If you missed today’s fast-paced webinar, here’s the audio replay. However our recorded conversation is just part of the discussion that took place. Check out the real-time reactions and side conversations at Twitter — hashtag #socialanalyst. Thanks to everyone who participated!
As Jeremiah said in his closing comments, we want to continue this conversation. Are you in? Please check back for links to the Twitter transcript. Also, trackback or comment here if you publish on the impact of social technologies on the industry analysts, their advisory clients and their analyst relations communities.
Special gratitude to our pilots at the Hangar – Christine Tan and Julie Viola — and to co-panelists Jeremiah Owyang, Carter Lusher and Jonny Bentwood.
The Impact of Social on the Analyst Industry: A Roundtable w/ Jonny Bentwood, Barbara French, Carter Lusher, and Jeremiah Owyang from Altimeter Group on Vimeo
Related posts:
- Summing up webinar highlights - Jeremiah, Jonny
- The brainstorm behind this event at Jeremiah’s blog
- Leading up to the webinar - personal point of view at Jonny’s blog
- Leading up to the webinar - more stage-setting at Carter’s blog and here at Sway
Popularity: 21%
Social technologies are disrupting traditional business models, and the tech industry analyst business is no exception. Or is it? How is social truly changing the day to day work of the tech watchers? their advisory clients? their relations with tech providers? Tune in tomorrow as I exchange views on this important topic with fellow thought leaders Jeremiah Owyang, Jonny Bentwood and Carter Lusher. You can ask questions and more during the live webinar using the Twitter hashtag #socialanalyst. This virtual event is free. Register now so you can listen and participate tomorrow!
What you need to know:
- Register now: “The Impact of Social on the Analyst Industry: A Roundtable with Jonny Bentwood, Barbara French, Carter Lusher, and Jeremiah Owyang“
- Speakers: Barbara French of Tekrati (that’s me!), Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group, Jonny Bentwood of Edelman, and Carter Lusher of SageCircle
- When: Wed, Jul 21, 2010 from 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific
- Twitter hashtag #socialanalyst
Special thanks to Jeremiah for organizing and producing this event!
Related posts:
The brainstorm behind this event at Jeremiah’s blog
Personal point of view at Jonny’s blog
More stage-setting at Carter’s blog and here at Sway
Popularity: 13%
RedMonk’s James Governor offers the most intelligent view I’ve read in a very long time on blogging among the analysts. Here’s an excerpt from his excellent post:
We built RedMonk on social media. Its as simple as that. We had a good run on it through the late noughties. But honestly – the differentiator has been significantly eroded of late. One of our significant differentiators is now business as usual. Our competitors are just as fast to the news as us, if not faster, with solid analysis on either side of the firewall. Gartner and Forrester are both doing outstanding work in real time analysis. Seriously. And Gartner analysts are joining the conversation. - James Governor May 12, 2010
His observations are crucial for analysts, analyst relations and analyst watchers. Why? Gartner, Forrester Research and scores of analyst firms have successfully embedded blogging within their businesses. We’re long past the point where it makes sense to quantify analyst blogging as a discrete individual activity. Blogging is becoming integral to analyst business processes.
I’ve been actively monitoring analyst bloggers since 2003 and in 2005 launched the first directory and OPML of analyst-written blogs. The total number of blogs in early 2005: just over 50. I was committed to supporting those pioneering analyst bloggers. In those early days, the number of blogs — and the who’s who and how many — were factors in whether a given firm or analyst would jump into the fray. Not so today.
But even back then, the analyst community’s real focus was on how blogs fit with analyst business processes and policies. You can read a snapshot of their views in the original 2005 report. These are the topics that still deserve our attention. Even today.
Hats off to James for prodding us all take a fresh look at analyst blogs.
Popularity: 22%
I’m not a fan of the growing schism between Altimeter Group and the rest of the analysts. One of the most visible wedges driving this rift is the idea of “rock star analysts.”
