In the world of PR, we’ve known the importance of peer-opinion leaders for years. These critical audiences lend credibility to communication efforts whether they’re part of an employee population or a subset of a consumer audience. Burson Marstellar identified efluentials, the small percentage of the online population who influence the rest. Teen influencers have been discovered by research undertaken by JupiterMedia.

It should come as no surprise, then, to find that the same kind of leadership has emerged among bloggers. Author Steven Levy, writing in Newsweek, calls them ‘A-list bloggers, “a new and unmediated link in the information food chain.” Even though Levy is impressed that nobody hired or appointed these leaders, the same is true of their counterparts. What does set them apart, though, is how they use the network to reinforce their standing:

The alphas, or “A-listers,” as they call themselves, commonly cross-link to one another, with the effect of having one of their comments amplified and commented on. In the case of podcasting, they conducted a deep asynchronous conversation about the practice. Was this a new form of personal, do-it-yourself radio? Could it replace radio? Even though its workings were fairly esoteric???no one is close to making podcasting as simple a process as Apple has made music downloading???the accumulated buzz from the blogs became deafening.

The article is required reading for those struggling to understand the blogosphere’s growing influence.