American Idol is getting down to the wire, with a mere 4 contestants performing Tuesday May 6. The buzz from the influential blogs was on target when it came to who got the boot last week; influential blogs wanted Brooke White to go, and fans felt the same. After last night’s performances, below is the latest snapshot of the influential blogs and posts discussing the remaining contestants. Please note that though this post is going live Wednesday evening, this analysis was done Wednesday morning, prior to the results broadcast!

Contestants after Tuesday night's performances, listed by influential blogs/posts:

David Cook: 546 / 6543
Jason Castro: 498 / 8013
David Archuleta: 432 / 10,163
Syesha Mercado: 221 / 7400

There are some interesting numbers, and deltas, here. David Cook has the most influential blogs writing about him, but the fewest influential posts. Syesha is the inverse – she has half as many blogs posting about her, but a large amount of posts. Which scenario is preferable: more influencers talking about a contestant less frequently, or a smaller number of influencers buzzing more consistently? It will be interesting to see how this nets out. Then, there's David Archuleta, whose name is associated with more posts than any other contestant at this stage of the game. Jason Castro is in the middle in terms of numbers and reach of influential buzz, but the influencers don’t have anything nice to say. He is the influencer pick to go home.

Other highlights from this week's influencer commentary:

Influencers say David Cook had a bad night, but he was not in danger of leaving this week. They note he needs to step it up to have a shot at winning, even after a much liked second song performance of Baba O’Riley.

David Archuleta is still getting influencer buzz to win it all; they say he has great vocals, but needs to work on his stage presence. Influencers picked up on the singer closing and squinting his eyes often during his two songs.

Influencers thought Syesha gave one of the best performances last night, after David Archuleta. They feel she is safe, with a big factor being she’s the only female left – and some mentioned how hot she looked doing Proud Mary.

As promised, I ran a conversation query in the BuzzLogic application to uncover the most influential sites and posts in the "SOBCon" conversation over the last year. Below is the list; these are the bloggers who are most influential on the topic of the SOBCon conference. Not surprisingly, the Queen of SOBCon herself, Liz Strauss comes up as number one (check out Liz's take on this weekend's events here).

BuzzLogic’s influence algorithm takes a dozen factors into account when determining the influence of posts and a blog overall – a blogger’s credibility and expertise on a specific topic over time, who is linking in, the quality and influence of all in-linkers and the popularity of a post overall. Congrats to Lorelle VanFossen from Lorelle on Wordpress for the most influential post in the entire SOBCon conversation.

http://www.successful-blog.com/
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/
http://makeitgreat.typepad.com/
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/
http://darmano.typepad.com/
http://www.blogherald.com/
http://www.blackinbusiness.org/
http://carpefactum.typepad.com/
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/
http://www.instigatorblog.com/
http://www.workingathomeinternet.com/
http://bestlife.typepad.com/
http://www.thinkinghomebusiness.com/
http://www.dmiracle.com/
http://www.spatiallyrelevant.org/
http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/
http://blog.futurelab.net/
http://kentblumberg.typepad.com/
http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/
http://www.middlezonemusings.com/
http://www.christinekane.com/
http://liveslessordinary.wordpress.com/
http://www.problogger.net/
http://www.maryschmidt.com/
http://www.monkatwork.com/

Sandra Ponce de Leon and I are attending the SobCon08 event in Chicago this weekend - meeting incredible people and absorbing information left and right. More to come - right now I'm responding to new media/blogger guru Chris Garret's challenge to write a blog post in 5 minutes. More to come in terms of what we're learning at this event, but for now -- consider this our 5 minute throw down!

Neil Diamond was in the house with the Idols last night, a treat for both viewers and contestants. However, the overwhelming amount of buzz on the blogs was not about the contestants, but about Paula Abdul's mistake in reacting to Jason Castro's second song - before the performance even took place. It turns out influential bloggers were underwhelmed with the performances as a whole, and actually appreciated Paula's flub for making this episode memorable.

See below the ranking of contestants by number of influential blog posts as of Wednesday (April 30):

David Archuleta: 401 sites/ 7,845 posts
David Cook: 580 sites/ 7,263 posts
Brooke White: 468 sites/ 5,709 posts
Jason Castro: 479 sites / 5,296 posts
Syesha Mercado: 193 sites / 5,026 posts

What do influencers actually have to say about each contestant? Here's an aggregate assessment:

David Cook: Influencers liked his acoustic performance better than the first with the electric guitar. He’s still the front runner to win.

