Because analysts are increasingly using blogs as development platforms, AR has to participate to be part of the conversation

Over the weekend in a Twitter exchange, AMR Research’s Phil Fersht (Twitter, blog) told me he “uses blogging to cultivate ideas for research.” In addition, Phil said that he uses “it as a networking tool to attract and influence users.”

For AR managers who have Phil on their analyst lists – and any outsourcing vendor should – you should be following’s Phil’s blog.  If you are not, this information should send a shiver down your spine because this means you are not part of the conversation. If you are not part of the conversation, that means you are not in a position to contribute ideas, customer stories and data points to research at a critical stage in its development.

It is not just participation that matters, but also speed. Because of the quick turnaround nature of social media, the early participants always have the greatest impact on new research.

In addition from an opinion monitoring and AR metrics points-of-view, there is an important data source that you are not tracking to get data points.

Phil is not unique in his blogging objectives. For instance, Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang is quite open about the importance of his blog as a way he develops new ideas and client content.

One key point for AR managers is that some of the analyst blogs are not directly associated with their employers. Their blogs are not on the firms’ blogging platforms – if the firm has one – nor are they branded with the firms’ logos, et cetera. Because of this independence from their employers, blogging analysts are influencing readers that are not necessarily clients of the firm or maybe any firm. This of course is a premise of the Fog of Influence, that analysts are expanding their influence through social media.

Directories of analyst blogs:

Tekrati analyst blogs directory

Technobabble 2.0’s Top 100 Analyst Blogs
SageCircle Technique:

• Ask the analysts on your analyst list whether they have a blog, firm branded or personal, where they develop new research ideas
• Add any new blogs to your RSS feed
• Set up a process where AR team members are regularly checking on the analyst blogs
• Develop a process for contributing ideas, customer stories, data points and so on to analysts via comments on their blogs
• Create a team of domain experts that are available to quickly contribute comments to analyst blogs. Train the team on the best practices for comments
• Add analyst blog content into your opinion monitoring and AR metrics programs

Bottom Line: AR teams that do not track analyst blogs and participate in the on-line conversations are missing a crucial opportunity for education and influence. AR teams that develop processes and resources for active participation will gain a competitive advantage.

Question:

AR teams – Have you ever been surprised by something an analyst said in their blog? Do you have a formal process for tracking blogs?

Analysts – How do you want vendors to participate in you blog-centric research development? Have you notified all the vendors you track that you have a blog? Have you ensured that the directories have your blog?

Are you thinking about experimenting with social media? SageCircle can Help – Social media represents new opportunities and challenges to AR teams. SageCircle can help AR teams by:

• Providing on-site or distance learning sessions to get AR teams up to speed on social media and how it might be adopted
• Acting as a sounding board as you brainstorm how to add social media to the AR tool box
• Advising on how to develop a pilot program to experiment with social media
• Playing the role of analyst in social media experiments and providing critiques of how the experiment went

SageCircle strategists understand your opportunities, challenges and priorities because we have been AR practitioners and executives as well as industry analysts and AR researchers. SageCircle emphasizes the use of phone-based inquiry through its Advisory Service, which is your lifeline when you need timely access to an AR and analyst expert to exploit an opportunity or mitigate a problem. Advisory is available through an annual “all you can eat” contract or blocks of two or five hours “by the drink.” Click here to learn more about our advisory services.

Call 650-274-8309 or e-mail info (at) sagecircle dot com for more information. Also follow Carter’s commentary www.twitter.com/carterlusher to get a feel for how information is now being transmitted using micro-blogging.

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SageCircle

Since 2000, SageCircle has helped analyst relations teams to focus on business value by encouraging innovative thinking that leverages insights and drives revenue.