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
TechTarget acquires BeyeNETWORK, a channel for many BI influencers
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
Defining the strength of influencer relationships
Human relationships tend to be complicated, and relationships with influencers are no exception. Yet, you need to know where you stand with an influencer and to share that insight with others in your organization. That’s why so many of us strive to describe influencer relationships in terms that are simple, meaningful and broadly applicable. There are many different systems for … Read More
Analysts as authors: extending influence through books
May marks the 1-year anniversary of the release of Charlene Li’s and Josh Bernoff’s book, Groundswell.  Several industry analysts have released books since then. I figure it’s a good time to shout out to some recent analyst authors and talk a little about why writing books can be such an important activity for market influencers and influencer relations professionals alike. For IT industry analysts and other … Read More
Will social media change the way we measure influence?
Scott Brinker blogged about propinquity and Twitter last week. I’d never heard the word propinquity before. However, propinquity seems to be a label for a familiar concept — the notion that physical promixity promotes relationships. My parents harped about that while I was a teen. Happily, Scott takes a different tack. He suggests that social media applications such as Twitter … Read More
MrTweet mines influenceville
An application called MrTweet caught my attention over the weekend, mostly due to a discussion on influence initiated by its creator, Steve Ming Yeow Ng. Check out the discussion at the MrTweet blog. Two important points from the discussion: 1. Influence is in the eye of the audience. 2. No such thing as a universal grade for influence. These points … Read More
Does influence equal online popularity?
Today I saw 2 more threads in the ongoing debate over whether social media popularity is a good way to measure influence. First, my colleague Duncan Brown writes that Google is launching an AdWords-style SEM program across big social networks. As an online publisher, I can see how this Google program makes perfect sense for media buyers. It will play … Read More