James Governor writes about blogger relations at major vendors.
Unlike James, I am not as optimisitic the art of blogger relations is improving at most large vendors. They have gotten used to tame "elephant hunters" - why bother with a mob of Irregulars? There is a big difference between monitoring blog world and developing relations with it. And two folks who did understand the mystery of blogging and its influence - Scoble at Microsoft and Jeff Nolan at SAP - have moved on to startups.
As I wrote last year here "When the Soviet Union broke up, it is said many diplomats did not know what to do with all the new countries that emerged. They wanted to keep dealing with Russia and saw the changed world from the old lens. The influence game is similarly changing. Deserves a fresher look."
In the end, did Scoble and Nolan still feel out of place?
I notice that (a little like you, Vinnie) Jeff seems more vocal about the shortcomings of his former employer than he used to be ...
Posted by: Ric | November 02, 2006 at 06:59 PM
Ric, both Scoble and Jeff had tough jobs. Moving from controlled one way communications to the transparency blogging requires is hard work. I think both of them are proud of their alma maters but have strong opinions on how they could be better.
Not sure I deserve any similar kudos. I left Gartner in 1999 way before blogging was contemporary. Like Scoble and Jeff, I am proud of my alma mater, and its role in the industry, but wish it did certain things better.
Posted by: vinnie mirchandani | November 03, 2006 at 05:58 AM
First - let me admit I was taking something of a cheap shot at you, but only tongue-in-cheek! Second, your point about the difficulty of what Scoble and Nolan were doing was probably at the base of the question - Robert in particular DID move the perception of Microsoft (and I speak here as someone whose opinion of "the Borg" HAS moderated, at least in some part due to Scobleizer), but both organisations are the equivalent of oil tankers ... and both will miss the efforts of their former employees. But did it just get TOO hard to maintain? And perhaps more importantly, are there new missionaries stepping up to the plate?
(Apologies for the mixed metaphor - I had a strange visual when I re-read that!)
Posted by: Ric | November 03, 2006 at 09:44 AM
Ric,
I think I was pretty vocal about SAP's shortcomings when I worked for them as well. Like Vinnie said, I am very proud of SAP for what the company, in it's entirety, has achieved in the market, this is a company I spent a good part of my career at and the good outweighs the bad by orders of magnitude.
In reality, I am focused on other things now and would prefer not to be known as the "guy who writes about SAP all the time". I am not an industry analyst and I don't play one on TV so I'm happy to leave that to others, like Vinnie.
Posted by: Jeff Nolan | November 03, 2006 at 11:09 AM
Jeff:
As both an observer and colleague I sense you are saying more today than you might under the Big Umbrella. Let's put it this way, I learn more about SAP today than I did 10 years ago under PR, from the conversations you make happen or keep going.
The important thing is you don't lose perspective and tip over th edge of respect into cynicism. People need to know that. IMO.
Posted by: Dennis Howlett | November 03, 2006 at 07:51 PM
Jeff: I DID say I thought they'd miss you :-) I have to assume that if you really didn't enjoy SAP, you probably wouldn't have stayed as long as you did (and now that you're at a much smaller company, I'm not surprised you don't focus on them).
Dennis: so it wasn't just me!
Posted by: Ric | November 07, 2006 at 01:44 AM