David Archuleta: Influencers say that his song choices were great for getting votes, and expect his latest pick will pull in a ton of votes in his favor. He’s still neck and neck with David Cook to win.

Brooke White: Influencers are not Brooke fans. They thought her second song was better than her first, but have her pegged as the one to leave. Some are still grumbling that she should have gone last week instead of Carly Smithson.

Jason Castro: Influencers say that he missed the opportunity to take it to the next level, saying that he was flat and lackluster. It appears bloggers are evenly split between Jason and Brooke as the ones to leave tonight.

Syesha Mercado: Influencers still like Syesha, and are talking about her being Neil’s favorite. Influencers say her song selections were smart, and hope that the “pimp spot” will stave off Simon’s negativity and that she’ll be back next week.

Who are the influencer picks to go? Again, influencers appear evenly split between thinking Jason and Brooke should go. However, many point to Syesha as the one that will go (undeservedly so), as she has not been a fan favorite.

Looking back over the last few weeks, here is what our analysis has told us so far:

Influencers and voters don't always agree. In some cases, like David Cook and David Archuleta, the amount and tone of blog buzz matches viewer voting behavior; influencers consistently praise these two, and they remain safe week after week. On the flip side, Syesha continues to appear in the Bottom 3, yet she has a small number of influencers who continue to root for her. Notice how she has half the number of influential sites talking about her as compared to her competitors - yet the sheer number of posts generated about Syesha rival that of other contestants.

In some cases, the amount of blog buzz seems to correlate to viewers interest. For example, during her tenure on the show, Kristy Lee Cook was one of the least blogged about contestants. Did a lack of buzz usher along her inevitable departure? Carly Smithson also didn't retain influencer interest; during her last week on the show (April 21) she slipped to the bottom in terms of sheer number of posts, with 4743 in total - the lowest amount she has had since April 8. We'll continue to watch out for this dynamic leading up to the finale.

Another interesting trend to note is how the influencer buzz around Brooke White has taken shape over the last few weeks. As April 1st, she was the female contestant with the highest number of influential posts, and overall commentary was supportive. As of April 14, following her performance of Mariah Carey's "Hero", the number of posts containing "Brooke White" continued to escalate. However, the tone dramatically shifted, and influencers turned against the contestant. Bloggers have predicted she would be in the Bottom 3 the last three weeks, and are out and out calling for her to leave the show. Do fans agree? Stay tuned...

When it comes to spending ad dollars in social media, a recent Brandweek article got to the heart of why marketers are so tempted...smaller emerging networks around niche topics are stronger branding targets nowadays. We're seeing how lesser-known blogs with niche, quality content can perform from an ad perspective - for example, a blogger who has built an audience around his/her organic food expertise would produce better results for a relevant brand than an ad buy on a mainstream portal. So, it makes sense that social networks and community sites wrapped around a shared passion or theme would serve as a better targeting vehicle than, let's say Facebook. As reporter Betsy Cummings points out, it will continue to be a balancing act for social networks large and small to continue to satisfy users and advertisers at the same time.

Musical genius Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber was in the American Idol house last night. After a string of broadway-infused performances, here's how the final 6 are ranked by number of influential posts:

David Cook: 7128 **Influencer pick for Top 2 finalist.

Jason Castro: 6261 **Bottom 3 pick. The buzz on his song choice -- Cats' "Memory" -- was overwhelmingly negative.

David Archuleta: 5988 **Influencer pick for Top 2 finalist.

Brooke White: 5748 **Influencers' pick to go home. The start and stop performance put the bloggers over the edge and almost all agree it's time this songbird flew the coop.

Syesha Mercado: 5052 **Bottom 3 pick. The influencers talk about the "curse of the first" and many are buzzing about her leaving the show, despite liking her rendition of "One Rock & Roll Too Many" from the Starlight Express 2.

Carly Smithson: 4743 **Influencers loved the Jesus Christ Superstar pick and her Simon Loves Me (This Week) T-Shirt.

Today is another big day at BuzzLogic. We officially announced the exciting news that we have acquired the assets of Activeweave – the customers, technology, and incredible minds of Marc Meyer, now BuzzLogic's SVP of Products, and Jean Sini, BuzzLogic's new CTO.

