I was reading an article at iMediaConnections and I got to a paragraph that, although might apply to some definitely did not apply to me:

From Would You Buy a Car from this Blogger?

With interest in blogs rising, some bloggers are rapidly becoming celebrities. They’re popping up in the press, attracting flocks of followers and, in some cases, even a roster of advertisers. And why not? They deserve it. After all, these “A-listers” can easily sway the opinions of thousands.

I admit I got past that paragraph before it hit me and I had to go back and read it again. Keeping that in mind, I continued reading the article and that one paragraph blew it for me.

The people on my blogroll cannot “easily sway” me. I don’t consider myself a “follower” of anyone. Yes, there are some blogs I read daily but there are very few that I can honestly say would affect me one way or the other if they decided to stop blogging…and those few people are those I’ve met, talked on the phone – had some sort of interaction with outside of a blog. But even they can’t sway me…because I make up my own mind.

Let’s take an example: Scoble posts often about TabletPCs. His post did not sway me but it did inform me the technology existed, along with other technology sites. From Scoble I went to Channel 9 and looked at their video series on it. Now that made an impression on me but not enough to be swayed. What swayed me that a TabletPC might be a better purchase than a laptop? The hundreds of posts after the fact from different people who had nothing to gain from posting how much they loved their TabletPC. That swayed me.

I’ve noticed there are hundreds (ok perhaps thousands) of people (ok bloggers) who, when an A-List person says something, immediately jumps on the bandwagon, even if what the A-List person posted was a bunch of bull. And these followers will defend their A-List person with so much passion you’d think they knew the A-Lister, but they don’t. Never met them, never interacted with them…the blogger is just a small blip on the radar for this A-Lister. So yes, I guess some people can be easily swayed, but I don’t think the majority can and either way, I’m not one of them.

Steve continues on to list five ways to implement a blogger in marketing plans.  Some are valid arguments but I suppose the success of those arguments depend on the readers ability to be easily swayed.