How To Reach No. 1 On The AdAge Power 150 List

September 10, 2009 · Comments

Jason Falls

Apparently, Social Media Explorer spent much of last week at No. 1 on the AdAge Power 150 list. Lots of folks have congratulated me as if I’d won some great prize. I’m sure some people on the list have crocked an eyebrow at the rating wondering what kind of back door engineering I participated in over the last few months to game the system and jump up the charts. Several people, online and off, have asked me how I did it.

I did one thing and one thing, only. I posted good content.

Please don’t take that statement or this post as some sort of ego trip. I base the good content statement on the fact that people tell me they enjoy my writing, SME entices a fair amount of engagement in the comments and my little ole blog has a fair amount of inbound links from Tweets and retweets, bookmarks and other references. If the content weren’t good, none of that would be true.

The AdAge Power 150 listing is a nice attempt at putting together a list of smart blogs to read. But to claim my writing or insight is better than anyone else on that list is ludicrous. Blogging is not a competition.

The list is a nice conversation piece, link generator and service to the blogging community for AdAge. While I don’t want to down play or disrespect Todd Andrlik for creating it, or Charlie Moran for editing and maintaining the list, it’s just one way of looking at what’s out there and putting an order to it. Anyone could come up with their own criteria, make a new list and, depending upon the variables, SME wouldn’t be on it at all. And that would be perfectly fine.

But if there is a lesson to be learned in SME sitting at No. 1, even if it were just for a day or two, it’s that good content, meaningful content, advice and shared learning that provides value to your readers actually works. That is all I’ve ever tried to do.

I’m willing to bet you can do the same thing.

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Tagged as: AdAge Power 150, Advertising Age, Blogging, marketing blogs, top advertising blogs, top marketing blogs

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  • Jason

    First, congrats again. A lot of folks like to claim conversation is the currency of social media but I've always fest Content carried the day. Conversation being a fleeting thing (it happens, we enjoy it, we move on to the next convo) it is hard to really build an enduring base that can be discovered by others out of it.

    Content on the other hand is that brick that you build your house on because it is inherently sharable. And given that yours is great, it is no wonder folks link back to it so much.

    Keep it up buddy.
    @TomMartin
  • Congrats on this Jason. Well deserved.
  • Congrats and couldn't agree more. Adding value is always profitable. And thanks for the candor. Simon
  • Thanks, Simon. Appreciate the comment.
  • You know, if you would have added a couple of steps to your process, you could have titled this post "Reach #1 on the AdAge Power 150 in 3 easy steps." Would've driven more traffic with that title...people love lists. ;)
  • I tried. Only came up with one. Heh. Thanks, Paul.
  • Keep it up. Congrats on the success, over the past year all the great content has helped me X10 learn about the industry, best practices, and strategy. Looking forward to more and hearing about your continued success.
  • Thanks Craig. And thanks for continuing to read and react.
  • Haha, I'll keep trying to reach the pinnacle :).

    Also, on my StuAge Metrics I tend to be #1 a lot. Just sayin'.
  • StuAge metrics are much more relevant for some. Heh.
  • KatFrench
    Don't forget "have amazingly good guest contributors." ;)

    Congrats to you, whether you want them or not, Jason.
  • Fair point. David Finch and Kat French deserve a good amount of credit for the standing as well. Thanks, Kat.
  • beley
    Well said Jason... Sometimes I wish people would focus more on just putting out good content (or good products) and less on getting on this list or that list or getting noticed by some A-list blogger.

    If you do the former, the latter will come naturally.
  • True. I do think a healthy mix of both is fine. I haven't written my content in a vacuum and have networked with folks who I hoped would read my blog, etc., but I agree. Good content outweighs other strategies any day.
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