What I love is that these guys have built a technology designed specifically to help users prosper on the Social Web - to navigate it, and make their experiences more organized and useful. And they've created fun, easy-to-use applications that deliver on that promise. Their view of the Web - of the social media "conversation," if you will - is parallel with how we've always seen it. Online media is social; content and the people producing it don't operate in silos; the more connected a story is to a network of like-minded voices, the more influential it becomes. Now we are able to merge the idea social media browsing behavior with our existing influence analysis -- our (hopeful) result is that we'll be able to deliver advertisers, marketers and even bloggers themselves a way to not only understand, but really harness that influence in a productive way.

It's fun to take a few steps back and look at how all of this progressed. I've been in Jean and Marc's shoes before, back when I sold my company in 1996, and I could almost predict their emotions throughout the process. Kudos to all - Jean and Marc for agreeing to become part of the BuzzLogic family, Todd Parsons for his tireless work in understanding the integration path of the Activeweave technology, John Maley for his tenacity and steady hand in driving the legal aspects (and of course kudos to our excellent legal teams as well). This process moved so quickly primarily because everyone involved felt the synergy from the start.

Now, with some amazing technology and people (not to mention 180,000 new customers!) BuzzLogic is well positioned to significantly advance what we're doing in the market. We will continue to move quickly, put our customers first, and drive value out of what we're building every step of the way.

The fun is just beginning!

With Earth Day fast approaching, our latest influencer analysis followed green buzz in the blogosphere. Check out the full story in PRWeek's Media Watch column.

Here are a few quick highlights:

- When looking at the topic of “going green” who knows better than mom? Four of the top 10 influential blogs pertaining to going green are written by mother's groups: Boston Mamas, Chicago Moms, Blog that Mommy, and Motherproof. Mothers have picked up the green cause like wildfire, and are discussing all kinds of green topics from food to cleaning.

- If you don't have plans yet to celebrate our planet, look to the blogosphere for a host of ideas. Influential bloggers have latched on to green ideas and Earth Day celebrations. Approximately 50% of the influencers have posted information on fund-raisers and special events that will take place around April 22. More than 70% of the influencers discussed Earth Hour, an International campaign that took place last month.

- Another popular topic among the Earth Day and green influencers is the cost of “going green.” Costs for green infrastructure – especially in homes – can be prohibitive, and organic food is often expensive. More than two-thirds of the influential bloggers have offered tips on how to go green without breaking the bank.

It's that time of the week again. After a night of Mariah Carey covers, here is how the contestants rank by order of the most influential posts.

David Cook: 6755 **Hands down the influencers favorite performance.
Jason Castro: 5839 **Influential buzz centered around his unique arrangement for Carey's "I
Don't Wanna Cry"
Brooke White: 5664 **Her stock has dropped dramatically. Bottom 3 pick.
Carly Smithson: 5387 **Influencers didn't like her performance - or facial expressions.
David Archuleta: 5149 **Influencers dug the falsetto.
Kristy Lee Cook: 4711 **Influencers are not impressed. Bottom 3 pick.
Syesha Mercado: 4447 **Influencers say that her choice of the song "Vanishing" may cause her to "vanish" next week. Bottom 3 pick.

Only 8 contestants left, and after last night's (Tues April 8) performances, it's hard to say who will emerge victorious, and who will sing the good-bye song Thursday. Overall, influencer reactions to all performances are pretty negative.

Here's a look at influencer buzz around each - before, and after the show.

Posts 4/8 Posts 4/9
Michael Johns 5952 8529
Brooke White 4375 5467
David Cook 3841 6171
Jason Castro 3204 5706
Syesha Mercado 2890 4122
David Archuleta 2754 4655
Carly Smithson 2522 5051
Kristy Lee Cook 2481 4390

What's the buzz about?

-Michael Johns' performance was mediocre, and could land him in the bottom three.
-Syesha Mercado's rendition of Fantasia Barrino's "I Believe" could have been the kiss of death.
-The most influential conversations around David Cook focus on how bad his performance - and look - were last night.
-"Worst Performance of the Night" goes to Carly Smithson.
-David Archuleta is still considered untouchable.

Stay tuned for an update after Thursday's results show.