The Old Dominion has a lot to crow about.

Virginia and the Richmond region have gobbled up many third-party rankings from publications and organizations during the past year.

Some of the accolades include the best regions for business, greatest places to live, leaders in sales of hybrid vehicles or top travel destinations for wine.

"There's a proliferation of these rankings and lists and accolades that have really seemed to bubble up here in the last few years," said Gregory H. Wingfield, president of the Greater Richmond Partnership, the region's economic-development group.

"Everybody loves lists, the top 10 this or that," said Wingfield, typically the first person quoted in news articles on "what he thinks" of state or city rankings.

But what does it all mean? Does anyone really care?  The answers are "a lot," and "you bet your accolades."

Third-party rankings serve as a clip full of marketing ammo for those considering a move or trip to the area.

"As decision makers, rankings can help you when thinking about where to retire, or if you're a company, in thinking about where to relocate," said Richard Coughlan, management professor and associate dean for graduate and executive programs at the University of Richmond's Robins School of Business (which, by the way, was named No. 23 in BusinessWeek's 2007 rankings of top business programs in the United States.)

The university uses the rankings to tout itself. On its Web site, "National Rankings" is the first link visitors will find leading to acclaims of having a top 20 most beautiful campus in America and having a top-notch liberal-arts program, among other honors.

As a state, Virginia loves its rankings.

You'll hear the Forbes rating -- Virginia is No. 1 for business, given last month for the second year in a row -- cited frequently by civic and government leaders. Heck, Forbes' name has been incorporated into the logo at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, which uses the praise on its Web site, letters and even business cards.

Last year was the first time Forbes ranked the best states for business.  "So we were never not No. 1, that's the way we like to look at it," said a half-joking Christie Miller, communications manager at the state economic development group.

However, should Virginia not place in the sweetest spot next year, "obviously that's going to change our marketing plans. We'd have to change our logo so that it didn't reflect that ranking."

Miller said it is hard to say whether the designation has actually caused companies to choose Virginia. "We haven't had a company yet say, 'Because we saw you as No. 1 [on Forbes], that's why we chose you,'" Miller said. "It certainly doesn't hurt. We truly believe that if companies are considering Virginia . . . it's going to push us up" in their decision making process.

When MeadWestvaco Corp. announced it would move here from Connecticut in February 2006, the first Forbes ranking on best states for business hadn't yet been announced. However, the Fortune 500 paper and packaging company had already found Virginia an ideal spot to set up a corporate headquarters, spokeswoman Alison von Puschendorf said.

Many of those factors -- costs, workforce, quality of life and so on -- were considered in the Forbes ranking.

Companies, organizations, cities and states are constantly developing relationships with the public at large through marketing techniques. But getting consumers to notice those advertisements can be tricky as people are bombarded with thousands of messages daily.

"Third-party rankings have much more credibility than an advertisement," said Jill Vaughan, president of the Richmond chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Ads can be seen as self-serving, or simply ignored.

And rankings become newsworthy in the eyes of the media. The Times-Dispatch often mentions rankings in news stories, as do other media.

"Media likes this information because it contains conflict and, as Americans, we all love competition. There are winners and losers," Vaughan said. "It just feels good for companies and communities and people that live in a city [that receive the best accolades]. They take pride in those rankings."

While watching "The Today Show" one morning last spring, Diane Brandon found out that Arlington, Texas was ranked No. 4 in the nation for the best place to meet single men by Men's Health magazine.

"I had a lot of fun publicizing it locally," said Brandon, vice president of communications and research at the Arlington Convention & Visitor's Bureau. It ended up creating an online vacation package called "Where the Men Are" for single women.

"I haven't calculated the value of these promotions entirely yet, but they're easily in the half-million mark, if not more," Brandon said.

There was a time when Richmond wasn't on the good lists.

The metro area used to have the highest air fares in America, which Wingfield notes is a trend that has since been overturned with low-fare carriers and economic progress.

The city also was known as a murderous metro before the crime rate declined.

Yet with so many different accolades, can rankings become overlooked?  "I think not," UR's Coughlan said. "As decision makers, we are drawn to these lists."

However, he said, it is important for consumers to understand the methodologies for collecting data. Some studies are "nearly useless because of the way the data is collected or how small the sample may be," he said.

In a case where organizations or cities are asked to bestow information to the third-party ranker, Wingfield notes that if a community or group isn't completely forthright about the data, the results could be skewed if left unverified.

Even if the information is flawed or inaccurate, rankings still tend to get noticed and read, Coughlan notes.

Lists also spark debates, "often started by entities that have been excluded, about just how useful the results might be," he said.

If a particular school, place or company is showing up multiple times near the same ranking on separate lists, it's a sign that the rankers did their homework.

"What we are looking for is commonality across the rankings as an indication that something good is going on," Coughlan said.

For example, Forbes ranked Virginia No. 1 for business this year as did financial news cable channel CNBC. On many other economy-related lists, the state places near or at the top in a variety of categories.

And even if the accolade is rather useless, "if you end up at the top of the ranking, you'll be darn sure you'll leverage it" for marketing purposes, Coughlan said.

Which leads to yet another reason for lists, said Coughlan, who ranks the No. 1 reason for rankings: "To sell magazines."