I was talking to a vendor Analyst Relations (AR) executive earlier in year when Gartner bought Meta. This executive praised the acquisition – mostly because it would mean a consolidation of analysts they would need to brief. But, a surge of new industry perspectives is showing up in a variety of blogs. Fortune says 23,000 blogs are being created every day, but importantly a few “consolidation” blogs like AlwaysOn, SandHill and a number of independent ones are attracting perspectives from a series of credible VCs, ex analysts and media types.
My friend, Al Case, sees it similar to what is happening in open source software community. Software for free, with the business models based on other revenue sources. With “open” analysis the research (or at least the opinions!) is similarly, often free.
After the break-up of the Soviet Union, it is said the diplomatic community struggled with how to deal with the new, much smaller republics. Marketing executives face a similar challenge when it comes to these new influencers.
If you want to learn how to influence industry analysts at the big firms better, go to my friend and ex Gartner colleague, Bill Hopkins whose firm Knowledge Capital Group has been coaching AR for years now. He has seminars, reports, consulting – down to a science. I am sure he will soon coach AR folks how to navigate through the growing “open” blog community.
I happen to think the vendor marketing ecosystem already spends too much time with industry analysts and press – now they will also have to deal with the “open” world. The key question for a vendor should be – are my buyers listening to what an individual analyst or a blogger is saying? That more than the company they represent would be far more important.
