A few weeks back I brought my work life onto my blog with kind of a pilot run of my Most Influential MLS Bloggers map. I included a few caveats at the time, and many bloggers and readers were kind enough to help me build up my seed list from that point.
Today, I'm posting my first official map, the initial post in a monthly serious which will a) improve in accuracy as I work up a better seed list and b) track developments in the MLS "conversation" in the blogosphere.
So what's the deal?
During daylight hours, I'm a social media planner at Porter Novelli, the global public relations agency. As part of my role, I look at networked conversations online, working out who's talking to who and how that reflects influence.
We have our own network mapping tool which follows who links to who (to a depth of two cycles) based on a seed list. It produces a map which is then analysed by yours truly to give the results you'll find below.
Why Major League Soccer?
Partly because MLS has become a little pet project of mine, but mostly because I find the whole thing (developing league, vibrant blog scene, different to European football etc) pretty fascinating. I'm looking into the possibility of a Premier League version in the future, but not sure I want to light the blue touchpaper on that one.
Who's on the seed list? Why aren't I on the map?
The original seed list was produced by-hand, using my own knowledge, lots of time and every decent blog search tool I could get my hands on. After the pilot iteration, I received loads of suggestions for additions, which have now been made. So, who's on the seed list? Everybody I can find.
If you're not named on the maps below, that doesn't mean you're not on it or not in the seed list. If you'd like to be in the seed list, drop me a comment and I'll add you. If this map actually matters to you, think about being more "linky". I'm on the map somewhere, which just goes to show that being linky does help. Content matters too, of course.
Did you have any problems?
Sure did. This first map was the first crack I had at March's map, and I found the results very surprising. You can see Match Fit USA features very prominently, and while I love the blog, it's a little young to be so central to the MLS conversation. I had a chat with Jason, the blog's author, and he agreed - so I went back through the seed list, tidied it up and added some more. So remember: this is not 100% accurate or even meaningful. Essentially, it's a bit of fun.
(Click to enlarge)
Influence? Really?
Partly. Being central to conversation is important, but that is all I've measured here. Strength of content, though an assumed indicator of influence, does not come into play at all. Likewise, readership is so, so important but not measured here. Like I said, a bit of fun.
Anything I should know before checking out the map?
The size of each node demonstrates the number of inlinks to each blog/site (from all sites within two degrees of separation from those in the seed list, not in total). The lighter the colour, the more "betweenness" there is between the blog in question and the others in the map. That's interesting, but doesn't necessarily give a reliable picture of where those blogs belong in the online conversation.
The tool's analysis is practically flawless. Any error is my human error.
Get on with it...
Here goes. Ladies and gents, the Most Influential MLS Bloggers, March 2009:
(Click to enlarge)
So, the top five blogs and sites in the current iteration are:
Some of this surprises me. Ives being top is not a surprise, but WVHooligan remaining in the top five with the new seed list suggests that he's doing something right despite the criticisms of the blog which came to light in my comments section. MLSNet being there is worrying to say the least - it should be there, but I doubt MLS links out much. Odd, but perhaps people are linking from the message boards.
Honourable mentions to The Touchline, The Kin of Fish, House of Soccer and This Is American Soccer.
I'm slightly concerned about the level of change from last month (so please help me add to my seed list for April!) so I looked for the old top five blogs to see what had happened to them:
(Click to enlarge)
As you can see, those blogs highlighted in February are still there or thereabouts, but have done poorly from my new seed list. That worries me, and I'd love to hear their thoughts on why a longer seed list might bring up the stats of other blogs but not theirs. Looking at the actual blogs last month, I felt confident that they were top five material, so I'm puzzled that they've dropped. Is the new top five closer to the mark?
Flaming
Here's my stance on flaming me about this post: please don't. I haven't set out to offend anybody, and this is an ongoing, ever-evolving process - so corrections can be made. Advice and opinions are more than welcome, seed list recommendations especially so. If you want to feature on next month's map, get that linking going!
See you next month.
4 comments:
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sarah
http://www.lyricsdigs.com
that previous comment looks a lot like spam. As for this map, MLSnet.com is the furthest thing from a blog. More like a corporate entity. Hard to argue with the placement of Ives though.
Of course, blogs and sites are included and because so many link to MLSnet it came out strong. I chose to leave it in to reflect the fact that it ranked so highly compared to the last attempt.
Goff from the Washington Post is not in the top soccer blogs??? I am surprise
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