“Rock star analyst” is an old notion with deep roots among financial analysts. Originally, rock star analysts were the ones who made the right call the most often, especially on complex decisions. They made their clients the most money. There was a strong body of proof and formal professional consensus behind the status.
Not so on the tech analyst side of the aisle. What does “rock star analyst” mean to analyst relations people and analysts today? It seems to mean an analyst scores high on RSS readership, Twitter following, social net savvy, citations in the media. In short, celebrity status. Customer satisfaction isn’t a meaningful factor, beyond the PR value of the analyst.
What does celebrity status have to do with accuracy, completeness, timeliness? With giving clients great advice?
Why would a decision maker want to hire a celebrity to help with tech decisions?
It’s time for a reality check. Of the many reasons one might hire an analyst, celebrity status is — at best — just one aspect of the package.
Update, for clarification: I’m criticizing the rising popularity of labeling an analyst a “rock star” due to celebrity status. I see Altimeter Group as an unwitting victim of this craze. Ray Wang and his associates have proven their chops as technology & business experts. Putting them on rockstar pedestals strictly because of their social media popularity is insane. And arguably, it’s a disservice to the entire analyst profession. - BF May 12, 2010.
Popularity: 50%
Whenever you look for the purchase decision influencers in business intelligence (BI) and business analytics, you end up looking at the trade press. And there’s some noteworthy news on that front this week: media giant TechTarget announced that they’ve acquired the BeyeNETWORK properties and network of experts. TechTarget plans to leverage BeyeNETWORK experts to build out their footprint in BI via the new SearchBusinessAnalytics.com destination site.
Regardless how this M&A looks once the dust settles, it will have a definite impact on the influence wielded by the BeyeNETWORK experts.
Many of these experts are solo or small-group professionals with deep subject matter expertise. The group includes analysts, consultants, lecturers and authors. They tend to have closely held relationships with their clients and industry contacts. They influence purchases, implementation, and best practices around enterprise business intelligence, data warehousing and analytics software. They engage with the market, and formulate and promote their own opinions. They can also play important roles in the influencer ecosystem as intermediaries — bringing the viewpoints of more powerful influencers, such as vendors, directly to their own contacts.
If you’re in the BI market, monitor BeyeNETWORK and TechTarget over the next 3 to 6 months to see which experts get more play, which get less, which get lost, and any new experts attracted by the larger combined media site. Keep your focus on the individual influencers, not the BeyeNETWORK brand itself.
For example, some of the BeyeNETWORK experts I recommend putting on your watch list: Merv Adrian, Lou Agosta, Leslie Ament, Steve Dine, Neil Raden, Craig Shiff, James Taylor, and Colin White.
Popularity: 27%
Today’s Apple iPad debut has everyone talking, including the tech industry analysts. The launch presented an unusually high profile opportunity for analysts to advance their credibility, influence and client loyalty. All they had to do was get to market quickly (i.e., this morning) with smart, helpful analysis. Unfortunately, only a few did. Instead, most of the industry analysts paying attention to the launch focused on speaking through the press or Twitter.
I checked 25 analyst sites for “ipad” or “apple ipad”. Here’s the short list of analysts who put their clients ahead of their sound bites as of noon Pacific today. My hat is off to all them. They understand that communicating through sound bites and 140 characters is not mutually exclusive to sharing more meaningful analysis — on a real time basis — with clients and online audiences.
Mike Borland, BIA Kelsey, at the Local Media Blog: Hello iPad, We’ve Been Expecting You
Harry Wang, at Parks Associates blog: Will the iPad Kill the Digital Photo Frame Category?
Carl Howe on Yankee Group blog: First take on Apple’s Anywhere iPad
Ted Schadler on The Forrester Blog for Information & Knowledge Management Professionals: Apple’s iPad Will Come Into The Enterprise Through The Consumer Door. Again.
Jeff Orr on the ABI Research blog: Apple Joins the Media Tablet Fray with iPad Launch
Andrew Brown on the Strategy Analytics blog: Apple’s iPad…just where does it fit in the Enterprise?
