Hope to see you Thursday @ “Influencers to Advocates”, our Think Influence video event

BarbaraEvents, influence, Influencer marketing, influencer relations

Don’t miss the first Think Influence event of 2011! Our members voted for an event on who is an influencer and how do you attract them. Here it is! Featuring: Don Bulmer, VP, Influencer Relations, SAP Mike Fauscette, GVP, Software Business Solutions, IDC Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder of Alltop and author of the newly released book, Enchantment Moderated by Barbara French, … Read More

Register for the Think Influence panel: Influencers to Advocates

BarbaraEvents, influence, Influencer marketing, influencer relations, social media, Tekrati

Social media has enabled business professionals to quickly grow large spheres of influence in targeted industries. These power users hold the key for marketers trying to gain access to their niche audiences. The question is how to identify who the key B2B influencers are, how do you rise above the noise to capture their attention, and how do you encourage … Read More

Register for the Bay Area Executives Meetup: Super Panel on Influence

Barbarainfluence, Influencer engagement, Influencer identification, Influencer marketing, social media

Influencer marketing is progressing from too much hype and trial-by-fire programs to sensible strategies and accepted best practices. There’s no better time than today to re-fresh your thinking about influence — what it is, who has it, what roles it can play in business. I’ll be discussing these topics at next week’s Bay Area Executives Meetup in Mountain View, CA, … Read More

Register now, tune in tomorrow: Impact of Social Tech on the Analyst Industry

Barbaraanalysts, Bloggers, Events, Industry analysts, influencer relations, social media, Tekrati

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 … Read More

What’s the impact of social on the analyst industry?

BarbaraAnalyst relations, analysts, Bloggers, Events, influencer relations, social media, Tekrati

Do you have some opinions on how social media is changing the analyst business? Or how it could be changing the analyst game? If so, I’d love to hear from you. Your points may well end up on my July roundtable, “The Impact of Social on the Analyst Industry“,  with Jonny Bentwood of Edelman, Carter Lusher of SageCircle, and our roundtable producer … Read More

Of rock stars and analysts

BarbaraAnalyst relations, analysts, Industry analysts, influence, Influencer ranking, social media, Sourcing advisors

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 … Read More

The 3 tents of influencer marketing

BarbaraInfluencer marketing, influencer relations

Influencers come in all shapes and sizes and from all corners of a market. It’s tempting to pigeonhole influencers based on their business cards. That’s why many companies maintain discrete influencer marketing programs and measurement systems for the influential press, analysts, customers, consultants, authors, regulators and so on. The trouble is, that’s no longer how the world works. Consider this … Read More

TechTarget acquires BeyeNETWORK, a channel for many BI influencers

BarbaraIndustry analysts, Influencer ranking

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 … Read More

Where else can you get IT research and advisory?

BarbaraIndustry analysts, influence, Influencer identification, influencer relations, Research, Uncategorized

If you’ve been following my blogs or are a client, you’re familiar with my position on alternatives to the tech industry analysts for research and advisory. With this post, I’m bringing these conversations about alternatives to the industry analysts online. This post introduces some basic ideas and examples. My position is simple: well-respected alternatives are out there; more sources are popping … Read More