Does trust trump DEMO/TechCrunch50 fame?

Lost in the hubbub about DEMO vs TechCrunch50 is another news item that is getting some press today but not nearly enough by my reckoning.  Basically the study asserts that web influencers don’t really mean that much in the grand scheme of things.  People instead get their recommendations from people they trust, namely their friends.  And this makes perfect sense to me.  Not to say that getting covered my Mike Arrington has no value for a startup but what is that value exactly?  Companies should be very deliberate in their thinking when they try to get fame/fortune from the DEMO/TechCrunch50 crowd because it may not translate into the business value they thought it would.  Jeremy has some good tactical advice here but I don’t think he addresses the relevance of these conferences head-on.