Philippe Winthrop on his personal blog: The Apple iPad: The Enterprise Mobility Perspective
Maribel Lopez on the Lopez Research blog: Apple Makes Further Advances As The Premier Retailer of the Digital Age
Stephen Baker on the NPD blog: Apple Reinvents The Netbook
If you know of others that were published on January 27, please add them in the comments.
Editor’s note on updates to post: added Andrew Brown; Maribel Lopez; Philippe Winthrop; Stephen Baker.
Popularity: 27%
How can industry analysts start relationships with analyst relations professionals? It’s a question posed every day by every analyst wanting to open doors at tech provider firms. Usually, the goal is sales, research or broadening a professional network. Often, analysts want to build rapport with AR pro’s for all 3 reasons. Two posts offer useful pointers on how to succeed:
SageCircle takes an industry insider view on the sales and research front with today’s post, How can small analyst firms get the attention of analyst relations? [Analyst Question] (disclosure: Tekrati is listed as a key resource)
Mashable offers sound advice on the professional networking front with today’s post, 7 Lessons for Better Networking with Social Media
Having influence in some circles does not automatically open doors in others. That applies equally whether you work at Gartner or as a sole proprietor.
Popularity: 11%
While the wildly successful “Groundswell” book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff continues winning acclaim — most recently from the American Marketing Association — Josh has announced work in progress on a new book. This time, he’s teamed with Ted Schadler as co-author.
The title is “Harnessing the Groundswell: Drive Your Business With Empowered Employees and Customers”. The authors say this next Groundswell book is not a sequel…
“It focuses on individuals empowered by technology — both employees and customers — and how businesses can efficiently turn them into a force for better performance.” - Josh Bernoff
Look for the book in summer 2010 from Harvard Business Press.
Josh is carrying forward some precedents established with the first Groundswell book project. For example, you can keep up with progress and more at the Groundswell blog.
In case you missed it, Charlene Li started her new book project a few months ago. She’s engaging with the community in full force. You can vote on the title for her book right now — check out this post. I’ll write more once she settles on the title. Hers is due out in May 2010.
Popularity: 10%
The high tech analyst business seemed to be on the brink of imploding due to the tech recession in 2002, and in 2004 at least one Boston journalist was calling for Wall Street style disclosure. These are are among the links you’ll find on this page. This is what I call the AR historical archives, part 2.
For the last few years, I’ve housed this list at the IIAR’s free Yahoo! community for analyst relations professionals. The IIAR plans to shut down that group in December. So I’m posting my archives here. The links are ordered by date.
This section puts the analyst business under scrutiny. It contains links to historical journalist coverage and 1 academic piece investigating the ICT industry analyst business. The links are ordered by date.
The first section is a collection of links where analysts opine on AR. It’s located here.
(MOSTLY) JOURNALISTS ON ANALYSTS
CRMBuyer 3-2007: “Technology Buyers: So Many Needs, So Little Time”
Free. Louis Columbus on tech buyers as process owners and how that impacts analyst influence.
InformationWeek 12-2006: “Ban The Analysts! Or Not?”
Follow up on The Reg and NY Times. Includes reader comments.
The Register 12-2006: “NY Times rattles IT industry with analyst ban”
Ashlee Vance smacksdown the NY Times for slipshod and unfair editorial treatment of Rob Enderle.
The Register 12-2006: “Forrester can’t stand up for falling down over iTunes”
The Reg tries to get the last word in the media and Forrester blame game over inaccurate editorial resulting in a signficant drop in Apple stock prices the week of 11 December 2006. Also see Forrester blog posts this week.
TheAustralianIT 11-2006: “Giant Gartner strands alone”
Interview with Peter Sondergaard
InformationWeek 5-2006: “Blog-Based Analysts Shake Up IT Research”
Free. A new breed of IT analysts is sharing insights over the Internet, leaving traditional research firms trying to catch up using the same methods.
InformationWeek 2-2006: “Credibility of Analysts”
Free. Do tech vendors wield influence over IT research? You bet–but how much of it is a matter of perspective?
