whether we agree or disagree with them, whether we like them. Hell, we even talk about who they’re sleeping with.
Louis Gray sleeps with FriendFeed
Louis Gray is a top blogger in the tech world. He covers a lot of good tech topics, perhaps best known for his early and bullish coverage of FriendFeed.
Robert Scoble is a slut who sleeps with everyone
Robert is a reporter. But he is also “drinking his own Kool-Aid”. He loves everything new on the web and often tells us how great it is.
Then he moves on to the next shiny lure – leaving everyone else to figure out how the last lure adds value (often leaving the company behind the technology wondering the same things).
Being a big name is self perpetuating
Darren Rowse talked a couple of days ago about blog tipping points. And once you’ve become a big name in some ways I think the job becomes easier. Or at least it becomes different. The fight to get people to read isn’t the same. As long as you’re creating something, it provokes discussion. Even if it’s discussion on how bad that last post. That drives traffic and drives interest.
Our big names will always have similarities, because there are some megastars. Robert Scoble is Madonna – love her or hate her, or even if you’re personally indifferent, someone you know will be talking about her. Others will be big names to particular networks. Louis Gray can be Katee Sackhoff. My mum won’t know the name, but everyone who watches Battlestar Galactica or Bionic Woman will be in awe.