A Google search on “Top 10″ will get you all kinds of interesting results.  When I did the search this afternoon, the first listing was “Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth.” Sorry, but I’m providing no hyperlink, and for the record, no, I did not go there.  Next is Time Magazine’s  50 Top 10 Lists for 2007, which shows a surprising lack of appreciation for symmetry.  Then comes The Late Show with David Letterman, which I thought should have come up higher on the list.  There’s also the Top 10 Dunks and Top 10 Women Drivers of the Year available courtesy of YouTube. I’m just going in order here.  No offense intended. 

For any startup or new technology, it’s difficult to get the door opened long enough to allow the first presentation of a product, company or concept to a potential customer or partner.  It’s not that customers don’t want to look at new stuff.  It’s just that there’s so much new stuff, and who’s got the time to look at everybody. So whether it’s analysts, or bloggers, or the press, it’s nice to have a little bit of focused attention on new companies and new technologies, and have them do some filtering.  Thus the creation of Top 10 lists that say, “Hey, pay attention to this.  It could be big.”

Yesterday, Byte and Switch released their 2008 version of the Top 10 Storage Startups to Watch, and I was pleased to see one of my clients, StorMagic, among the list.  The selection by Byte and Switch won’t close any sales.  Only an affordable, quality product that serves a need will do that. But, it may allow the company to get that all-important first audience.  Storage is a crowded house with a lot of noise, and when someone who spends most of their waking hours looking at storage startups says, “Hey, pay attention,” it bears notice.

If for no other reason than visibility, Top 10 lists are important, regardless of the industry.  Displaying a lack of symmetry myself, here’s my Marketing Team’s Top 5 Activities for Top 10 lists:

  1.  Identify bloggers, analysts and press that create Top 10 lists in your industry or region.
  2. Know the publishing cycle for each of the Top 10 lists and put them on your marketing calendar
  3. Understand the selection criteria for the Top 10 lists
  4. Determine which of the Top 10 lists for which you might compete
  5. Prepare a company and product presentation, including customer testimonials, that answer the question of why you should be considered among the Top 10