InformationWeek 2-2006: “How Cisco Networks with Analysts”
Free. Short sidebar to “Credibility of Analysts”
The Register 4-2006: “Pundit responds to ‘troubling’ Reg attack”
Enderle responds to Vance’s negative comments about his integrity.
The Register 4-2006: “Sun zinged by rent-a-quote analyst”
Ashlee Vance smacksdown The Economist for citing Rob Enderle on Sun.
Boston Globe 11-2004: “Adapting to shift in tech landscape”
Free. Research gurus scrambling to expand offerings and merge
Boston.com 10-2004. “Full disclosure overdue from tech analysts”
$. Is a Wall Street-style clean up overdue in the world of technology analysts?
CIO 3-2004: “Bad News for Analysts, Good News for CIOs”
Free. Today, when it comes to research and analysis, CIOs are taking advantage of what looks to be a permanent buyer’s market. It’s not that research is suddenly worthless. It’s just suddenly worth less.
Network World 3-2003: “Making Informed Decisions”
Free. Rising commodity information, drop in IT spending impact how analysts deliver research to best meet customer needs.
Baseline 12-2002 “Why Tech Analysts Feel Your Pain”
Free. The only thing worse than working for a technology company over the past year, so the joke goes, is being an adviser to users of technology.
Anderson School at UCLA 5-2002: “IT Research and Analysis Services: Surveying their Usefulness” (link opens a pdf)
Free. Academic report on how subscribers make use of IT R&A services, in what context the services are most useful, and why some firms do not subscribe. By David R. Firth and E. Burton Swanson.
InformationWeek 10-2001: “Analyzing the Analysts”
Free. InformationWeek Research’s Analyzing the Analysts series began in 1997 as a biennial study focused on customer evaluations of IT market-research analyst firms. See the half dozen related links in sidebars and TOC for the complete report.
InformationWeek 11-1999: “Analyzing the Analysts”
Free. InformationWeek Research’s Analyzing the Analysts series began in 1997 as a biennial study focused on customer evaluations of IT market-research analyst firms. See the half dozen related links in sidebars and TOC for the complete report.
Popularity: 6%
What’s up this week in influencer relations? Here’s what I’ve been talking about offline when the conversation rolls around to, “So what’s up? Anything I need to know?” This week the gossip has centered around analyst blogs, HP and Dell. Feel free to add your nuggets.
EDS = HP. HP retired the EDS brand this week. Time to update your influencer lists with the HP email and titles.
Perot Systems soon to = Dell. Get your head around what this M&A means if your company relies on referrals and such from Perot Systems.
Who owns blogs - analysts or the analyst house? Are analyst-written blogs more the property of the analyst house or the analyst? Consensus: depends on whether it’s a “company” blog. Some say negotiate social media content rights at the time of employment. Otherwise, personal blogs may be considered company IP at the point of departure.
Top analyst blogs. Jonny Bentwood is preparing to issue his Top 100 analyst league tables. Big backroom buzz is on whether there’s any shakeup at all in the top few. Most gossip is about whether or not Altimeter is an analyst company. I’m thinking the Gartner and Forrester blogs will make a difference, based on the employee base, media reach and Twitter penetration. Usual under-the-breath gripes about RedMonk standings. Stay tuned on that. Not by coincidence, I’m doing a massive Tekrati blog directory update. Buzz me this weekend if you’re feeling compelled.
Enterprise Mobility Matters turns 2. Congrat’s to Philippe Winthrop, today marking the 2-year milestone of his blog.
Phil Fersht soon leaving AMR Research. Carter Lusher broke the news on Twitter. Phil’s uber-smart on outsourcing, offshoring, nearshoring, you name it. Another analyst whose blog has transcended several jobs. I’m not sure there are any top-tier analyst firms that haven’t benefited from his expertise and network. So I’m guessing he’ll jump next to a different kind of gig.
Analysts (and others) on analyst credibility. Must’ve been in the water. Still plenty of time to have your say:
Me
Phil Fersht
Tony Byrne
Michael Krigsman’s take on Tony’s post
Popularity: 8%
